Review: 'Unsupervised' is mostly unfunny

ANIMATED PREMIERE "Unsupervised"

WHEN | WHERE Thursday at 10:30 p.m. on FX

REASON TO WATCH Animated series that's voiced by Justin Long, among others

WHAT IT'S ABOUT A couple of teen dudes, utterly unsupervised at home (parents or guardians or adults are MIA), just want to hook up with girls. Gary (Long) is a good-natured kid unfazed by the lousy parenting he sort of gets, and best friend Joel (David Hornsby) gets zero attention at home, too, given that his parents are very old and couldn't be bothered. They've got a stoner pal named Russ (Rob Rosell, the show's creator and exec producer); another friend at school, Darius (Romany Malco), who's their streetwise guide to the birds and bees; a neighbor, Martin (Fred Armisen), is a Panamanian immigrant who has a daughter, Christina (Alexa Vega), whom the lads hit on. Also within their small circle is normal, mild-mannered Megan (Kristen Bell).

MY SAY Can there be too much "talent" attached to a prime-time animated series? Sure, that's called the too-many-cooks-in-the-cartoon-kitchen syndrome -- a not entirely rare affliction that turns promising ideas into plodding clunkers, like this one. Among the cooks here are Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton and Rob McElhenney of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." So a reasonable question is: What the heck happened? Who knows?

BOTTOM LINE "Unsupervised" is a cheerier, less nihilistic "Beavis and Butt-head Lite," and not remotely as funny or trenchant.

GRADE C-