Stream It Or Skip It: ‘All About The Washingtons’ on Netflix Tries To Turn ‘Run’s House’ Into A Family Sitcom

All About The Washingtons on Netflix finds Rev Run attempting to translate his popular MTV reality series Run’s House into a sitcom. Because, hey, it worked as a reality show! And while Joey & Justine Simmons were about as watchable as it gets, can they recapture that magic as versions of themselves for a scripted family comedy? The show finds Joey’s MC Joe Speed retiring from his lucrative hip hop career to spend more time at home with his family, but is he ready to spend more time with the many classic silly sitcom moments ahead? 

All About The Washingtons: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: It’s a packed arena, everyone is super hyped, they’re cheering and dancing and loving MC Joe Speed on stage. He’s feeding off their energy as he tears through performances of his hit songs. By the end, he’s declaring to the crowd, “I can’t stop, I won’t stop, I’ll never stop!” Cut to Joe backstage, taking a seat and breathlessly admitting, “I gotta stop.”

The Gist: When MC Joe Speed decides to retire from his lucrative MC career, his wife Justine is eager to launch into her own entrepreneurial dreams — she’s designed a top for your cup so that your drink doesn’t spill out when you’re dancing. It’s not the worst idea! But having Dad at home just might be. As the family, including their four kids, adjusts to having Joey at home, there are plenty of comedic hoops to jump through.

Our Take: There’s something nostalgic to All About the Washingtons, in that it feels like a show I would’ve watched on Nickelodeon — not that it would’ve been my favorite show, but certainly one that wouldn’t make me change the channel. Perhaps it’s also because there are so few multi-cam family sitcoms these days aiming to be just that — there’s not a whole lot of edge, it’s expectedly cheesy, and yet, these aren’t terrible qualities to have. After all, we’ve loved plenty of shows just like this before.

And so that’s the thing: there’s nothing quite new or urgent or special about this show. Except for the fact that you will kind of wish it was Run’s House instead. Joey and Justine Simmons are great reality stars. Joey and Justine Washington aren’t…fantastic actors. And that’s on top of the fact that the show is filled with predictable setups, and punch lines, that won’t necessarily add up to many laughs, especially outside of the laugh track working overtime here.

There’s still a total vibe of positivity present, and it’s admirable that they wanted to take a formula that worked and make it into family programming. But ultimately with so much new TV to watch, and the pressure to do so, it’s unlikely you’d be satisfied with finding time in your schedule for this one.

Sex and Skin: Oh, no no. This one’s for the family!

Parting Shot: The family gathers together in the home studio to compare their rapping skills. While Joey isn’t so impressed by Wesley’s, he’s in the minority. And then the same thing happens when Justine gets up to spit her seemingly unintelligible bars, leaving Joey exasperated with his family. But before the pilot wraps up, it leaves you with one last callback in the form of a fart joke.

Sleeper Star: The young actors here are fantastic and will surely go on to have interesting careers, and so within the show, they’re the ones to watch. Nathan Anderson, yes, son of Anthony, is Wesley the aspiring musician whose talents (comedically) leave much to be desired by Joey. Kiana Lede is Veronica, the pretty older daughter, Leah Rose Randall is Skyler, the genius child too smart for public school, and Maceo Smedley is Deavon, the youngest child. They’re the ones carrying the show with their comedic timing, acting skills, and overall precociousness.

Most Pilot-y Line: “It’ll finally be my turn to be the billionaire entrepreneur I was destined to be. And if you’re retiring, you can hold down the fort while I grab capitalism by the balls.” Justine establishes her goals, and the sitcom as a whole, with this joke early in the pilot.

Our Call: Skip It. All About the Washingtons isn’t the peak of Peak TV, and to its credit, it’s not trying to be — though that still doesn’t quite work in its favor. If you’re simply looking for a sweet comfort watch to zone out to, there are certainly worse things to have on in the background than this sitcom.

Where to watch All About The Washingtons