“Allen Gregory” comes to us from writer-actor Jonah Hill (who also co-wrote and co-stars in next year’s “21 Jump Street” movie) and “Yes Man” screenwriters Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel.
The new animated series should snuggle up beautifully to a “Family Guy” adjacent timeslot, as it follows the adventures of a tiny and impossibly precocious youngster who will put more than a few people in the mind of Stewie Griffin.
The gayest of Allen’s two dads looks exactly like Dean Pelton, the gayest character on NBC’s “Community.”
Hill’s better-known co-stars include French Stewart (“3rd Rock From The Sun”) and Will Forte (“Clone High,” “MacGruber”).
I grew annoyed and impatient with the pilot until it got around to Allen’s profound lust for and (very adult) attempted seduction of his obese, 68-year-old new principal. This mad, one-sided romance made up for a lot of early-episode joke misfires -- but I fear this series has already fallen into pattern with Fox’s many miss-and-hit Seth MacFarlane cartoons, which offer few enough solid jokes per half-hour to warrant avoiding the investment of valuable time.
... Unless I hear 'Allen Gregory' has taken a great leap forward in originality and intelligence (and so far the writing shows little of either), I'll probably just stick with 'Bob's Burgers,' the genially deranged animated comedy that Fox will bring back in January. ...
... This show actually made me hate a 7-year-old. Well-done. ... the version on display in the pilot is one I have no interest in ever watching again. …
... A fundamental problem with the new Fox cartoon “Allen Gregory” — though not the biggest one — is that it’s never clear what the show is satirizing. The title character is nominally a privileged 7-year-old horrified at the prospect of attending a public elementary school, but he’s drawn as a boutonniere-wearing dandy and talks like a supremely egotistical talent agent. He’s a little bit Stewie from “Family Guy,” a little bit Ari Gold from “Entourage,” a little bit Frasier and Niles Crane, a little bit Mr. Magoo. ...
... These are the sort of jokes that make you wonder not so much whether you are too old for them but whether you have simply lived too long. ...
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... In clips, "Allen Gregory" looks promising but then you see the show and realize quickly it's the same jokes repeated ad nauseum … Some of the comedy is -- the way Allen mistreats authority figures, including his teacher and school principal -- amusing because it's recognizable as bad behavior you'd see from someone with an overblown sense of self-importance and entitlement, but how many times can you laugh at the same basic joke in a half hour, let alone week after week?
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... Allen Gregory is Richie Rich without the nice gene. We take malicious delight in watching him get taken down a peg or two, but at the same time, given how insufferable Richard is, we grudgingly begin to like the kid. Plus, the show's humorous. …
... coy but limp … so thoroughly coated in a single flavor of sourness that it is difficult to view it as anything but pointless and quickly repetitive. …
... Gross, ugly, vicious and stupid —Allen is all of that, to be sure. But funny? Too rarely to matter. …
... The show, like many animated sitcoms, strains to be worthy of more than just the 10-minute-short treatment, and is therefore filled in with some unfunny and repetitive material. The idea of satirizing know-it-all, narcissistic kids is solid. I love the way Allen Gregory talks down to every adult he encounters, as if they’re members of a lower species. But the world built around that core of satire is a lot less promising. ...
... Deeply absurd but only fitfully funny, "Allen" will probably be loved by a small group of people, but not especially liked by many. …
8:30 p.m. Sunday. Fox.
