Dumbland

David Lynch attempts cell by cell animation and manages to push the medium to frightening extremes.  The protagonist of Dumbland is an alcoholic wife beater who rarely says or does anything heroic or good.  This cartoon is a grandiose joke against the nuclear family.  It follows the life of an obese man with possible Tourrette's Syndrome who is never given a name except "dad!" by the obnoxious son.  The man is fat, angry, uneducated, violent, abusive, lazy, and an overall pathetic excuse for a father.  He spends his days in a violent frenzy throughout his humble abode, frequently swearing, farting, and destroying things in his path.  Yet, this show isn't pure dumb.  This show demonstrates a unique animation with almost flip book quality aesthetics.  Hailed as disturbing by Youtube users, it manages to almost succeed more as a animated documentary of a dysfunctional poor family.  The husband sits around drinking beer watching violent wrestling.  The Wife lives in constant fear and is scared of everything.  The husband abuses the wife and so does her family.  The son seems to work hard to obtain some kind of fatherly love by continuously trying to grab the attention of the father (even choking chickens?).  The father doesn't say much.  He seems to hate everything around him, and is quick to overreact with violence and brute force.  In a revealing conversation when "a friend comes to visit" he asks his friend if he likes to kill certain animals.  The friend talks with enthusiasm about dismembering and making trophies out of dead animals, the fathers response is simply "I like to kill things".  This is David Lynch's version of a punchline.  Is it funny?  Kind of.  It's funny mostly in a grotesque and disturbing way.  This is a character who can't seem to enjoy anything unless it involves the killing or destruction of something.  Films and television wouldn't dare explore the mind of a sociopath unless he "got what he deserved".  This show is almost the triumph of the sociopath and his inner neanderthal.  A new character who can willingly inflict violence against unsuspecting innocent creatures who perhaps haven't wrong him in any way.  One could argue the show is sexist because it depicts a man who abuses his wife and really does not seem to suffer any guilt/punishment from any of his actions.  I can only applaud Lynch for his work, because he attempts to explore disturbing issues through satire, comedy, and animation (akin to some of Gilliam's work).  This show approaches pure nihilism in its moral compass.

Episode 1: 7/10
Episode 2 7.5/10