The Tick (season 1)

When he was a boy, Arthur Everest (Griffin Newman) was out with his father when suddenly the Flag Five's ship plummeted from the sky.  His father was killed.  The blinded members of the Flag Five stumbled from the wreckage only to be killed by the goons of The Terror (Jackie Earle Haley).  In one fell swoop, Arthur had lost his father, the superhero team of his hometown, and stared into the face of the Terror.  Unsurprisingly, he is not a well-adjusted adult.  Though the Terror was reportedly killed by Superion (Brendan Hines) - a Superman-like hero, Arthur doesn't believe it.  He has spent the 10 years since the Terror's supposed death looking for signs that he is still alive.  One night, he sneaked onto the grounds of a warehouse and witnessed something going down.  Moreover, he met the Tick (Peter Serafinowicz).  Though the Tick has immense strength and is nigh invulnerable, he's not very bright.  The Tick eagerly attached himself to Arthur.  Together, they will ferret out the Terror and foil his dastardly plan, whatever that might be.

To complicate matters, Arthur has a well-meaning older sister, Dot (Valorie Curry), who urges him to both abandon his quest for the long-dead Terror and avoid the obviously disturbed Tick.  There is also Overkill (Scott Speiser), a Punisher-like vigilante who is out for revenge.  He does not reveal his reasons for wanting to kill the Terror.  Overkill has a self-aware boat, Dangerboat (Alan Tudyk) that serves as his lair and sidekick.  One of the Terror's former lieutenants, Ms. Lint (Yara Martinez), can fire bolts of lightning.  However, she is rather staticky as a result and attracts a lot of lint, thus her name.

The Tick has been different in each incarnation, from comicbook (1980s) to the cartoon (1994 to 1997) to first live-action series (2001-2002) to this.  Where the 2001-2002 series was a straight episodic sitcom, this one is a miniseries with an overarching story.  There is plenty of comedy, but far less silliness.  Also, Arthur is the main character and Tick is the sidekick.  Despite the change in tone and humor from each iteration, Ben Edlund - creator of the Tick - has been involved in all of them.

Lots of fun and highly recommended.

The Tick (2017)

The Tick has returned to the small screen and it is generally good.  It is different than the last effort but still has a skewed view from the standard super hero fare.  Arthur (Griffin Newman) is given a lot more backstory and comes to the super hero game reluctantly.  Rather than some mild mannered accountant who shows up in a moth suit one day, here we have a psychologically damaged accountant who became obsessed with The Terror in the wake of a childhood tragedy.  No sooner has he stumbled upon a big clue regarding the supposedly-dead villain's whereabouts than the Tick (Peter Serafinowicz) appears and attaches himself, almost tick-like, to the hapless Arthur.  Tick assured Arthur that destiny is calling and he needs to answer that phone call.  Classic Tick banter.

 

Where the Tick has usually been pure comedy, this mixes some drama with the pure goofiness.  Though I like Serafinowicz in general, I would currently say he isn't right for the role.  Patrick Warburton was so perfect with his glib deliveries of epic blather that it would be nigh-impossible to meet that bar.  This is going to be a different Tick.  This is quite interesting since Ben Edlund - the creator of Tick - has been behind every version of the character thus far.

 

Only half of the season has been released and it ended with Arthur being abducted.  Thus, the current storyline won't reach conclusion until sometime next year.  Dang!  I look forward to it.