Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Chicago Party Aunt’ On Netflix, About A Middle-Aged Party Animal From Chi-Town Who Takes In Her Bookish Nephew

For a big city, sometimes Chicago feels very small, especially when it comes to having a good time. Everyone’s drinking Old Styles, lining up for Italian Beef and deep-dish pizza, and pretty much everyone is watching the Cubs (except the “oddballs” rooting for the White Sox) and “Daaaaa Bears.” At least that’s the mythology folks that are Chicago natives want you to think. The reality is different than that, but the “City of Broad Shoulders” cliches are still pretty funny. Chicago Party Aunt is an animated series that leans heavily on those cliches, but it’s also got a heart and a pretty good cast. Read on for more.

CHICAGO PARTY AUNT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “There is no city on God’s green earth that rocks harder than Chicago, Illinois,” says the heavily-accented voice of Diane Dunbrowski (Lauren Ash) as we speed along Lake Michigan towards the Chicago skyline.

The Gist: Chicago is a party town and Diane is the biggest party animal there. Even though she’s well beyond peak partying years, she and her harsh ’90s haircut still like to drink and have a good time wherever she can. She lives in Wrigleyville, where “you can let your hair down, and when ya gotta yak, there’s always someone there to hold your hair back. Me! And I’m gonna party my tits off!”

But in rapid succession, the usually positive Diane has one very bad day. First, her husband Kurt (Chris Witaske) leaves her after one too many benders almost spelled the end for his iguana Butkus; then her favorite coffee shop closed, bought out by a “wellness” concern next door; the salon where she works has gotten a new manager, Gideon (RuPaul Charles), who doesn’t want Cubs games on and is going to convert it to a branch of a New York hipster salon.

There is a saving grace, though; it’s the 18th birthday of her nephew Daniel (Rory O’Malley); she wants him to experience life before he goes off to Stanford for college. One hitch: In order to help pay for it, her sister Bonnie (Jill Talley) and her husband Mark (Ike Barinholtz) are going to have to sell the condo she’s living in. Diane thinks it’s easy to get a new place, but with a -70 credit score, the best she can do is an apartment in Hammond. Yes, that’s in Indiana.

She’s not fitting in with Gideon, and it seems that Bonnie won’t budge on selling the condo, despite Bonnie’s offer of a “Platinum Pizzeria Uno Gold Card”. In the middle of all this, Daniel doesn’t even know if he wants to go to Stanford; it’s been preordained that he goes since he was young. So there’s only one solution, as far as Diane is concerned: Throw a rager!

After Daniel shoots out an invite on social media, all of Chicago seems to show up, including Styx and Scottie Pippen. And it looks like Daniel is having the time of this life. But when Bonnie busts in and her Chicago accent starts coming out, Diane knows her sis means business. But the next day, Bonnie has a proposal for her: She gets to stay in the condo for now if Daniel can move in.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The vibe of Chicago Party Aunt is more or less the gag-heavy pacing of Family Guy with the heart of Bob’s Burgers.

Our Take: The reason why Chicago Party Aunt doesn’t make us cringe like other gag-heavy, allowed-to-curse-on-streaming cartoons we’ve encountered lately (remember Hoops?) is that there’s a beating heart at its center. Creators Jon Barinholtz, Katie Rich and Chris Witaske have made Diane into an irresponsible middle-aged drunk whose ability to still party hearty is looked at with equal parts envy and sadness, sure. But Diane also has a soft spot for Daniel, and in their adventures together, she’s always going to have his back.

The second episode illustrates this well, as she tries to get him a job while he’s fending off overprotective texts from his mother. Both Diane and Bonnie want what’s best for Daniel; they just go about it in different ways. Of course, Diane’s way is much funnier, but both have good intentions.

So, despite the fact that the show leans so heavily on Chicago cliches — including Diane’s accent, which Ash leans on so heavily that it makes the ones used by Bill Swerski’s Super Fans seem subtle — the series has a chance to be a success because it has immediately set Diane up as a party animal who cares.

The world around Diane is pretty well established, from RuPaul’s funny Gideon, who will likely slowly come around to figuring out why people are so loyal to Diane, to Feather (Bob Odenkirk), the main “Wellness Collaborator” at the new “coffee shop”. Zuzana (Katie Rich) and Tina (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) are her Greek chorus at work, and her son Mikey (Jon Barinholtz) has a head so hard that he can be hit by a flying 45-pound suitcase and barely feel it.

As the show goes on, there will likely be stories, or at least pieces of stories, for all of them. And that’s the sign of a good sitcom in general, and definitely the sign of an animated series that has a chance to go beyond its high-concept premise.

Sex and Skin: Like Diane’s talk of 69ing Kurt when they fight, or her thong hanging out of her 1999-era low-rise jeans, most of the references are pretty direct, but nothing filthy.

Parting Shot: Daniel and Diane bring a line of customers to Borough, the re-done salon, including Scottie Pippen.

Sleeper Star: When you see Odenkirk’s name in the voice cast, you’re definitely thinking, “Where did I hear him?” But if you go back and listen to Feather’s voice, it’s pretty unmistakable. But it’s great that he’s playing a role, even a small one, that’s way different than what we’ve seen him do.

Most Pilot-y Line: When a customer wants to use Apple Pay to pay for a haircut, the flip-phone-toting Diane says, “Yeah, sure, one bushel of apples oughta do it.” Come on, she doesn’t know what Apple is?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Instead of making Diane Dunbrowski a walking Chicago joke machine, the creators of Chicago Party Aunt have actually given her a heart and a rudimentary moral code. And that will be how the show will be able to sustain itself for multiple seasons.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Chicago Party Aunt On Netflix