Welcome to Flatch
By Joyce Slaton,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Strong writing, fresh jokes and characters in mockumentary.
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What's the Story?
Produced and mostly directed by Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks, Bridesmaids), WELCOME TO FLATCH focuses on life in postcard-tiny Flatch, Ohio, a small town filled with interesting people like Kelly Mallet (Chelsea Holmes) and her cousin Shrub (Sam Straley), two young adults in arrested development, Father Joe Binghoffer (Seann William Scott), Flatch Patriot editor Cheryl Peterson (Aya Cash), and local artist Big Mandy (Krystal Smith). The series is based on a British show called This Country.
Is It Any Good?
With sparkling writing and wry, knowing humor, this mockumentary freshens up a blah premise and makes this comedy a pleasure to watch. Americans, Welcome to Flatch tells us in the show's opening moments, are longing for a simpler small-town life, and so Fox sent a film crew to Flatch, Ohio, population 1,526, to find out exactly what life is like there. Naturally, it turns out that Flatch is teeming with eccentrics, like Big Mandy, who describes her town as "upstanding" with "two restaurants, one with menus" and also last year someone gave birth to twins.
But our main avatars for navigating Flatch are Kelly and Shrub, twentysomething cousins and best friends, who Big Mandy calls "walking disappointments," and even sympathetic Father Joe admits to being worried about. With few prospects and days that revolve around pursuits like making an impressive scarecrow to catch the eye of a crush, or launching Flatch's first ride-sharing service, Shrub and Kelly are aimless but lovable, and the humor is loving too: far from caricatures, our main characters soon emerge as fully fleshed out people with relatable dreams, in a town that's admirable and worthwhile even though it's tiny.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about friendship. How is friendship depicted in this show? How do friends help you cope with the ups and downs of life? Are there times when a friend's input is more important than family's? How does our need for friendship change as our life situations change?
How are viewers supposed to feel about Kelly and Shrub? Are we supposed to like them? Relate to them? Laugh at them? How can you tell? How do TV shows and movies communicate how to feel about characters? Do TV shows ever make you relate to more than one character at a time?
How do the characters in Welcome to Flatch demonstrate empathy and compassion? Why are these important character traits?
TV Details
- Premiere date: March 25, 2022
- Cast: Seann William Scott, Chelsea Holmes, Sam Straley, Aya Cash
- Network: Fox
- Genre: Comedy
- Character Strengths: Compassion, Empathy
- TV rating: TV-14
- Last updated: February 20, 2023
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