Plus this first episode is part of Amazon's Original TV Pilots program, where they slap out a few single episodes of a few contending series and let the fans choose. Whoo boy.
-
The Tick stars Peter Serafinowicz as Tick, Griffin Newman as Arthur Everest, Valorie Curry as Arthur's sister, Dot, Jackie Earle Haley as The Terror and Whoopi Goldberg as herself!
Produced by Amazon and Sony Pictures Television, and created by Ben Edlund, whose resume includes Supernatural, Gotham, Revolution, Angel, Firefly, and Titan AE. He has a pretty decent resume, as he seems to be the nexus between the world of Joss Whedon and Eric Kripke.
The story line of The Tick reads as such:
In a world where superheroes have been real for decades, an accountant with zero powers comes to realize his city is owned by a super villain. As he struggles to uncover this conspiracy, he falls in league with a strange blue superhero.
-
TO be honest, I was not sure what to expect. The Tick comic franchise was hilarious but we fill the void of sight and sound with the printed page and our imaginations. When a franchise comes to life on TV, it's a different realm altogether. And sometimes that realm does not always match up with what we fantasized about, and thus fails.
And the actor that plays the tick is a bit diminutive, compared to the comic character, but he's got the voice and vocal mannerisms down pat.
Arthur is a different kind of guy, compared to the comic, but I love how they built him up in this first episode, since it was a bit more about Arthur than Tick himself.
And of course we had to see some background about the evil villains and their evil ways.
They elegantly packed a lot of story into a 30-minute premiere!
-
Overall, I had been wondering what they would do with this title, and to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised had how they filled out the story. But I am a Tick fan.
Now for the tricky part.
The Tick is part of a program by Amazon that puts out single pilot episodes and tests them with the audience. There are three shows in contention right now but I only watched The Tick.
The tough part is that the Amazon survey felt like it was taking for f*ing ever and almost got annoying. I would think they would keep the surveys short to help people want to vote for a show. Then again, streaming numbers will probably say more than anything I would say.
At one point, they asked me what my three favorite TV shows are. Off the top of my head, I named Sons of Anarchy, Animal Kingdom and Thunderbirds. Then they asked me if The Tick compared to these shows in several aspects. And of course Tick failed in comparison to SoA or Animal Kingdom.
So I'm not sure what, exactly the survey was getting at and I hope the success of the show does not depend on the questions put forth to those who take it.
-
So we've briefly met Tick, met his bad guys, saw a quickie demonstration of what Tick could do, and we were given a great bit of background on Arthur, setting him up for the rest of the series. If the series takes off that is.
I was surprised with this pilot and even though this may not be something up everyone's alley, the comedic overtone while dealing with some real world issues can be entertaining. I mean, face it, a nigh invulnerable character who might be a bit insane? How can you go wrong?
-
The Tick is available for streaming to Prime members.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Follow Cinema Static on: 
Comments
Post a Comment
Apologies for the moderation mode. I presume you understand...