Review:
The Cleveland Show: Episode Two

102: Da Doggone Daddy-Daughter Dinner Dance

‘You can't just replace my dog like Brad Pitt replaced Jennifer Aniston, or John Mayer replaced Jennifer Aniston, or Vince Vaughn replaced Jennifer Aniston, or that guy from the bar repla- the point is, my dog is not Jennifer Aniston.’ – Rallo Tubbs

After the opening episode’s disappointing yet promising start, you’d think that the second tale of Family Guy spin-off character Cleveland would kick into high gear, right? Wrong.

Despite accepting Cleveland as their father in the pilot, step children Roberta and Rallo now decide that they don’t like him. This prompts Cleveland to try his best to get in their good books by attempting to convinvce Roberta to take him to a school father-daughter dance via the power of music. Unfortunately for him, just as he unites the family, he accidentally runs over their dog and hides the body.

Meanwhile, Cleveland Jr. tries to fit in at school and, follwing some advice from his father, accidentally ends up becoming a bathroom valet.

In many ways, The Cleveland Show is a comedy still struggligng to find its feet. The many flashbacks and cutaways – a staple of Family Guy’s longevity – feel forced and flat, like discarded ideas from the original show. In addition, while some gags are as gloriously offensive as always (the Kurt Cobain sketch immediately springs to mind), they just don’t suit the friendly, affable figure that Cleveland is. It’s a lot like a shopping centre Santa Claus who makes jokes about AIDs and 9/11 in front of children.

While the whole narrative is weighed down by clunky, funcional and downright predictable second and third acts, there are many good things in this episode. Cleveland Jr. is becoming an entertaining character, the speed of the gags has picked up (although not to the razor-sharp standrad of American Dad), Cleveland’s interactions with Rallo are humorously watchable and Tim the Bear is fast becoming the best character in the show. His referencing of Jesus is geniuinely hilarious and, coupled with Macfarlane’s effortlessly wondeful vocal talents and character design, Tim the Bear is fast coming up on the very best characters in the Family Guy universe. It’s a shame that the same can’t be said for the other supporting characters – new wife Donna barely has three lines of dialogue which never reach above expositional, redneck Lester eats the dead dog (you know, because he’s a redneck, yeah?) and Holt has two lines, both of them annoying.