Channel Surfing: Axe Cop - "An American Story"

Welcome to a new column called Channel Surfing, in which I sporadically look at current TV shows and talk about them. These are not ones that I care to write weekly recaps for and are instead reflections either on the episode, the series, or particular moments. This will hopefully help to share personal opinions as well as discover entertainment on the outer pantheon that I feel is well worth checking out, or in some cases, shows that are weird enough to talk about, but should never be seen.

One of the more bizarre techniques that has happened on basic cable this year is the launch of Fox's Animation Domination High Def programming, or ADHD for short. While the abbreviation does seem crass and is equal parts gimmick and commenting on the show's brevity, it does seem like an interesting thing to do. While I have not always been a fan of Fox's decisions, they are the shameless network who gave us a million reality shows in the 00's and if you go further back, helped introduce us to the Simpsons, King of the Hill, the X-Files, 24, and House to name a few. For all of their dumb decisions, they did make a few worthwhile investments which, let's face it, made little sense in the short term investment sense.

That is why I am not totally offended by the decision to try and make competitive late night cartoons. After the end of their Saturday Night Live competitor Mad TV, it seemed impossible to recapture the muster. Somehow, through the process of thinking, ADHD was born, almost like a spin-off of their Sunday Night programming, which has owned the title Animation Domination for over a decade now. But is there really an audience for brief cartoons that play on Saturday nights and appeal to a very lowbrow sensibility?
The answer is technically yes. For starters, Fox hasn't really broken any barriers besides making something to "compete" with Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, which is essentially the same thing, but instead of two shows, they have a daily line-up that goes well into the late hours of the night. It has given us such shows as Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job and Venture Brothers. Their shows may not always click, but there is a certain admiration one must have if you choose to compare ADHD's recent debut to Adult Swim. They may have some very foul, dumb programming, but through the process of no competition besides Jay Leno or David Letterman, they found a market. Adult Swim is essentially a cult programming network at this point. You either get it or you don't.
True, it is near impossible to make the leap in competition so quickly, but there is a certain admiration you should have for Adult Swim if you choose to invest in ADHD in the long run. As of right now, they don't have much going for them besides their two shows: the dreadful Archie knockoff High School USA and the more amusing and promising Axe Cop.

The appeal of ADHD is probably that the comedy is very lowbrow and doesn't rely a lot of thinking. Where High School USA does it in a more blatant and crass way with weak (even for 10 minutes) story telling, Axe Cop is something of inspiration. While the novelty will eventually have to wear off, it will probably be the only thing keeping ADHD from being totally wiped clean. Even though both shows have been recently announced as having extended runs, there is only hope that whatever they produce is better than what is currently on their website.It is absurdist humor to the most forced degree down to a video of a ghost Steve Jobs shaking his butt. If it doesn't depress you, then maybe you'll be able to tolerate ADHD's long term goals.

But enough about ADHD, let's focus on Axe Cop. For starters, it has one of the greatest novelty premises ever. The show is based on a Dark Horse comic that is created by blending the ideas of a child named Malachai Nicolle with the drawings done by Ethan Nicolle. The TV adaptation starts Nick Offerman as the lead, whose only consistency episode-to-episode is that he indeed carried around an ax. His partner is Flute Cop (Ken Marino) and their exploits are basically illogical moments slapped together in a fashion that does feel like it was written by a child.

In their third episode "An American Story," there's even a delightful origin story of how Axe Cop's many greats grandfather was born as Book Cop (Jonathan Banks) and had to face the British during the Revolutionary War. The episode builds and builds that in the span of 10 minutes includes probably the most inspired use of books seen on TV since the Bourne Ultimatum. Book Cop sails across the Atlantic Ocean on a book, then fights the King of England (Jared Harris) with levitating books. It goes on and on until it is discovered that the barbecue that Axe Cop was throwing in the first place was a method to poison all of the bad guys. It is only probably coincidental that the first three episodes did feature Breaking Bad actors Jonathan Banks and Giancarlo Esposito, who do similar things on that show.

But what probably works is that the show understands that it is only supposed to be 10 minutes long. It needs to get to the punchline fast and overlook inaccuracies. This may unfortunately be taken away if the show gets picked up and is transformed into a reported half hour show (though that defeats the ADHD concept entirely). For now, the perfect way to describe the appeal is that if you liked Offerman as Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation, imagine him playing a cop who isn't at all self aware and spent part of an episode imagining himself with new haircuts. It only works because Offerman is capable of playing deadpan like a master and delivering the dumbest lines with confidence. Even in the second episode "Zombie Island... in Space!" when the enemy was a diabolic piece of fecal matter, he was able to make it work because he just has that much charisma.

Will the show lose it's muster? I am sure that it will. However, for those that wonder what Offerman can do in a 10 minute time frame, Axe Cop is a solid use of your time. At very least, it is nice to see that ADHD didn't begin on totally wasted grounds. I feel like based on their website that they will only continue to forcefully become more and more lowbrow until Axe Cop appears to be Downton Abbey in comparison. In that sense, cherish what you have now and enjoy it while it lasts. Maybe it is just my affliction for everything Offerman, but he makes the cartoon one of the most bizarrely enjoyable short shows since Eagleheart. 

I don't see ADHD surviving with its current method. As it stands, the ratings have dropped significantly week to week. I do believe that they will need more shows, and as it stands, it may end up just being Steve Jobs shaking his butt for 10 minutes. I have no idea how Fox wanted to sell the idea of crass animation that feels all the same, but it doesn't work. The reason that Adult Swim has had some success is because the network has variety and most shows are able to distinguish themselves enough to draw a specific audience. While High School USA and Axe Cop are different enough, that website is hauntingly annoying and pandering. Either way, I am glad that Axe Cop the show exists and even if it never become one of the greats, it will always manage to bring a chuckle week-to-week.