The Tick

[CT III]

Somewhat surprised based on the age/nerdiness of this board that there's no entry for the new Amazon series yet.

Full disclosure: I spent many a hungover Saturday guffawing at The Tick cartoon in college. I saw very little of the 2001 live-action series and have not read the comic.

I'm liking the new series a lot. Peter Serafinowicz is damn near perfect as the Big Blue Bug of Justice and Griffin Newman does well as Arthur. The rest of the cast is also very good with an honorable mention to Alan Tudyk's voice work as a character that is basically Night Boat from The Simpsons.

Anyway, it's exactly what I want from The Tick: he's a good-hearted, bombastic, mostly oblivious indestructible tank of a hero. Just as likely to invite a homeless man he met on patrol to spend the night as he is to scold another hero for his overzealous use of deadly force. And the 4th episode, where Tick crashes Arthur's stepdad's birthday party could have come directly from the cartoon.

I would like to add one SPOILER however. The pilot for the show (shot well in advance of the rest of the series) is only okay as it's more involved with Arthur's back story and features very little of the actual Tick, to the point where it seems like one of the major themes for the show will be whether Tick is just a manifestation of Arthur's imagination. Luckily the 2nd episode dispenses with this possibility, but I do want to urge anyone turned off by the pilot to keep going, the series gets much better.