Review: Housebroken “Who’s A Scaredy Cat?”

Overview

When Honey attempts to cure Diablo’s irrational fear of basement monsters, she puts the whole group in jeopardy; Chico and the Gray One follow Kevin onto a plane to get to the bottom of why Kevin always abandons Chico.

Our Take

I could be mistaken, but this week’s episode of Housebroken feels like it was made to be a Halloween special to go along with an evening of other Halloween specials. Everything from the cobwebs and creepy basements to the constant thunderstorms and whatnot gives me the impression that this one was supposed premiere when the evenings were colder and darker and scarier. That said, I think Housebroken would do better with premises featuring smaller casts of characters. I get that this is a rather large ensemble, but I think that can be an issue as well because writers I’m sure have to account for everyone. Not that I think writers Dave Jeser & Matt Silverstein couldn’t rise to that occasion because those guys are some of the best of all-time, but when there are SO many plots to get to in just 22 minutes, it can get a bit messy.

In any case, this appears to be the last new episode of Housebroken for a while as NASCAR takes hold of the schedule next week followed by the beginning of the season finales for FOX’s principle AniDom players. My problem is, if FOX expects to make more animation winners in the future, they need to be more consistent with their scheduling and announcements of new lineups that don’t even happen (like the AniDom Mondays). We already have seen Duncanville die as a result of the network’s mishandling of franchises, and it looks as though Housebroken is the next victim.

For my money, I think Housebroken is a cute show. It’s quite the departure featuring a premise that revolves around a constant family moniker, the home pet, that people can get behind. My problem is FOX treats this show like Judge Judy treats pitbull owners, when really the network should do a better job of surrounding the series with other premiere episodes on a schedule that will last for more than two weeks.