Free For All review

It has come to pass that Showtime isn't the place for high quality cartoons, whether it be an offensive show that has no idea who it want to piss off or pander to, or the epitome of partisan bullcrap that makes it ever more hard to see the other side of the coin. But we shall rest easy knowing that we never had more cartoons on that network, especially between those two.

Okay that's a big fat lie.

Free For All was produced for showtime in 2003, making it the first animated series produced entirely for the network. I only referred to Queer Duck as a Showtime program because the network's branding is used the most prevalently. For most episodes available you can actually catch a Showtime warning bumper at the start, showing how authentic it is. Also apparently, this was the first animated show to be broadcast in high definition, among the first at least, as well as the only traditionally animated show to air on a primetime network. And yes, I got that wholesale from the show's Wikipedia article, but that's only because it's incredibly generous.

The show was created by Brett Merhar, and based on a comic strip series he made beforehand from 1995 to 1998. You might've never heard of it, but trust me, it exists.






There's a big chance none of you knew about this comic series, and nobody knew it better than Merhar. When he pitched the show, he claimed the strip was ongoing.

But that leaves one fairly big question. Why pitch this to Showtime? Well, as it's a premium network, you can get away with a lot more than you would on more mainstream channels, and believe me when I say they take full advantage of the freedom.

Among the staff involved, the show was developed by Merriwether Williams, a name you may recognize from SpongeBob SquarePants and... Adventure Time. I got blocked by figures in the animation review community on deviantArt over thing that shouldn't have been said, but if it wasn't for that, they'd block me for throwing shit at Adventure Time, among other shows. Other people who worked on this William Reiss and C.H. Greenblatt, no need to specify who the latter is.

Along with Merhar who voices what I assume to be a self-insert or someone who couldn't do the character justice, we have Jonathan Silverman from both Weekend at Bernie's movies, Sam McMurray who played Courtney Grippling's dad at some point in As Told by Ginger and... Juliette Lewis, using judgement that landed herself on Natural Born Killers, one of the worst political films of all time, made by someone who looks like he'd rape every female member on whatever organization he'd weasel himself into. He looks like the ugly lovechild of Francis Ford Coppola and Harvey Weinstein- forgive that tangent.

After this, Merhar co-created a YouTube webseries called Beverly Hills Anger Management alongside Gabor Csupo, of Klasky Csupo, of all people, and, sad to say, he was killed in 2016. Williams would sell out and work on Camp Lazlo (which was shit in hindsight, you can't tell me otherwise), and the rest is history.

Premise

The show centers on Johnny Jenkins, caught in the center of a dysfunctional family, an ever-so typical dysfunctional family. What've we got? A drunk-crass dad? Quagmire if he were an ancient woman? Okay in principal it's not that unoriginal, because this show was, for a lack of a better term, no-holds-barred, it's kinda different.

Another point of focus is Johnny's best friend Clay Zeeman, a money-obsessed man who feigned a back injury and won a settlement in a lawsuit. The show portrays him as someone incredibly evil and one who throws Johnny into turmoil, but as someone who has seen every single episode at least once... I've seen far more antagonistic friends. Maybe it was more within the comics, I'm not sure.

Clay, to me, is like a mix between Randall Graves from Clerks and Dogbert, one is apathetic to what happens in the world, the other seeks grander things in life and knows just how to get away with it. He also has a drug-obsessed ferret named Angus, who represents the more desperate edgy jokes and is a focal point to drug-induced hallucinations, a high point to the character. Admittedly, these two premises aren't so original on their own, but it's not common for me to see them together.

Oh, and there's Paula, Juliette Lewis's character. She's the only one in the comics I've seen to have gone through a radical design change. I don't know if the rest of them did, but I'm beginning to wonder. Basically, most characters in comics published by King Features Syndicate (who also published Free For All), tend to have conjoined eyes. That's the ultimate tell when you're looking for their adaptations.

All of the characters don't have the conjoined eyes, except for Johnny, and here's how that looks compared to others.

Seamless

There isn't much to the premises of each episode, aside from their attempts at edginess. Key examples include a point-blank crack about dogs in heat, sterility, ferret mating, sex at an ice cream social (but that wasn't shown, just implied for conflict), STDs, transvestites, they pulled out all the stops, at least the major ones.

The episodes themselves were entertaining at the very least. I found myself going back to most episodes a lot. I'd chalk it up to good execution.

There is one thing I noticed about this. As the show went on, it felt like Johnny became noticeably dummer, and I don't mean a radical downgrade, I mean like he showed less and less awareness to key situations, and to be fair, that kinda helped the show in the long run. As cruel as his grandmother and father can be, at the very least it doesn't lead to severe emotional trauma, enough to lead to an angry mob embellishing aspects that don't need to be embellished. Anyhow, the first episode has grandma trying to get Johnny's room so she could move out of the basement, but this gets abandoned until partly in the 6th episode where she agrees to quit smoking on the condition Johnny moves out. I take it the first episode was meant to help with pitching the show, and right after assurance was granted for more episodes to air, Merhar would showcase his true intentions.

So to sum up, the show made use of edgy jokes that they couldn't make on other networks, I'd like to refer to this show as an experiment of sorts to see what the creator could get away with. You may find some jokes that may not make sense, but is saved by good delivery. Nothing is ever really ran into the ground. If you're into that kind of humor, I would recommend this over Drawn Together, a show even more desperate and deprived.

Animation

Either I found enjoyment from the story and/or jokes, or I was mesmerized by some impressive animation.

I brought this show's animation up in my review of Fatherhood, but just to give you an idea here, Free For All was made with traditional animation, but animated over 3D landscapes. The 3D effects are only visible through more complicated camera movements. For more ambitious shots, the 3D is pulled off very well. The 2D animation is a little iffy, sometimes most movements are choppy, but that's only in select scenes. The rest of the time it's standard.

Let's be frank, hybrid animation for TV shows doesn't always go well, with many of them using one or the other sparingly. So sometimes you gotta keep your standards low. MP4ORCE did hybrid animation, and it still sucked. For a relative obscurity, the show looks good. Damn good.

Overall

Regardless of what you think of the edge factor, this is easily the best animated Showtime program. What's its competition? A schizophrenic cartoon that doesn't know who it wants to offend? Our Cartoon President? Sane people don't enjoy those kinds of shows.

Frankly, by the inception alone, this show is interesting. First there's the fact that Merhar had to pull the wool over the eyes of the executives to get a show made on a long cancelled comic strip made. Next, there's the fact that this show was produced for Showtime. Finally, the fact that he got Gabor Csupo to work with him on something for YouTube. I'm only singling that out because it was around that year Csupo was at his busiest. Previously, he directed Bridge to Terabithia, and I'm still surprised he was behind that film, and it was the same year he was working on Immigrants.

For the record, that was meant to reflect my surprise on how Merhar was able to do things that would ordinarily be unlikely. Merhar you would've made an excellent mentor on negotiations, while your work isn't as remembered these days, you'd be happy to know that I'd consider you to be the highpoint of Showtime's original shows. That and Soul Food: The Series.

Best part is that now I covered every Showtime animated show, and this isn't a set-up for a future review, this is the last in a coverage of every notable animated program made for Showtime. I reviewed Our Cartoon President a while back and I'd consider that to be up to my preferred review standards, I did Queer Duck not too long ago, and here we are with Free For All, aka a sweet note.