While sci-fi stories are full of helpful trends and tropes to tell a compelling story, My Dad the Bounty Hunter flips one of them in the best way. From grizzled bounty hunters to complex intergalactic hierarchies and explorations of the unknown, sci-fi is ripe with potential for good stories, especially when creators are willing to play with established tropes. My Dad the Bounty Hunter both uses and adapts these tropes, especially one that’s risen to prominence recently and can be found in a variety of genres. As such, it’s interesting to be able to compare how this trope usually works versus how Netflix’s show uses it.
My Dad the Bounty Hunter tells the story of Terry (Laz Alonso) and his two kids, Sean (Jecobi Swain) and Lisa (Priah Ferguson), as their family is going through a separation between Terry and his wife. But the family is lost in space when the children stow away with their father as he goes to work during their weekend with him, and they discover he’s not a truck driver, but an intergalactic bounty hunter. Throughout the rest of the series, the family work to finish a bounty that’ll get Sean and Lisa home while also working through the recent changes in their lives and their family dynamic.
My Dad The Bounty Hunter Flips A Common Sci-Fi Bounty Hunter Story
The “space bounty hunter that has gone rogue/soft because of the people/person he loves” is a common sci-fi theme and is very versatile in terms of bringing characters together and developing them in new and exciting ways. This trope is particularly on display and was recently popularized in Disney’s series The Mandalorian. But My Dad the Bounty Hunter adds a fun spin to this trope by incorporating other characters in Terry, Sean, and Lisa’s journey.
Primarily, My Dad the Bounty Hunter flips the script on the bounty-hunter-among-the-stars-to-protective-family-figure when Terry (reluctantly) opts into having his kids come with him due to his mother's influence. While many bounty hunter characters might ‘adopt’ another person due to circumstance, the offer of payment, or morality, Terry’s arc of needing to spend time with his kids was set up via his mother in the first episode, making this twist all the more humorous with Terry’s need to hide what he’s doing from his earthly family as well as his intergalactic coworkers, such as when Glorlox (Rob Riggle) thinks Terry has picked new bounty hunter partners when he unknowingly meets Terry’s kids.
Why My Dad The Bounty Hunter's Sci-Fi Flip Works So Well
Terry’s double life makes this sci-fi flip a possible feature in future sci-fi movies in 2023. It works so well because it adds to the character development of not just him, but his children. Now, Terry needs to trust his children to help protect his secret from both halves of his double life, necessitating a greater connection with them that might not be found in the typical trope where it’s only the bounty hunter who needs to accept the responsibility of their new ward. This way, Lisa and Sean also have to grow and better understand their father as well in My Dad the Bounty Hunter.