Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj and welcome to a new part of the show I like to call Animation Bang. This is where I take a look at an American animated show or movie and see if it was good or not. These reviews will be a little different from my anime reviews, instead of me just going through each episode just giving my thoughts and telling you what happens this is gonna be me just giving you a complete overview of the show and telling you if I think it was any good or not. If it’s a movie I’ll do it in my typical anime review style. Society is divided. In America we divide ourselves by the amount of income we make. If you make a lot you’re considered high class, if you barely make enough to get by you’re low class, and if you’re making decent money and living well you’re considered middle class. Because of this many people develop this mental idea that they’re better than some people and have every right to walk all over them. Nowhere is that seen more clearly than in the lived sitcom The Oblongs.
Getting their start back on the WB in 2001 and then getting cancelled only a month later about halfway through the first season, Adult Swim picked up the series in 2002 and aired the full season. The Oblongs is a show that shows the social standing of families and people in a dark yet safe manner while still breaking new ground. The show focuses appropriately enough around the antics of the Oblong family, a family that lives in a place that’s known as Hill Valley where the town is split up into two areas The Valley and The Hills. The Valley is where the poor people live. Because of the pollution and radiation exposure from the people in the rich community known as The Hills which overlooks The Valley the people of The Valley have become disabled and deformed humans because of it. The show is based loosely off the book “Creepy Susie and 13 Other Tragic Tales for Troubled Children” written by Angus Oblong. While a majority of the stories in the book centered on children the book was for adults and each story was dark and dealt with problems kids usually faced in adolescence. I say loosely because the show really doesn’t follow the book all that much (not that there was anything for them to be based off of in the book) but instead puts them in a sitcom world and creates stories revolving around the characters who still maintain their character attributes that they had in the book.
The Main Characters
The main characters are the Oblong family, each episode usually centers on a member of the family:
Bob Oblong voiced by Will Ferrell
The father of the family who was born without arms and legs. Bob is basically a shout out to all the various fathers seen in the 50s TV shows. He has an upbeat attitude and despite his deformity he is very chipper and positive always doing the right thing in life and doing his best to take care of his family and wife.
Pickles Oblong voiced by Jean Smart
The wife of Bob who is a chain smoker and an alcoholic. She used to be a resident of The Hills before marrying Bob but after marrying him moved down to The Valley with him. Because of this she lost all of her hair and wears a wig to hide it and is often mocked by her former friends of The Hills for marrying someone from The Valley. But despite this she has no regrets for the choices in her life if anything she shows disdain and pity for the people of The Hills for looking down on them. She genuinely does show love to Bob and everyone else in The Valley, and cares deeply for her children even though her parenting is sometimes questionable and bad she does for the most part act like a loving mother.
Biff and Chip Oblong voiced by Randy and Jason Sklar
The oldest of the Oblong children. Conjoined twins attached at the waist and share a middle leg. The two are the complete opposite of each other, Biff was a hard worker and athlete so to speak obsessed with sports while Chip was more laid back and wanted to have fun instead of working hard like Biff. Out of all the main characters these two probably get the least amount of episodes. There’s one episode centering around them in the whole show.
Milo Oblong voiced by Pamela Segall Adlon
Considered to be the main protagonist of the show Milo is a kid afflicted with a number of mental and social disorders. He’s hyperactive, has ADD and all sorts of disorders that you wouldn’t believe. Despite these disorders he’s actually a good kid, he looks out for his friends, loves his family, and while he wishes to have the lifestyle of The Hills doesn’t seem to mind living in The Valley.
Beth Oblong voiced by Jeannie Elias
The youngest of the Oblong children and the only person in the family who was the least affected by the pollution and radiation. We don’t get to know that much about her other than she’s a cute and quiet little girl who has a wart growing on her head.
Other characters
There are a few other characters that play an important role in the show such as Milo’s friends. One is Helga a pudgy loud-mouth girl who will pretty much eat anything. She’s a delusional girl who believes that she’s pretty and popular. Creepy Susie a girl who speaks in deadpan French, is obsessed with death, a pyromaniac and is hands down my favorite character in the show. She’s also grey skin instead of normal skin like the other characters. Peggy, a girl born with only one breast and no lower jaw which causes her to spit every time she talks but is actually quite smart and Mikey a boy born with a dangling butt so he has to wear his grandmother’s old bra like suspenders to keep it up. A running gag in the series is that there’s always some misfortune that happens to him almost every time he appears.
