The Tick (season 2)

After his televised heroics, Arthur found his old accounting job didn't want a superhero as an employee.  For the time being, he would need to rely on savings.  While depositing his severance check, bank robbers struck!  One of the bank robbers proved to be Lobstercules.  While Tick engaged the giant crustacean in battle, Arthur managed to pull a shoe from one of the goons.  Sadly, all of them escaped.  Could they locate Lobstercules lair in the sewers by a forensic examination of the shoe?  Thanks to the fall of the Terror and his gang, AEGIS, a SHIELD-like agency, has reopened its office in the city.  In fact, AEGIS has proposed establishing a new Flag Five.  Tick and Arthur eagerly apply.  However, Overkill is a fugitive from AEGIS.  He had been a former agent until a mission went badly and he received the blame.  Can he find the real party responsible for the catastrophe and clear his name?  Dot, Arthur's sister, has been having visions.  In fact, she has precognition!  She can predict the near-future, which allows her to dodge bullets!  The bizarre incident at the Terror's capture when Arthur's garrulous stepfather managed to defeat half a dozen goons while blindfolded is explained.  Not all of the Terror's organization has been defeated.  The lightning-tossing villain, Miss Lint, has decided to switch sides.  Now Joan of Arc, she has taken to blasting all the criminals who are moving in on her turf.

It is an entertaining show but lacks focus.  There are too many stories to tell and no binding villain like the Terror to hold it together.  There are big hints at what a third season would hold but the series was not renewed.

Good popcorn fun!

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.

Amazon Pilot Season

Amazon has a trio of 30 minute pilots that are up for viewer vote.  I watched all three in the following order:

Jean-Claude Van Johnson: Jean-Claude Van Damme is leading a humdrum life in retirement when he spots a former flame at a hipster restaurant.  She gives him the brush off.  In order to reignite the flames, he comes out of retirement.  It turns out that JCVD's career as an actor was only cover for his job as a secret agent, codename: Johnson.  Self-deprecating humor abounds in the pilot and there are lots of fun nods to prior films, the action genre, and martial arts movies.  IMDb viewers give it an 8.6, which sounds about right.  JCVD might experience a new career as the Belgian Jackie Chan.  Would definitely like to see more of this.

 

The Tick: As one who loved the comic back in the 80s, the cartoon in the 90s, and the live action sitcom in the 00s, this seemed to be a strange take on the material.  Firstly, the Tick is secondary through the pilot.  Arthur is the central character and he has a considerable backstory that is offered.  Rather than a quirky accountant in a moth suit, he is a psychologically damaged youth who - twenty years ago - saw his father and his childhood heroes killed by the supervillian, the Terror.  Like a scene out of A Beautiful Mind, Arthur has a wall covered in paper clippings that track the possible location of the reportedly dead Terror.  It is there that he meets the Tick.  Is the Tick real or merely a figment of his troubled mind?  With the exception of the Tick himself, this does not play like comedy.  As for Peter Serafinowicz as the Tick, he has a tough act to follow.  Patrick Warburton was awesome as the Tick in the short-lived sitcom, both in look and tone.  Serafinowicz does a great job with the voice but his look isn't right.  Overall, I liked it and would definitely have watched the next episode immediately had there been one to watch.  IMDb viewers gave this a 7.9.

 

I Love Dick: A New York couple is leaving NYC for an extended period.  Sylvere (Griffin Dunne) will be involved in a writing workshop in Marfa, TX while Chris (Kathryn Hahn) will go to the Venice Film Festival where her film was accepted.  No sooner have they arrived in Marfa than Chris discovers that her film has been eliminated because she used a song without the artist's permission.  And thus she is still in Marfa to meet Dick (Kevin Bacon).  She is immediately infatuated by Dick even though he shows no sympathy for her rejected film.  In fact, he posits the idea that female-directed movies are rare because women aren't very good at filmmaking.  She is even more infatuated!  Through the pilot, Chris narrates snippets of love letters she has written to Dick.  Interesting, but the characters are mostly unappealing.  I found Dick to be the most interesting and likeable of the bunch but this is Chris's story and she is a basket of anxiety.  I would probably have clicked on the next episode just to get a better idea where this was going.  Just based on what is here, this looks like it should be a Lifetime movie rather than a recurring series.  IMDb viewers gave this a 5.7.

Amazon has produced some great shows, notably one of my favorites, Bosch.  I would like to see JCVJ and The Tick turned into series but I'm indifferent to I Love Dick.