Maxie Zeus
09-28-2001, 06:13 PM
So, as I noted the other day, I am finally re-cabled, got my first look at "Adult Swim" last night. By and large, I'm very pleased.
Home Movies seems to be unpopular around here, and squigglevision particularly execrated. I don't mind sq-vision particularly, so have an easier time appreciating the show's virtues. Shows like this and "Dr. Katz" aren't really animated programs anyway (they're radio pieces, basically, and the pictures just give the eye something to focus on), and it is the writing and performances that will make or break it. I have the impression that like "Dr. Katz" this show will be a series of personal encounters--revelations of characters--rather than stories, and that makes a nice break from the usual sitcom structures. But I must say I am not thrilled with the "precocious kid" angle of the show, which is at least as hackneyed as certain directors' taste for fish-eye lenses.
In fact (and this will be heresy to everyone else) I liked "Home Movies" better than The Brak Show, and mostly because "Brak" was far too story-oriented. SG:C2C and "Cartoon Planet" I loved because their characters are trapped in an absurd, story-less situation that cuts entirely against them: Zorak and Moltar and Brak and SG don't belong as regulars of a talk-variety show, and those series are about their frustration and rebellion; Zorak is pure evil, but evil thwarted in a way that it can't comprehend. But on "The Brak Show" he is called upon just to be an evil character, and his villainy is far less interesting as a result. Mostly, he came across as just a jerk and bully no different from a thousand other jerks and bullies on TV. George Lowe's father has potential, but the mother is entirely wasted. Brak himself continues to amuse, however.
Harvey Birdman was the real find; I don't know if every episode will be as brilliant and twisted and adult as last night's, but if they are then I have a new all-time fave. "Superfriends" always had to ignore the deep absurdity of its characters, their powers and their circumstances; this show stares long and hard at them and draws out, with murderous clarity, all the implications and possibilities we wondered about even as kids.
Sealab 2021 wasn't bad except in comparison to "Harvey Birdman"; it's characters either aren't well-known enough to me, or simply haven't got sufficient depth, to be satirized, so I just enjoyed it as a series of "L.A. Connection" riffs superimposed on old footage. As such, I suspect the show will be extremely hit-or-miss.
Space Ghost: Coast to Coast: What can I say, except that I love this show. Last night's eps were repeats, but were two of the best they've ever done. "Brilliant Curling Flowers" particularly rocks; it rocks the universe; there isn't a planet it can't rock; and I was rocking along right with it.
The appeal of anime, for whatever reason, continues to elude me, and despite a sensational title sequence that left me desperate and hungry for more, Cowboy Bepop is not going to solve the mystery. I watched only the first ep they ran last night ("Ballad of Fallen Angels") and while I appreciate the stylish designs and the creepy and evocative use of music (and was quite entranced by the fall-from-the-church-window sequence), the whole thing was far less than the sum of its parts; the dialogue in most anime shows has never impressed me, and there wasn't a character in CB that couldn't but open his or her mouth and subtract from the power of the images.
Home Movies seems to be unpopular around here, and squigglevision particularly execrated. I don't mind sq-vision particularly, so have an easier time appreciating the show's virtues. Shows like this and "Dr. Katz" aren't really animated programs anyway (they're radio pieces, basically, and the pictures just give the eye something to focus on), and it is the writing and performances that will make or break it. I have the impression that like "Dr. Katz" this show will be a series of personal encounters--revelations of characters--rather than stories, and that makes a nice break from the usual sitcom structures. But I must say I am not thrilled with the "precocious kid" angle of the show, which is at least as hackneyed as certain directors' taste for fish-eye lenses.
In fact (and this will be heresy to everyone else) I liked "Home Movies" better than The Brak Show, and mostly because "Brak" was far too story-oriented. SG:C2C and "Cartoon Planet" I loved because their characters are trapped in an absurd, story-less situation that cuts entirely against them: Zorak and Moltar and Brak and SG don't belong as regulars of a talk-variety show, and those series are about their frustration and rebellion; Zorak is pure evil, but evil thwarted in a way that it can't comprehend. But on "The Brak Show" he is called upon just to be an evil character, and his villainy is far less interesting as a result. Mostly, he came across as just a jerk and bully no different from a thousand other jerks and bullies on TV. George Lowe's father has potential, but the mother is entirely wasted. Brak himself continues to amuse, however.
Harvey Birdman was the real find; I don't know if every episode will be as brilliant and twisted and adult as last night's, but if they are then I have a new all-time fave. "Superfriends" always had to ignore the deep absurdity of its characters, their powers and their circumstances; this show stares long and hard at them and draws out, with murderous clarity, all the implications and possibilities we wondered about even as kids.
Sealab 2021 wasn't bad except in comparison to "Harvey Birdman"; it's characters either aren't well-known enough to me, or simply haven't got sufficient depth, to be satirized, so I just enjoyed it as a series of "L.A. Connection" riffs superimposed on old footage. As such, I suspect the show will be extremely hit-or-miss.
Space Ghost: Coast to Coast: What can I say, except that I love this show. Last night's eps were repeats, but were two of the best they've ever done. "Brilliant Curling Flowers" particularly rocks; it rocks the universe; there isn't a planet it can't rock; and I was rocking along right with it.
The appeal of anime, for whatever reason, continues to elude me, and despite a sensational title sequence that left me desperate and hungry for more, Cowboy Bepop is not going to solve the mystery. I watched only the first ep they ran last night ("Ballad of Fallen Angels") and while I appreciate the stylish designs and the creepy and evocative use of music (and was quite entranced by the fall-from-the-church-window sequence), the whole thing was far less than the sum of its parts; the dialogue in most anime shows has never impressed me, and there wasn't a character in CB that couldn't but open his or her mouth and subtract from the power of the images.