The novelty of seeing animated characters dropping F-bombs has long ago worn off. Looking back, it’s almost quaint. The new animated series, Fairfax, ups the ante by having 7th graders as the main characters. It’s sometimes hard to discern whether the series is satirizing its own subjects, or if “IRL” kids are the target audience. I think probably both.
In the Fairfax area of west Los Angeles, our pack of shallow teens are on an eternal quest through 8 half-hour episodes: their mission in life is to become “verified” on Instagram and to chase the latest products being dropped at the trendy store where their hypebeast dreams sometimes come true.
To an old guy like me, the first episode or two were a bit jarring – not because of the barrage of F’s, MF’s, and so on – but just because I couldn’t find any characters to root for. Is anyone likeable here? Not overtly, but you do eventually realize that the diverse gang of four are harmless, clueless, but not mean.
Their hearts are within driving distance to the right place, and that’s good enough.
The show is occasionally funny and the audacious writing only sometimes feels like stunting. Mainly, the dialogue seems pretty realistic for animated characters. Older viewers will possibly brush up on terms like “thirst trap, the gram, fire, I’m bout it,” etc. I had to laugh at the line, “crank up the thirst meter”. I also laughed at an elderly character in a nursing home swearing at the visiting kids and giving double middle fingers. It’s just funny to see.
Speaking of the visuals, the color palette is a Peter Max, psychedelic 70s blend of vibrancy. There is usually a moment or two in each episode where the animation gets trippy for no reason other than it wants to.
The diverse cast includes black, white, Asian, non-gender defining and more. Well done on that score.
As satire, it evokes intermittent snickers. I wish there were more laughs, but I accept that Fairfax skews toward an audience of which I’d be a peripheral member, at best.
Fairfax streams on Amazon, 8 episodes, starts October 29th| 21/2 out of 4 stars | Reviewed by Kyle Osborne
