Villains with Foreign Accents in “The Boss Baby” TV Series
What to make of this trend in children’s programming
I love The Boss Baby TV series that’s showing on Netflix, not only because it keeps my two-year-old son occupied. It’s a smart show that takes a jab at the corporate world. Baby Corp — which employs Boss Baby, an undercover field team chief sent to live with the Templeton family — is parody par excellence of grown-up corporations replete with office politics and questionable upper-management decisions. Played against Baby Corp’s company culture is the family culture of the Templetons, but here, instead of the parents struggling to balance work and family, it’s the baby who’s trying to be both a “company man” and a “family man.”
Even as a fan, there’s something about The Boss Baby series that bothered me in a sustained way from Seasons 1 to 4. It’s not surprising that Boss Baby looks absolutely generic as an all-American blonde baby boy (though the Templetons are brunettes). Constantly being contrasted to Boss Baby are various racially coded rivals.
- In Season 1, the outlandish power-tripper Mega Fat CEO Baby is being referred to as the “German speaking guy.”
- In Season 2, two-faced Turtleneck Superstar CEO Baby is Baby Corp’s version of a business guru. She dispenses…
