When F Is for Family launched in December 2015, it did so with little more than a blip and a whisper. A prime example of flying under the radar. But, by hook and by crook, the show managed to stumble into enough viewership to land itself a second season that launched eighteen months later. In those eighteen months, the show’s popularity and awareness grew… by a lot. Now, heading into its third year, the series is once again proving why it is, by far, one of Netflix’s top half-hours on the programming slate.
Picking up three months after the events of season two, F Is for Family is taking no prisoners - leaning heavier than ever into the madness of the Murphy household and the mid-70s world that surrounds it. A world presented as the 70s actually was - grimy, dirty and dangerous. But, also free and hopeful in a child-endangerment sort of way.
The gags are top notch and the stories continue to grow and evolve as we enter the show’s third season. A fact proved no more obvious than with the pregnancy storyline taking place as a result of what we all thought was a throwaway gag over the course of the second season.
Everything about the series screams comedy that understands the first rule of the format: be funny. In a television landscape where so many “sitcoms” feel like they believe themselves to be too “above brow” to be funny, F Is for Family leans heavily into the things that keep us coming back for more from a show like this. The slapstick, the gross-out, the insane and the shocking. The Bill Burr lead series knows what it wants to be and knows the kind of audience it wants to attract.
Overall, the third season of F Is for Family continues to deliver on the things that make it such a worthy and unique addition to the Netflix landscape. It’s also the season that proves the show has legs and is ready to go the long-haul if given the chance. The Murphy story is not over and after surviving two seasons flying under the radar so successfully, this really feels like the year the show is ready to break out on a much, much larger scale.
F Is for Family premieres Friday, November 30th on Netflix
