Parents' Guide to Ten Year Old Tom

With appealingly quirky characters and a bone-dry cringe-humor orientation, this animated sitcom calls to mind ironic 1990s stalwarts like King of the Hill and Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. Tom is a well-meaning kid surrounded by absolute absurdity, always falling into terrible situations through no fault of his own (though it should be said he protests weakly at best). A typical scenario is the one found in the first episode, when Tom opens up to Nelson about his fears that he's not a good enough baseball player to join the school team. His school bus driver, who believes that Tom is going to miss out on all the "tail" baseball players get, convinces the boys to visit the local mall with him to buy some "juice." It would seem at first that said bus driver is pushing steroids on Tom and Nelson, but since the segment ends with the driver making a speech at a baseball game with emotional music in the background, you can guess things don't work out exactly that way.

Even when the "A" story isn't that grabby, viewers will be carried along happily on a tide of odd side characters, like the dark-night-of-the-soul ice cream truck driver (David Duchovny), who reflects aloud that the happiness and energy of his young customers really makes him want to blow his brains out. Or the cashier who responds with bewilderment when Tom and Nelson demand to buy $6,000 worth of Klondike bars at his convenience store: "This is such a weird challenge from two children." Tom's ill-fated misadventures are ones you'll want to go on.