Son of Zorn

Brash jokes to the opposite extreme are good for a quick chuckle, but deeper laughs came from the above comparisons many of us find in day-to-day life. Still, what makes Son of Zorn an exciting new series is that it can go to both ends of the spectrum with consistency.

It’s an offbeat, refreshing take on the (broken) family sitcom and deadbeat dad redemption story.

It’s an old story in a new loincloth. But it works.

Though a little strange, the mixture is never unsettling, in large part because this efficient and reasonably amusing sitcom is safely encased in several other familiar TV formats.

Despite his novelty, Zorn remains the same kind of unduly confident doofus that has dominated screen comedy for a decade and a half. Though Sudeikis’ performance brings a lot of life to the character, Zorn doesn’t have much going for him that isn’t rooted in premise.

Either clever idea or one-trick pony, the Son of Zorn pilot can’t entirely decide which it is either.

Meadows was the one minor bright spot as the self-emasculating and self-deprecating therapist. Hines' allusions to a wild, coked-up past, Zorn's workplace woes, Pemberton's teen angst-these were all well-treaded tropes, and likely a missed opportunity for something more clever.

Son of Zorn does well to avoid the argument that something has been lost in this new, progressive world--Zorn is very much a buffoon from start to finish--but the gag has nonetheless started to wear thin by the end of the first episode’s 22 minutes.

Technically, the show is superb, melding animation with actors similar to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” Hines and Meadows in particular do a great job essentially acting opposite nothing. But Son of Zorn seems like Adult Swim filler. There are better shows out there for fall.

Most of the jokes are amusing but only a couple got big laughs because they're offbeat like the premise.

The results are mildly funny, at best.

There are glimpses of scenes and traces of dialogue that hint at something cunning and clever coming, but Son of Zorn has too many battle axes and hidden daggers in its hands to be able to handle the swift, subtle touches that premises so out-there crazy need to be executed properly.

Son of Zorn has the feeling of a show that wants to be edgier than it is (which may be one reason creators Reed Agnew and Eli Jorne stepped away from the project once production was underway).

The preview pilot isn’t the worst show you’ll ever see, but once you get used to the fact that Daddy is a 7-foot animated galoot, how do creators Eli Jorne and Reed Agnew intend to hold our interest from week to week? The gimmick isn’t enough, but the bigger problem is that the setup and story aren’t enough, either. What the show needs is actually more contextual wackiness in addition to the animated main character.

There’s always a very outside chance that Son of Zorn could have the legs of an ALF in the annals of hybrids turned into weekly sitcoms. But this already looks like pretty thin stuff that’s not worth writing home about--not even from the planet Zephyria.

The result is a show that’s imaginative on paper but little more than mildly amusing in practice.

The deliberately rudimentary animation mixes poorly with the more sophisticated live action, so that any character interacting with Zorn is very obviously an actor talking to an empty space. That’s also part of the joke, but like all of the humor in the show, it gets old before it even comes around the second time.