Episode Guide
Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 Episode 8 Episode 9 Episode 10 Episode 11 Episode 12 Episode 13 Created by Loren Bouchard who is also responsible for the surprise success of Bob’s Burgers, Apple TV+’s latest comedy series is a charming, well written and surprisingly endearing show that settles into a consistent rhythm and only gets better the longer the series goes on. If you can get past the rough edges of the first episode, Central Park grows into a wonderful little musical comedy with a nice balance of character depth and humour. The story itself revolves around an offbeat family of caretakers, who live and work in Central Park, but soon branches out to follow each of the different family members as they progress through their individual character arcs while accompanied by edits to Birdie, a busker and general voyeur who spies on our family, giving advice to them at opportune times. After an opening episode that feels very one-note in its low brow humour, revolving almost exclusively around crude topics, Central Park opens up in the best possible way and allows each of the characters to shine. The musical elements start to settle nicely alongside the off-beat humour and work to understand the inner-thoughts of each character. These harmonize nicely with the central story that’s simplistic enough to keep things ticking along while setting a solid foundation for the humour to shine. The songs themselves are the real winner here though and between the visual design of each piece changing to fit a variety of different genres, Central Park manages to nail this balance beautifully. There’s elements of pop, jazz, musical ensembles and even hip hop that show up here and this only plays back into the idea of our narrator Birdie being a busker. There’s some good themes touched on here too, including environmental concerns and capitalistic greed, and these juxtapose nicely against the idea of Central Park and looking after the natural order of things; reveling in the beauty of this area. Overall though, Central Park is a surprising hit for Apple TV+ and easily one of the stronger offerings on the platform. The show manages to balance its humour and music nicely and the characters are given enough time to grow into their roles and become more than just one-note stereotypes. It’s not perfect, and this does pale in comparison to Bob’s Burgers, but there’s enough here to enjoy and settle into nonetheless. Published: 29 May 2020 at 6.15 pm on TheReviewGeek.com
