Look, The Upshaws isn't offensively bad, but it's aggressively mediocre. It's the TV equivalent of eating plain crackers when you're not even hungry—it'll fill time, but you won't remember it.

The premise of a 'charming mess' trying to hold his family together could work, but the execution is tired sitcom formula with a Metacritic 57 to prove it. The show wants credit for depicting working-class Black family life, which is valuable representation, but then squanders it with lazy writing and the same old tropes.

For families, this is a hard pass until kids are 14+, and even then, you're not missing much. There are dozens of better family comedies on Netflix that actually have heart, humor, AND don't rely on dad being a perpetual screw-up for laughs. If you want a show about Black families that's actually good, try Black-ish or The Wonder Years reboot instead.

The Upshaws exists. That's about the highest praise I can muster.