‘The Boss Baby: Back In The Crib’ Review: The Business Continues For The Templeton Family
2017 saw the birth of Tim Templeton into our screens. Now in 2022 the little film by DreamWorks has transformed itself into a franchise of two films and now two TV series. When the first film was released, it was received with lukewarm reviews and a medium success at the box office. But that has not stopped the Baby Boss from continuing delivering content to the many different platforms where it has appeared.
The Boss Baby: Back In The Crib is a continuation from The Boss Baby: Back In Business, the show that after four seasons saw its ending just a couple of years ago. The demand for more Baby content seemed to have been big enough as to demand another series now playing on Netflix.
The Boss Baby shows are very difficult to review, they are aimed to a very specific demographic, little kids, but it would be naive to say that certain groups of adults don’t enjoy this type of show. The Boss Baby: Back In The Crib delivers just more of the same, if you were able to enjoy the past seasons, well, this is just more of that. Nothing more, nothing less.
The Boss Baby: Back In The Crib is a 3D animated series produced by Netflix, and brings back most of the cast from the past TV series, with the exception of Alec Baldwin. Baldwin has since then as basically retired from the public and from acting after an incident where he shot and killed a member of the film crew where he has working. It is a truly lamentable situation, both for the show, the film that was being shot, the family of the victim and for Baldwin himself who will of course have to live with that forever.
Some things might have change behind the scenes, but they have also changed in the show itself, as The Boss Baby: Back In The Crib places the story after the second film. So that means the character of Carol has now become a main member of the cast. Tim, and Carol now as partners in crime, will keep getting into crazy and fantastic adventures together.
To review the humor of the show is a strange situation, as the TV series and the sequel moved more and more into the fantastic, the current state of the franchise is one that pulls humor from the absurd. I mean, having a baby fully clothed in a suit and speaking a voice belonging to someone from middle age is already absurd. But when you mix robots, mad scientists, and even magical powers into the mix, it all goes out of scale.
The show follows a simple structure where in each episode the characters need to solve a sort of issues that has fallen on them. At the same time, the series as this overarching plot in the background that comes together towards the end of the season, this show that the creators know that their audience includes more than just little kids. It is their attempt at making each episode worth for both kids and adults alike.
If something has to be said about the show is that The Boss Baby: Back In The Crib is not the best jumping point for the franchise. The first episodes don’t really waste time at setting up anything. The show already takes for granted that if you are watching this series it is because you are a fan, and so characters, and situations that had consequences in molding the current setting are not really explained at all.
It is our recommendation to jump into the franchise by watching the first film and then continuing from there. By the time you see all the movies and previous series, then The Boss Baby: Back In The Crib will make a lot more sense. It needs to be taken into consideration that this is a TV show, so the writing and the quality of the storytelling might not be up to part with what was made in the films. So have your expectations in check.
What really doesn’t the standard placed by the films is the animation. The Boss Baby: Back In The Crib’s animation looks cheap and flat. It isn’t that much of an improvement from the previous TV series, which a shame. It is understandable that this series doesn’t really have the resources to make a truly magnificent animated show. But sometimes the quality feels so low, that it doesn’t seem like it was worthy producing something that looks this bad.
The Boss Baby: Back In The Crib might not bring new fans to the franchise. At this point the continuity, lore and characters are just to complex for outsiders to just go and become fans. However, if you are already into the franchise, then this new season cannot really hurt your enjoyment. Sometimes more of a good thing is not good, but this new season works just fine to appease the fans of the franchise, both children and grown-ups.
