The Harper House

Many first episodes of a new cartoon can be a struggle; sometimes even whole first seasons. Animated shows often take a bit of time to find their voice, and their laughs.

When it comes to animation, there's a real art and immense skill to delivering something good on first attempt, before tightening up what works, and shaving what doesn't.

The Harper House delivers from the get-go. My 10/10 rating is intentionally too high to counter the other initial inexplicably low ratings, but if you're a fan of animated comedies then giving this a try is a safe bet.

And the script sounds like an unedited first draft. I'm really disappointed because I loved professor brothers and China, Il. I couldn't make it through the first episode.

When I first saw the announcement of the show, I thought it was going to bet yet another cheap family animated sitcom, and the art style especially turned me off.

I went in expecting the worst, but it was actually.....okay!

Music - 2/2. Probably my favorite aspect of the show. I like that the show has an actual theme song instead of just a title card like all the other shows these days. It sounds elegant, perfect for a show about a family living in a Victorian house.

Characters - 1/2. I love that the head of the family is the mom. It also doesn't use the typical sitcom stereotypes like bratty teenage daughter, dumb dad etc. They need a bit more energy infused in them though.

Voice Acting - 2/2, another enjoyable aspect of the series. Can't go wrong with Jason Lee.

Writing - 1/2. Better than I expected - somewhat. It's not edgy for the sake of being edgy and can be quite compelling. However, it gets a point deduction for the awkward racial humor seen in Episode 1. It seems like adult animation writers can't include characters of color without making the white characters awkward around them. Ugh.

Animation - 0/2. There's no denying that this is the worst aspect of the show. It's just so...bland. There's no shading and it doesn't use the medium to its advantage. The Simpsons and Family Guy are great for animation because of their zany situations. This show could be in live action and nothing would change.

Overall, 6/10.

So as a way to move past the boring gender roles of old, I see a lot of just reversing the formula, testosterone mother/sister, estrogen father/brother.

How is that change? Different head of the same coin.

The writing is pretty good the voice acting is pretty good but the animation seems off and doesn't seem to match the dialog. I hope they work out these bugs because I think they really take away from the good parts of this series.