The people from The Hills also play a somewhat important role in the show. George Klimer is the arrogant and self-centered boss of Bob who represents everything wrong with the people of The Hills. Also, Billy West is voicing him so that’s kinda cool. He also has a wife and son but they don’t really play that big of a role in the show. The Debbies, a group of popular girls who look alike, dress alike, act alike, and for some reason are all named Debbie (didn’t know Debbie was a popular girl’s name. Not my first choice in naming a girl). In the show Helga is obsessed with them and under the false delusion that she is friends with them and has a desire to be one of them which is ironic considering if you read the book you would know that Helga despised the Debbies and wanted to kill them rather than be a part of them.
The Episodes
There were 13 episodes and each episode had a simple formula, center on one of the main characters in a class conflict, in which the oppressed battle a bit of the injustice and the oppressors get their comeuppance (usually, sometimes they got away in the end). For example, in one episode the family decides to get Milo a dog hoping it’ll help him behave more and at first it does but as time goes on Milo begins to act even crazier and more uncontrollable than ever that the family has no choice but to give the dog to George’s family. Bob finds out that the dog is being used for animal testing and accidentally tells the family about it and they decide to break into Bob’s factory and take back the dog. They succeed but because of the testing the dog has become narcoleptic but in the end it works out. Because the dog is narcoleptic he’s not as energetic and active as was before which forces Milo to become less energetic and active and slow down to take care of the dog. An example of the rich winning in the end is in two episodes. The first one is an episode where Biff and Chip are determined to beat the kids from The Hills in a three-legged race. Biff is focused and determined to practice but Chip goofs off and doesn’t take the thing serious at all. Through a series of events Milo gets glued to their back and he starts to develop a bond with Chip leaving Biff behind. When they finally get unstuck Chip decides that he rather hangout with Milo than be stuck with Biff. When the day of the race arrives Biff and Chip make up and race together but because Chip didn’t take the training seriously he slows down and messes up making the Hills’ kids win. Another example is the final episode. In this episode Biff and Chip earn their license and destroy Bob’s car in a drag race. Along with Milo they buy him a new car at a police auction and discover that the car contained the mayor’s bribe money which he uses it to pay the officials to do their job. Instead of handing the money over they use the money for themselves not caring about the effects it has on the family or those around them until the end where their new pad catches fire and the fire department won’t put out the fire because they don’t get paid to put it out. They finally cough up their remaining money to give to the mayor and the rest of The Valley pitches in to meet the original amount of the bribe.
As for the rest of the episodes each one centered on an issue that would come up in everyday life. Episodes such as fitting in, not forgetting who you are and where you come from, don’t try to live your life through someone else, and basic morals while working in their formula.
My favorite Episodes
I have two favorite episodes. The first one is episode 3, the mayor hires a Bible nut named Mrs. Hubbard to investigate the Valley for dysfunctional families and juvenile delinquents. While that’s going on Milo discovers that Helga has been living alone for years because her parents went on a trip and haven’t returned home. In order to save Helga from being put in a foster home he hangs out at her house making it look good. But as time goes on Helga starts to develop feelings for Milo and Mrs. Hubbard finds out about Helga living alone and adopts her for herself until the end when Helga’s real parents come back to claim the rights to her. What makes this episode so funny for me is Mrs. Hubbard, she is a religious nut that hinges on the line of being a psychopath and I love how Helga starts to develop romantic feelings for Milo and eventually kidnaps him from his own home just to have him to herself (I think Family Guy might have stolen this idea for the Brian and Meg episode where Meg suddenly falls for Brian and kidnaps him). My second favorite episode is episode 8 the last episode the WB aired before they cancelled the show and got picked up by Adult Swim to continue the series. Milo runs for class president but gets beat by one of the Debbies. Through a freak accident her face gets destroyed and she becomes an outcast from her peers. With nowhere else to go she befriends Milo’s gang but she begins to drive them crazy and they work out a plan to help her get back into the popular crowd where she belongs. They manage to fix her face but she’s hesitant to go back to the popular kids because she’s finally able to see how good the people from The Valley are but Milo says she has to go back to them. At the end her friends accept her back and she goes back to hating them not because she wants to hate them but because she lives with the fear of being an outcast and being rejected by her friends. This is something I think a lot of people do in life, they reject a part of themselves or others because of the fear of being rejected or outcast by their friends. I think the show handled this excellently. I like how they show how Debbie is hesitant to go back because she truly has come to think of them as friends and how Milo and his friends accept her despite all the mean and terrible things she’s done to them in the past. That’s very mature and noble of them.
