Home Movies Review

In this week’s ABC Challenge, H is Home Movies. This is a show I had seen a couple of episodes here and there and thought was very hilarious. The thing was that I had never actually sat down and watched all of the series. After watching basically three weeks of shows featuring psychotic characters I thought this would be a good change of pace. It kind of was nice to concentrate on a somewhat more realistic show versus what I’ve watched the last couple of weeks. Without ado, I bring you my review of Home Movies. Spoilers ahead…maybe?

Characters and Basic Plot

Home Movies is a series that concentrates on the daily lives of three friends, Brendon, Melissa, and Jason. They are constantly making movies in Brendon’s basement. Which you think based upon the title of the series would be the main focus of the series, but that is not the case. Usually the movies are utilized just to provide parallels to the actual plot of the episode.

Brendon Small is the overall writer, director, and main actor in their movies. He lives with his single mom, Paula. Basically, his parents separated long enough ago that at the beginning of the series he doesn’t remember anything about his father. Eventually at the end of the first season and beginning of the second season he develops, somewhat, of a relationship with his father. Brendon is smart, however his intelligence only comes out in the things he applies himself to. Which basically means he is horrible at school work, however his movies, given his age, are usually well written and stage and prop designs which he does himself are very well done. He is also pretty mature for his age. Of course, most of that comes from the fact that he had to grow up fast, given his parent’s divorce.  With that said, he does still have a tendency to show his age. This is particularly prevalent during his disagreements with his co-stars on their movies where his ego as the director tends to get in the way.

Melissa Robbins is Brendon’s best female friend and co-star in his movies. She lives with her single father, Erik. Unlike Brendon we don’t get a real background on her mother, other than her leaving with another man and leaving Erik with Melissa. Melissa is, for the most part, the most calm and sensible of the trio. The only time she seems to lose her cool is whenever either her mother comes up or she feels she’s losing her father too. With that said, she is not averse to arguing with Brendon and Jason over the direction of their movies. Unlike Brendon she puts a lot of work into school and is a straight A student. The weird thing with Melissa is how much her personality varies between episodes. One episode she’s a tomboy, the next she’s a girly girl. One she’s the nicest person ever, the next she’s a maniacal genius. Her relationship with Brendon is kind of strange. They never really admit to liking each other but they each have episodes within the series where they show jealousy over the other fawning over someone else. The both play it off as that it’s affecting their movie work.

Jason Penopolis is Brendon’s best male friend and co-star in his movies. Jason is kind of socially awkward. It appears his only friends are Brendon and Melissa. Although, it’s kind of hard to tell because he is a year than them so he’s not in their class and he doesn’t play soccer with them either so we don’t get his full story aside from his interactions with Brendon and Melissa. He is prone to a lot of illnesses and allergies. His home life is vastly different from the rest of the casts’. While his parents are together and wealthy, they don’t seem to care about what their son does at all. His relationships with Brendon and Melissa are interesting. He is often confrontation when it comes to his thoughts on the movies with Brendon, and he is extremely belittling of his opinions of Brendon’s abilities as a director, yet they are clearly best friends. His relationship with Melissa is even more odd. Some episodes he seems infatuated with her and others he blatantly says he hates her. Stranger still is, she is basically his life coach when he gets into his candy addict personality.

Paula Small is Brendon’s mom, who is a creative writing teacher at a local college. She’s been divorced and habitually bad at dating for years. For the most part, she treats Brendon like he’s an adult, however she has to kick into parent mode every now and again. Honestly, she treats him as an adult mostly because that’s the best conversation she’s usually going to get. She definitely has mixed feelings towards his movies. As a parent she is proud her son is being creative. However she questions if his movies are completely healthy for him, both emotionally and academically.

Coach John McGuirk is Brendon and Melissa’s soccer coach. McGuirk is an alcoholic Irish-American who only coaches soccer because it’s the only job he can get. He provides advice, usually bad advice, to our main characters particularly Brendon. He does his best to help our main characters but his overall attitude towards life is horrible and he’s kind of an idiot. Really though, McGuirk is by far the funniest character on this show. That’s says something because everyone on this show is funny.

Commentary

Did anyone come in thinking Home Movies would be very plot-filled? Nope, me neither. There is no overarching plot. The design of this show, for the most part, is one-off episodes. The closest you get is season 2 is mostly about Brendon’s relationship with his dad and his dad getting remarried. That said this show does revisit plots like Brendon’s school to movies balance and Melissa’s relationship with her father, etc. The story lines are for the most part just everyday situations just through the eyes of our colorful cast of characters. As previous said, the plots of Brendon’s movies usually parallels to what is going on the main story. It usually is conveying his actual feelings on the situation.

When people think of “adult” cartoons they think suggestive themes and cursing. Home Movies does not feature either of these much. All of the cursing is bleeped out and the suggestive themes is very few and far between. So what makes Home Movies an adult cartoon? Simply put, this is one of the most cynical shows ever. That’s cartoon or otherwise. None of the main cast on this show are at all happy. Just to help personify this, the main trio discuss that all people get a divorce and Jason felt left out because his parent’s hadn’t yet. He even called Brendon and Melissa with a fake fight. At the end of the series, the main trio question why the even make movies and none of them have an answer. The basically admitted they never really liked making them they just did. The true answer to why they did it, is that it was a coping mechanism for Brendon’s parent’s divorce, Melissa’s mom leaving, and Jason’s parents never being there for him. They only make movies because they need a way to release their personal hatred of their situations. McGuirk went down his personal pathway to where he ended up because his parents were divorced and his relationship with both of his parents was horrible. This ended up leading him to eventually get arrested multiple times and be an alcoholic for the rest of his life. His only friends being kids in a similar to what he grew up in. Worst still for him, Brendon who McGuirk has been trying the hardest to mentor, doesn’t get that McGuirk has been more of a father to him than Brendon’s real father ever will be. In the last episode of the series, McGuirk almost loses it by metaphorically explaining his feelings in that situation using a grill he was trying build for Paula. Paula struggles to have a real relationship because of how badly her previous marriage hurt her personally. She completely locks up in pressure situations because of how much pressure her mother put her under. This lockup habit even occasionally affects how she interacts with everyone else, which is why her list of friends is basically zero and why she leans on Brendon to be her one person that she interacts with regularly. The weird part is, is that the show even though it is very cynical is not at all depressing. Maybe, it’s because your characters are mostly kids or idiots but it just never comes off as that depressing. I’m not supporting how depressing their situations actually are, because in full context, they are very depressing. It’s just the show never really portrays it that way.

Conclusions

Home Movies is one of the most humorous shows to come out of western animation in recent memory. The show’s cynical social commentary along with memorable characters make it a very complex. If you are in need of a good laugh and understand sarcastic humor I would say give it a watch.