Where I Watched it: Netflix

English Audio Description Provided By: Descriptive Video Works

Written By Sara Meadow

Narrated By: Arran Henn

For Bill Burr to finally be getting his time in the sun at Netflix, it feels overdue. Burr has been around as a comic forever, and Netflix has this deal with Adam Sandler which has been cranking out some truly terrible content. burr, who could be offering a lot of comedic content on the cheap for the service, is trying to strike with old Dads. And, it kinda works.

Bill Burr, Bokeem Woodbine, and Bobby Cannavale play a trio of friends who are all above a certain age, and all have younger wives, and kids to boot. They remember simpler times, and this new world they have to exist in seems to baffle them. I’m sure those who are consistently trying to create safe spaces everywhere won’t get what Burr is doing here, and will be offended, but a lot of the jokes are just generational humor, and they work.

I really laughed through this, even if it does get a bit long in the tooth in the middle when it starts adding extra plot, but it did make for an interesting film with a specific perspective. A lot of the jokes resonate regardless of your generation. There’s a scene where burr has to apologize, but really he should be apologizing to one person, when suddenly there are all these other people who are there who are all offended by something they weren’t present for, and it is Burr making more of a joke about a situation than necessarily whether or not what he said to create this was appropriate.

The smartest thing Netflix could do would be to give Burr a deal akin to Sandler’s that lets him have more autonomy over future projects. his voice is unique, and works well for the streaming format Netflix is famous for creating. The audio description didn’t do anything wrong, and seemed to compliment the film. It’s not a film with a lot of gross out humor and visual references, as burr relies mostly on his own ability to find the funny in any given situation. So, it’s a film that is more dialogue heavy to begin with, though it is nice to hear the audio description describe some of the hilarious facial reactions people have in this film.

Old Dads is a win for Netflix, and one of the better films I’ve seen them churn out this year. It does have a runtime/pacing issue, where we could have lost easily 5-10 minutes and just kept the flow moving better, but overall when Burr is on point, he is making a very strong case that he’s been considered second-tier for way too long. It’s time he had the Sandler deal.

Final Grade: B+