Another episode I really liked was episode 11. Due to an accident Bob isn’t allowed to have sex for 2 weeks with Pickles (no sex for two weeks? Shoot him now). Because of this Pickles begins to wonder if her marriage to Bob is real or not and if the reason they’re together is because they have great sex? I like how Pickles begins to question this and wonder about it because this is a problem that seems to be happening a lot in today’s society. Young teenagers have sex and because it felt so good they get drunk off it and decide that this is the person I want to marry, I don’t know anything about them, I’ve only shared possibly one dialogue with them but this is the person I want to be with for the rest of my life. And when all the sex is done and they finally have to sit down and talk to each other they find out that they have nothing in common and that their romance was just a one night stand. They approach this topic in a mature manner but still manage to get a good laugh out of you in the process. I won’t give away the ending because it’s a rather good one but it’s definitely something I can see happening in today’s world.
The theme
This is probably where the show shined the best at. The obvious theme is social stratification. We see how the wealthy and poor people are separated from each other and how different they are from each other. The people in The Hills are straight up assholes who live undeserved lives, don’t know the value of living as a family, and don’t care what happens to the people of The Valley as long as they get richer. They pretty much dominate the people of The Valley and there’s no rallying for better places for them to live or better working conditions for them. The people of The Valley have pretty much learned to accept the social class standing in fact Bob pretty much endorses obedience of their social class to his family, it’s not because he thinks the people on The Hills are always right it’s just that’s the way he’s been raised to think in society. He was raised to accept that he is a worker whose job is to follow those richer and wealthier than him, that’s what he believes is absolute truth and is forcing that idea on his family. The people of The Valley on the other hand are all good people, they don’t seem to mind where they live and are okay with their deformities and problems. If anything you feel like giving them a hug just because of how nice and good they are and say “sorry, that you guys have to live like this, you deserve better”.
Another theme I think the show has is social acceptance. This idea is displayed between the Debbies and Milo’s gang. The Debbies are different girls who come from different families but for some reason they all dress, look, act, and sound the same as if they were all sisters. Meanwhile Milo and his friends are all different from each other, each one can be identified from the other, and they each have their own personality and character and because of this they’re seen as outcast by the Debbies because they’re different. Society tries to force this belief that if you don’t conform and act like the crowd you’ll be thrown out and seen as an outcast with no friends. The Debbies are like this, they have no independent thoughts from each other they all agree on something and if one of them disagrees or has an opinion of their own that person is cast out of their social ring. Milo and his gang want to be a part of the crowd but they still want to be themselves, they don’t want to conform to what society wants them to think, they want to have their own opinions and ideas and express them and because of these things the world that they live in rejects them.
Was it funny
I say yes but not as funny as the animators and creators would have liked it to be. If you’ve read Oblong’s book you would know that it is a very dark and morbid book. In the show they turn down the dark and morbid stuff in favor of trying to be funny and wholesome but not too wholesome as they do still show some dark stuff. If I had to rate the comedy I give it a 4/10. It’s close to the neutral zone, some jokes work while others don’t but the jokes that did work do get a good laugh out of me and I’m sure will get a good laugh out of you as well if you decide to watch the series.
Does it deserve a another season
Yes, definitely. The show had decent comedy and excellent themes and morals that made it worth watching and a lovable cast of characters that you come to like. I say the show deserved a second season and probably a third season depending on how well the second season did. Rumors have been flying around about Adult Swim trying to revive the series. They reached out to studios in 2010 asking them to produce new episodes and while some said yes others said no. There’s been no more talk or information about the revival after this statement so chances are it’s probably in production purgatory right now. People want to bring it back but are just unsure of how to bring it back. It’s like facing a really tough boss in an rpg game that somehow always manages to beat you. You know there’s a key to beating him it’s just how do you beat him?
Final Score
The Oblongs earn a 6.5/10. With its decent comedy and good morals and characters this show is bound to keep you entertained and want more. I do hope the series does come back in the future because I think it would be nice to see a show that breaks new ground while keeping you entertained and addressing overlooked problems in society. I doubt Will Ferrell will reprise his role if the show gets revived but if he does that would be awesome since he did a good job voicing Bob. But until that day comes, here’s hoping to a revival of a decent series. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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