Into the Giant Blue Yonder.
This is a non-spoilery review for all 6 new episodes of The Tick (more episodes will come early 2018), released on Friday, August 25th on Amazon.
You can also read our review of the pilot episode, which Amazon released last summer, and the review of Episode 2, "Where's My Mind?," which screened at San Diego Comic-Con this past July.
SPOOOOOOOOOON!
Okay, so - *slight spoiler* - no one actually triumphantly bellows "SPOOOOOON!" on Amazon's new live-action Tick series -- from Tick creator Ben Edlund (Angel, Supernatural, Gotham) -- but Peter Serafinowicz's terrific take on everyone's favorite blue justice-obsessed golden retriever-of-a-superhero is a delight, with plenty of corny bombast and mixed metaphors to spread around in the name of destiny.
This new Tick series (following the famous '90s animated series and the ill-fated first go at live-action on FOX back in 2001) takes a bit of a subtle left turn into soft Rated-R territory, allowing things to feel a little more grounded and grittier while also permitting the occasional F-bomb to fly free. Yes, it's weird to think that the mostly-jovial world of The Tick could exist alongside actual carnage and bloodshed, plus profanity, but it works really well. As does the show's parody of a Punisher-style murder hero named Overkill (Scott Speiser).
See, for example, Overkill can still stab henchmen through the heart and leave a pile of bodies in his wake but when he returns back to his base...it's "Danger Boat," a bickering A.I. vessel voiced by David Hyde Pierce. The brooding and darkness combines with a bit of irreverence and "heroes, they're just like us" nonsense and it works. Almost in the same way The LEGO Batman Movie does.
After striking oil with the perfect tone for a Tick live-action series, this show also cunningly crafted its sweet and salty spine by casting Peter Serafinowicz as The Tick and Griffin Newman as Arthur - and then allowing the two of them to explore the actual mental maladies involved with this particular hero dynamic.
The first episode introduces us to a very different take on Arthur. A traumatized Arthur who's almost incapable of functioning as an adult without medication and the supervision of his sister Dot (Valorie Curry). Arthur is on a hero's journey, obsessed with revealing the truth about a thought-to-be-dead supervillain named The Terror (Jackie Earle Haley), but he lacks the muscle and confidence to follow through. He's all conspiracy theories and crime boards (and Reddit threads), but no real desire to bring about justice himself.
Enter The Tick.
From...wherever The Tick comes from. The second episode deftly toys with the idea of Tick possibly being some sort of mental manifestation of Arthur, like a Tyler Durden. Or even The Maxx, if you'd like to stick to comics and possible avatars of past trauma. Arthur has the intel and the personal vendetta while bullet-proof Tick has the ability to waltz in and lay waste to a villainous lair. Meanwhile, Tick isn't quite sure of his own origins and keeps speechifying about doing good and answering the call of one's true fate. It's a pairing too serendipitous to ignore as both, right when they find each other, need the other.
Serafinowicz's Tick is pitch-perfect. Hallmarks, and expectations, set up by the animated series dictates that Tick be large, barrel chested, baritone, and brave. But important to the story too is the friendship that he and Arthur eventually cultivate. Arthur needs to be annoyed with everything at first, but you need Tick to be soft and supportive enough so that Arthur will eventually see him as a light in all the darkness. Tick, in his own right, needs to be rather unflappable in his pursuit of evil-doers, but he also can't want to go after the villains without his trusted chum because Tick, aside from being his own particular style of doofy do-gooder, is meant to be therapeutic for poor Arthur.
Despite taking place in the ream of super-powered heroes and villains, The Tick is a small series. The meager budget shows at times, but when VFX are used, they're well-placed and important. The fact that the tone of the show is meant to ground everything and make the heightened feel a bit more real means that things tend to operate like they would in every day life. If you're, say, a crime lord like Yara Martinez's Ms. Lint or Michael Cerveris' Ramses and you only have, maybe, a dozen paid thugs in your employ, you'd basically be without goon support if someone came and thrashed all of them. You don't have an endless supply.
This is a show where, as part of the world's backstory, the aforementioned Terror actually succeeded in killing off America's top hero team, the Flag Five. There are realistic consequences mixed in with the superhero silliness and that helps create a foundation with stakes. You understand why Dot is so afraid for Arthur when he embarks on his misadventures with Tick (complete with a impenetrable flying battle suit that imprints itself on Arthur - and yes, resembles a moth for reasons unknown). Their entire family had been ripped apart due to collateral damage from super-powered beings warring up above so you're fully immersed the life or death aspects of the story. Nothing ever goes so dark that it all becomes Watchmen, but it does start to hit home like a more jagged version of The Incredibles.
The Verdict
The Tick is a quick, delightful binge that perfectly captures the spirit of the 90s animated series while shading things a bit darker in order to present a more grounded world for a live-action setting. There are a few slumps of chattiness that, at times, feel like unnecessary pauses in the story, but the series still nurtures a wonderful sweet spot between goofy and grim. Peter Serafinowicz's Tick is also awesome as daft mysterious hero who appears to help a troubled man cross the finish line on a life's journey to find justice.
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