Critic Reviews

Yes, offensive, but the second episode loses that element, which suggests Fox got the message. Not surprisingly, it's the better of the two.

While there’s the potential for a nice, relatable human situation here, almost all the dialogue feels like setups for punch lines. Too often this leaves the actors, even skilled veterans Riegert and Mull, stranded.

There are some funny lines, but not nearly enough. Material that is meant to be anarchic mostly comes across as obvious and boorish.

Some jokes are just tired and bad.

Dads just isn't very funny. A cast this good--Martin Mull and Peter Riegert are loser fathers to business partners played by Giovanni Ribisi and Philly's Seth Green--deserves more than the raucous studio laughter that warmed-over bigotry generates. And, honestly, there are glimpses at times of a better show.

The pilot has come under fire for racist jokes, but at Cheap Laffs there's not enough of a creative sensibility for that to matter. [23 Sep 2013]

Even with such dreadful scripts and the phony noise of canned laughter, the four reasons to kind of watch maybe a little of Dads are the core actors. You don't have to watch more than a couple of minutes to know they deserve much, much better, and so do we.

If the two whiny sons and their equally unlikable fathers aren't enough to push you away, the boorish childishness of the show's obvious efforts to offend should do the trick.

Everyone associated with this show--with the exception of MacFarlane--deserves better.

The truth is, Dads merits condemnation less for such outrages [low-brow and racially questionable gags] than because the tone is so broad and slapdash.