Netflix’s animated ‘Good Times’ flunks the TV reboot test

CNN ^ | 4/12/24 | Brian Lowry

[DallasBiff]

After the social-media blowback that greeted the “Good Times” trailer, Netflix opted to premiere the show without making it available to critics. But the animated series that dropped April 12 merely underscores the pitfalls of leveraging a familiar title without a clear reason for doing so, yielding an edgy comedy that likely would have come and gone with scant notice without the weight of that name.

In addition to the late Norman Lear – who fared considerably better with a “One Day at a Time” reboot – the roster of producers here includes Seth MacFarlane (“Ted,” “Family Guy”) and NBA superstar Stephen Curry. The series was created by Ranada Shepard and Carl Jones, with the latter having worked on “The Boondocks.”

“Good Times” is hardly the first show to try capitalizing on a recognizable title, but the connection has seldom felt more tenuous. And the shift to animation, with the wilder flourishes that allows, not only invites but encourages excess, from talking roaches to gory violence, making the name play more like a cynical grab for attention.

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A very young Janet Jackson was on it.