That’s a good way of putting it (though I wouldn’t call it incredibly unfunny, just mostly unfunny - there were some good zingers, but the number of zingers over 6 episodes should have been the number per episode.). I would have liked more farce and more satire and less Arthur introspection.
Voiced by Alan Fucking Tudyk, no less.
Haley is really, really good in this. His “YOU’VE GOT NOTHING!” scene in the pilot was terrifying, but overall his way of conveying lighthearted malevolence is brilliant - you can easily believe he’d pull off a “dick move” for jollies while simultaneously planning mass murder.
And that sort of encompassed the tone of the whole show - it is both whimsically goofy and seriously dark, a combination that is difficult to pull off but I think it’s managing. If you’re after the extreme goofiness of the previous series the undercurrent of black humor here will be offputting.
Speaking of zingers: my favorite lines thus far were in the Tick/Lint battle:
“WHY WON’T YOU DIE?!”
“I…DON’T…WANNA!”
“Look out, Arthur! She’s shooting glass eyes!”
I was wondering why I wasn’t totally thrilled with this incarnation. You just nailed it. We all need a character’s backstory but I think devoting most of the episodes to Arthur was a bit too much. It’s called The Tick, remember?
I also think this editing was a tad choppy and the pace jerkily uneven.
I thought it was David Hyde-fucking-Pierce?
Peter Serafinowicz and Jackie Earle Haley are a toss-up for my favorite casting on this show. They’re both just perfect.
It sounds like DHP but the credits say Tudyk.
Meh.
I enjoy goofy but enjoy goofy more and can binge on it more with some having reason to care about characters, some bigger arc that actually gets me involved, and a little darkness. Farce alone is enjoyable for me in smallish bits but does not sustain interest. Half an hour once a week to have a giggle but I it wouldn’t have had me looking forward to watching the next one.
This has the bits thrown in that may be red herrings but that get us wondering about. The Cliff/VLM bit with Superion is going to intersect … how? Superion with a headache and snippy? That seems not likely to be a throw-away. Onwards, the dog that wrote “Good Intentions”, Christian Soldier’s sidekick, now a hard atheist? He and his book have been set up too much to be a gag alone. He’s going to have a bigger plot point as the show goes on. But what? Or maybe not! Overkill and Ms Lint’s romantic backstory? Now that’s just a fun silly gag!
And yeah, I’m gong with Tick not having amnesia but actually not having existed before a few days previous, emergent of Arthur’s imagination somehow.
The dark and the arc are what holds the goofy/silly together for a bingeable show. IMHO.
Watched the first episode so far.
Superhero origin stories are usually bad, sidekick origin stories even worse.
Hoping the rest are better.
I think the Tick’s always been real, but he’s only been the Tick for a few days. The blue “suit” is the key. It’s not regular clothing - the Tick apparently hasn’t taken it off since he started remembering things, but he doesn’t stink so bad it’s impossible to share a room with him. And it’s definitely connected to his nervous system somehow - it hurts him when Overkill grabs him by the antennae. My WAG is that the suit is a symbiote that just bonded to the Tick shortly before he met Arthur, but the process of bonding has some mental side effects, such as amnesia and advanced Adam West Syndrome.
This also explains why the suit changes between the pilot and the series proper. The suit was still freshly bonded in the pilot, and hadn’t fully grown yet.
This show totally fucking rocks!
I just watched the 5 new episodes, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was very dark: ultra-violent and lots of cursing.
I know of The Tick but this is my first real experience with the character and so far I am LOVING it! Perfect blend of comedy/drama/dark comedy/social commentary and oh the performances! How in fuck did Jackie Earle Haley have 13 years in a row where he didn’t act???
I thought it was just a “hey, we’ve got a bigger costume budget now” change which they then duly lampshaded for the viewers, but I am hep to your theory too.
Have you seen the first series of “Preacher”? He’s so good in that too.
I also liked the last line of Episode 6:
[QUOTE=The Terror]
Cliffhanger!!!
[/QUOTE]
I hope so. I don’t want to wait a year for just six more episodes.
That totally fucking rocked! Made me Let’s go to the quarry and throw stuff down there it did!
The Terror is cool and all, but he’s no Chairface Chippendale.
Agreed, but he is MUCH easier on the budget.
Just noticed the original live-action Tick series is also on Amazon Prime. It’s certainly funnier, much lighter in tone, though it does lack in any type of true story arc.
I contest that “certainly” pretty strongly. The first live action Tick had its charms, and you could see that it was turning itself into something good right when it got axed, but the show never really got the comedy right, imo. The new show regularly got me to laugh out loud. The old show was sort of a cross between a third rate Seinfeld knock off and a cosplay convention.
Seems we like different types of funny. The new show rarely got me to laugh out loud, whereas the old show did so regularly. And Bat-Manuel regularly stole the show.
I kind of miss the original cartoon. Plus the theme tune was kickass: Dop dweeeee dop dop dop dweee dow…