Bordertown

Bordertown
This will be irrelevant if Trump builds a wall.
Genre: Animated Sitcom Running Time: 22 minutes Country: United States South Korea (Animation production) Release Date: January 3 - May 22, 2016 Network(s): Fox Broadcasting Company Created by: Mark Hentemann Distributed by: 20th Television Starring: Hank Azaria Alex Borstein Judah Friedlander Carlos Alazraqui Seasons: 1 Episodes: 13

Bordertown is a short-lived 2016 animated series that aired on FOX from January 3 to May 22, 2016.

Plot

Bud Buckwald tries to raise his family in a town that is a cross between California and Mexico named Mexifornia, which is situated at the US/Mexican border.

Why It's Borderline Terrible

1. Tries too hard to be like Family Guy (Seth MacFarlane was executive producer of this show and creator Mark Hentemann is a writer on Family Guy) and Bob's Burgers (it's studio Bento Box Entertainment animated this show) but it ends up being very unfunny and awkward and nothing like those two shows.
2. Bud Buckwald is extremely unlikable as his whole character is being racist towards Mexicans.
3. One of the recurring villains is Bud's boss, Steve, whose entire character is to bully him at his job.
4. Absolutely hideous character designs.
5. It's obsessed with non-stop fart jokes and gross-out scenes.
6. Stiff animation on par with Brickleberry and Allen Gregory (both of which also happened to be animated by the same studio as this show).
7. Lazy voice acting and wasted talents of Hank Azaria, Alex Borstein, and Carlos Alazraqui. Bud's and Becky's voice are absolutely unbearable to listen to.
8. It tries (and fail) to be offensive by relying on overdone stereotypes on Mexicans.
9. Annoying and uninspired theme song and soundtrack.
10. The pointless cameo of Peter Griffin in the episode "American Doll".
11. It has an episode too petty and cruel called "High School Football", where all the characters become unpleasant and petty, where they want to kill a football coach just because his team lost and also want to kill Bud Buckwald because if his team loses, he dies, and the end is even worse, where in the end they will kill the football coach, which is not even funny at all.
12. Mexico was negatively portrayed in the show, as it was depicted as a violent, poor, and an overall unpleasant country as an attempt to stir controversy.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The Hentemann Films logo is great to look at as it has different gag depending on the episode (except for episode 6 which reuses the pilot episode animation).
2. Had a few funny moments.
3. "Viva Coyote" was a decent way to end the series.
4. Some pretty nice and likable characters, Especially Ernesto and Becky Buckwald.

Reception

Bordertown received generally negative reviews. On Metacritic, the show holds a 46/100 score based on 15 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the series received a 35% rating based on 17 reviews with an average rating of 5.3/10. The critics' consensus reads: "Bordertown's controversy-rich premise is an idea disappointingly ill-served by its execution, which repeatedly mistakes crass, desperate gags for topical humor."

Due to poor reception and ratings (to the point that the series was later dumped as 6PM filler), the show was canceled after its first and only season ended.

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