Mr. Birchum

This is a TV/streaming show made by the Daily Wire, a conservative news outlet and streaming site. They specialize in anti-PC shows and movies, mostly comedies. That's fine. We need some anti-PC stuff and we do need comedy. However, just being anti-PC isn't enough to make your show good. It has to work on its own terms. This show does not. Many of the jokes fall flat and much of the dialogue isn't very good. It's almost as if the anti-PC crowd is being preachy and political with their entertainment, which is what they accuse the left of doing. You cannot expect audiences to like your stuff just because you have the "correct" political opinions, and honestly, that can go either way. Your show has to be GOOD, period. This isn't godawful, but it's not very interesting either. Conservatives can be funny (read the Babylon Bee, which is often hysterical), but this isn't one of those times.

Adam Corolla, the creator of this show, seems like a relatively decent guy, but his sense of humor has always been very low brow and dumb dating all the way back to his Man Show days. That hasn't really changed as he's gotten older, so this series comes across as tired and feels like an animated show from the early 00's. So, if you want mild amusement, it's OK for that. But there's nothing here that is gut busting hysterical.

I already knew from watching the trailer, several issues. One is the terrible casting, unoriginal plot, and cringeworthy jokes. I only give it a credit because it features Patrick who played Puddy on Seinfeld and Joe on Family Guy. But Patrick? If you're familiar with Netflix, you'll know many of their original adult animated series (with a few exceptions) have awful taste in humor including Hoops and Paradise PD. Now, if an 11- to 14-year-old teen, you might find these shows enjoyable and laugh, and if so, Mr. Birchum is all yours but for adults, this show is a mere exception to the rule of "humor is subjective", it's just not there.

No I'm not saying it's 2024 and there shouldn't be shows like this. Mr. Birchum has a solid foundation and a decent cast to entertain, but the jokes land as slow as the animation in episodes 1 & 2. There are parts that I recognize as funny, heck even solid jokes and wordplay, but the stilted delivery aborts the laugh growing inside of you. Animation & characters remind me of Brickleberry but that show knew when to rapid fire a joke at the audience for the quick laugh and move on. Birchum needs that tighter editing and comedic-delivery style to really have a stronger appeal in the animation world.

One of the few shows I had to stop watching midway through the first episode. I personally like the Daily Wire's content but between this show and Lady Ballers we see a worrying drop in quality. The show kills an sort of momentum by being so painfully slow you'd wish you were triggered by it so that you could feel something...anything. It takes them 3 minutes to walk out of the carpark at the beginning of the first episode. Another concern is that the jokes get stale quickly, in the first three minutes it already made me worry that the had ran out of content. Perhaps daily wire should consider getting comedians to tell jokes since its a shame their large budget is dumped into such a waste of a show.

Mr Birchum will likely end after just one season - but at the rate they're telling jokes I might be dead by then anyway.

I watched Ladyballers. I then visited my family and they all raved about it. I asked about specific scenes in the movie, they said "Oh I've only watched a clip or two, but the message of the movie is so true and on point! It's funny!" So I had them watch it. Afterwards, they were inches away from canceling their daily wire membership. They were appalled. Daily Wire rips into modern culture and foundry talks about Plato and the Great Gasby, ... fine. Show us what you think our culture needs more of. Show us the what a quality alternative looks like. This show has the same issue as Ladyballers, People seem to like the IDEA of the show more than the actual jokes, characters or story.

This will have its fans. And I'm happy for you. There are many shows and movies I love that I know are awful quality but it just scratches an itch I have. However this IS lacking in quality and holding DW accountable is important. They are young... but not THAT young anymore...and they seem to be investing a lot of energy and money into some rather poor quality products. And they'll keep doing it if they keep seeing people rave at the ideas alone. (I mean if you think about all the Disney defenders out there, they never defend the quality of these Marvel shows or Dr. Who Specials or Star Wars shows etc... they identify with the idea. Maybe let's hold "alternative" media to a higher standard than "this fits into my world view" and start looking for shows that actually deliver good stories, jokes, characters, music... anything really at this point.)

The animation in this is that really uninspired modern "adult cartoon" style that might as well be radio. There is no life breathed into them on a visual level. I remember internet cartoons in the early 2000's that had similar designs but way more inventive animation. The writing is... clunky to say the least. The plot is... there... but motives flip on a dime. I can't tell where people stand on any given plot point. The family dynamics aren't fun to watch. You can have families that don't get along, but you should still feel what drew these people together in the first place. These are joke avatars. The voice acting doesn't do any favors here either but I think it's more of a directing issue than the voice talent themselves. It's hard to be edgy when your character look, sound and feel stale. The whole show is lacking energy and as I mentioned before, it's lacking passion.

Eventually this road DW is heading down is going to burn out people who aren't hungry for ideas that were dated even back when they were relevant. This show has potential to be good, but that just means it hasn't done anything good yet. I really hope this finds it's stride but I won't be tuning in to find out.