 |
| Scene from The Tick |
Forget Deadpool. If there is one superhero who has made an indelible mark on satirizing caped crusaders, it's The Tick. Over the course of his existence, he has embodied the absurd masculinity for 30 years in comics as well as TV both animated in live action. He has become his own commodity as he winks at the camera and says the silliest things in a machismo voice. So, what does yet another reboot have to say about superhero culture? Amazon's version of The Tick only runs six episodes long, but it manages to convey something endearing about The Tick's (Peter Serafinowicz) relationship to sidekick Arthur (Griffin Newman), who will become his partner in crime. The show is just madcap as it needs to be, but it's also full of heart that exemplifies what the show could be, provided that it had more episodes to work with. For what it is, it's a nice start to the return of a hero who has yet to lose his cool, even if he never seemed to be.
While the show is named after the hero who wears blue and jumps tall buildings in a single bound, the show is more interested in the ideas of a regular person being a superhero. Well, regular is a strong word when discussing Arthur. He is reluctant and spends the first half of the season stuck in a running gag where The Tick disappears at convenient enough times to make Arthur seem crazy. It's a Batman joke for sure, but one that also shows how distant Arthur is from his community. Nobody believes most of what he says, even down to his medicated lifestyle that is done to keep him from looking crazy. He is a contemporary man who is insecure to the point that you couldn't believe him to save the day.
While the show is named after the hero who wears blue and jumps tall buildings in a single bound, the show is more interested in the ideas of a regular person being a superhero. Well, regular is a strong word when discussing Arthur. He is reluctant and spends the first half of the season stuck in a running gag where The Tick disappears at convenient enough times to make Arthur seem crazy. It's a Batman joke for sure, but one that also shows how distant Arthur is from his community. Nobody believes most of what he says, even down to his medicated lifestyle that is done to keep him from looking crazy. He is a contemporary man who is insecure to the point that you couldn't believe him to save the day.
It's part of the fun in the dynamic with The Tick, whose identity beyond the exterior appearance is ambiguous at best. He loves to talk in mislabeled euphemisms that sound trite if looked at too closely. Ideally, he is the man Arthur dreamed about as a child as he worried that villains were out there destroying the world. Much like everyone else, the belief that there's actually superheroes is conveniently denied. Arthur must overcome his struggles and, by the end of the season, accepts his position as a man who must use his power for good, even if that includes flying around in a suit that he barely knows how to use.
The show largely works because of Arthur's sympathetic angle. He is a man who wants to be taken seriously as he enters a world where that's impossible. He meets strange people and is forced to process it as normal. While the series is too brief to have time for fleshing out characters, he still manages to come across as likable and almost familiar. Arthur is the obsessed fan of superheroes who gets to become one. He doesn't know a thing about this world, yet he must adjust to using his powers for good. There's not enough there to make his journey totally satisfying, but there's enough for the dynamic to work.
The Tick as a character exists more in a satirized landscape that happens to play up the camp. It balances out the emotional core brought by Arthur, who watches the bulletproof man interact with local citizens. He is a hero of inexplicable talent (literally), but he's also the man who makes this show what it is. He is the satire that tears apart superhero tropes and finds the fun that these characters are supposed to have. Given that Batman v. Superman and Wonder Woman have recently shown how dark these characters can get, it's nice to see The Tick out there being an unapologetic blast of fresh air down to his Archer-esque opening credits sequence. The journey may be a bit predictable and lacks villains on par with any aforementioned hero, but they're still fun and exist in a 90's sitcom sort of mentality where there's as much subversion as there is heart.
The one downside to the series is that it is short. However, it perfectly subverts the hero origin story by giving the story of Arthur's origin as The Tick's sidekick. It may be better as slapstick, but it still manages to convey an innovative approach to material that has been explored in many different formats for decades. It's a fun and brief series that will hopefully lead to more crazy hi-jinks that are split up with catchy cliffhangers and witty banter. This may be a bit too familiar as a superhero satire type of show, but it's still very good at what it wants to achieve. The Tick is far from the greatest thing that Amazon has made, but it's one of the better superhero satires to come out this year so far.
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5
The Tick as a character exists more in a satirized landscape that happens to play up the camp. It balances out the emotional core brought by Arthur, who watches the bulletproof man interact with local citizens. He is a hero of inexplicable talent (literally), but he's also the man who makes this show what it is. He is the satire that tears apart superhero tropes and finds the fun that these characters are supposed to have. Given that Batman v. Superman and Wonder Woman have recently shown how dark these characters can get, it's nice to see The Tick out there being an unapologetic blast of fresh air down to his Archer-esque opening credits sequence. The journey may be a bit predictable and lacks villains on par with any aforementioned hero, but they're still fun and exist in a 90's sitcom sort of mentality where there's as much subversion as there is heart.
The one downside to the series is that it is short. However, it perfectly subverts the hero origin story by giving the story of Arthur's origin as The Tick's sidekick. It may be better as slapstick, but it still manages to convey an innovative approach to material that has been explored in many different formats for decades. It's a fun and brief series that will hopefully lead to more crazy hi-jinks that are split up with catchy cliffhangers and witty banter. This may be a bit too familiar as a superhero satire type of show, but it's still very good at what it wants to achieve. The Tick is far from the greatest thing that Amazon has made, but it's one of the better superhero satires to come out this year so far.
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Comments
Post a Comment