I was laughing my ass off in almost every episode in season 11 because Dennis seemed to be at his absolute peak antisocial personality. Most of the show was coherent and flowed well. The characters were narcissistic, scratched libs and constantly concern trolling each other. Things were largely grounded in reality.

Then season 12 and up, things just got weird and tiresome to watch. Like things just happen back to back and everything is grandiose. The character development is undeserved because they cram in so much shit in 20 minutes (like the episode of Mac coming out as gay is just Frank yelling the same thing for 20 minutes then Mac dances. Come on. They had a whole season to build up to it and instead they just did this shit). It feels like I’m watching Uncut Gems but instead of being stressed out, I’m just annoyed by the wild stories and annoying characters. Like the one episode of season 16 parodies the anal vibrator chess scandal because the scheme is…?

And now the gang is soft as hell and actually getting offended as opposed to be socially conscious for their own agendas. And honestly, I think they could’ve dulled out the characters if they played it out right, like with how Dennis wanted to be a family man, that’s a valid path to make him less antisocial and misogynistic, and proceed to do this one by one for each character then ending the show.

I felt like the little commentary they had about the post-9/11 zeitgeist in the early seasons was funny and subtle at times. But it seems like the trump era really made everyone fucking annoying. Somehow they managed to fumble the plot line about the gang being responsible for the boater coup at the capitol which should’ve flowed naturally with the show.

    • radio_free_asgarthr [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      6 months ago

      No, it is really good. Like any series it falls off at the later seasons. A lot of the very late political commentary is not that funny/lib bullshit, but the episode where the gang was responsible for all of the major political developments of 2020 was pretty funny IMO, which I think this post is complaining about. But seasons 5-10 are great.

    • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml
      ·
      6 months ago

      I tried and just couldn't do it, then someone told me to skip the entire first season. I loved watching it from there lol. So if you can't get into it after an episode or two try skipping the first season. Frank really brings the show together

      • TankieTanuki [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        To think that Rob only let Danny DeVito on his show because the network threatened to cancel it.

          • TankieTanuki [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            6 months ago

            Could be. I said it was his show because he's listed as the only creator, but that's different from ownership. I also misremembered him as saying "I said no" in the interview from which I learned this story, implying executive authority, but he actually says "we said no".

      • peppersky [he/him, any]
        ·
        6 months ago

        It's criminal to tell people that when the water park episode is in season 12

        • WELCOMETHRILLHO [comrade/them]
          ·
          6 months ago

          The water park episode is a classic- one of their best because it just takes these very insular little monsters and unleashed them into a stand-alone adventure into a separate defined little world and them just thrashing against the restrictions of the park

        • DampSquid@feddit.uk
          ·
          6 months ago

          I'll be honest, there must be some references I don't know or something, but I really didn't like that episode