March 23, 2018 - News Post

Several months ago, I filled this news section with something near and dear to my heart:

The Tick.

If you're unfamiliar, the Tick is a satirical superhero created by Ben Edlund in the 1980s (while he was still in high school). It went on to become a cartoon show in 1994, then a live-action show starring Patrick Warburton in 2001.

Recently, Amazon has begun its own modern live action take on the character.

From what I understand, the new Tick reboot is supposed to poke fun of the Christopher Nolan Batman films, and other dark and gritty superhero tales.

The first season was broken up into chunks. The Pilot came in August 2016, the first few episodes in August 2017, and in February 2018, they finally released the rest of Season 1. That left a lot of time to brood over an incomplete story.

Last year, I told you how disappointed I was in Part I of Season 1.

The problem I had was with the tone. One scene would be dark, depressing, and gory... the next felt like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. I was six episodes in, and the overall story arc had not yet progressed very far. With nothing further to go on at the time, I stand by my assessment.

A few weeks back, Amazon FINALLY released the rest of Season 1. And holy crap, I loved it.

CRYPTIC, INCREDIBLY MILD SPOILERS AHEAD:

The first half felt like the writers were mocking how pointless and stupid Superheroes look in a dark and gritty world. The second half took place entirely in the fantastic world of superheroes. I have to say, it's so much more fun to follow the characters running, flying, and fighting in that world than having them appear in the "real world" for us to mock.

After getting the remaining episodes, I could not have been more pleasantly surprised. The overall arc was brilliant, emotional, funny, and enjoyable.

To make sure my earlier assessment wasn’t too harsh, I went back and rewached the earlier episodes. I wasn’t wrong. The first several episodes were a bit... off. They were dull, flat, and sad. Arthur, the character voted “most likely to survive until the next episode” was constantly thrown into harm’s way, and I didn’t feel much tension. Part II changed all that.

It’s as if they were trying to go in a dark direction, then gave up and decided to embrace the absurdity instead. Whether this was a studio decision, a planned transition, or a happy accident doesn't matter-- It was such a welcome change. This show needed to grow its Riker’s beard, and I’m thrilled to see that it did.

The acting was superb. Side characters went from being one dimensional jokes to fully fleshed out beings with backstories and motivations. Seemingly pointless, unfunny scenes from the first half of the season actually set up jokes that paid off later on. As of the end of the season, I care about the heroes, love their world, and I desperately want to see more.

I cannot recommend it enough.

-Jeff