DVD : The Tick - The Entire Series

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- "Spoon!"
Me and my kids LOVED this show! When fox decided that they didn't want to pick this show up for another season, we were crushed. I hadn't seen it offered anywhere else. I did a search and found it on Amazon. YEAH! Sure it's a corny show, but now everybody uses Patrick Warburton's voice in every animated show created! He's a very funny guy. This show makes that fact very evident.

Rating:

- The Big Blue Cheese
Superman has a super-dense molecular structure that renders him invulnerable. The Tick has a super-dense head that renders him insufferable. But off-the-wall funny.

We're living in the Platinum Age of television. There's so much air time to fill that the networks have no choice but to let genuinely talented people create programming. This doesn't mean their creations will find and hold an audience, however. So it was with the live-action version of "The Tick," which had a miserable run of only eight episodes on Fox.

As Barry Sonnenfeld explains in the commentary, Fox bought the program because it was offbeat and weird -- then complained they didn't like it because it was offbeat and weird. It's hands-down the best-ever TV superhero sendup (including "Captain Nice" and even "The Greatest American Hero") -- just a little too sophisticated, a little too off-center for most viewers. You know -- "too good for television".

I didn't care much for the animated version of "The Tick." It was only sporadically funny, and couldn't decide whether it was aimed at an adult or juvenile audience.

The live-action version is strictly adult, both in sensibility and humor. There are plenty of sexual and scatological jokes, most of them subtle. Some are not -- Batmanuel's logo is an oval containing the letters BM. (Remember the souvenir belt Harris bought for Barney Miller?)

Ben Edlund showed remarkable insight and skill in adjusting the tone of "The Tick" to the TV medium. The stories more often revolve around the day-to-day lives and social (or not) interactions of the superheroes than their response to villainy. The result is the first superhero "comedy of manners" (ie, "a satire of the manners and customs of a section of society"). And Edlund had the sense to make the quasi-normal Arthur the character we "identify" with and "see" the stories through.

The writers don't hesitate to make in-joke references to other superheros -- "The Greatest American Hero" (in "Arthur, Interrupted"), and their rip-off of the purse-robbery scene from "Superman -- the Motion Picture" ("The License"). (Did I miss any?)

With an obviously limited budget, there are only minimal super-hero special effects. Some viewers miss them. I, on the other hand, appreciate _not_ seeing Apocalypse Cow. Like Jack Benny's basement vault, a colossal kine shooting flame from its udders is funnier imagined than seen.

The guest-star casting is first-rate -- Armin Shimerman as The Terror and Ron Perlman as Fiery Blaze (a subtle reference to his role in "Quest for Fire"?). But none tops The Tick's antennae, which steal every scene they're in (to Patrick Warburton's great displeasure).

"The Tick" is not only one of the all-time-great TV series, it is a great work of art. The quality of the writing, especially, is remarkable for any medium. "The Tick" is a classic worth _many_ repeat viewings. How many TV shows are worth even one?

Rating:

- Needed better writers
Patrick Warburton was fantastic as the Tick. I don't think they could have found anyone better.
The episodes, few as they were, were overall OK. I little heavy on the sex humor, but then, if you want a kid version of the Tick, get the cartoon.
I also liked Captain Liberty and Batmanuel. Great supporting characters.
What really brought the show down, though, was Arthur. His character in this is filled with resentment, is highly critical of the Tick in almost all things, and his general bitterness just brought the whole show down. I'd rather he had been portrayed as he had been in the comics - someone who looked up to the Tick, while (being the more lucid one) steering him in the right direction. Instead, in this series, he was always belittling the Tick, and that is what, in my opinion, brought the series down.

Still, overall, worth the $12 I spent on it.

Rating:

- Interesting - but lacking legs
The Tick is a bit of a one joke show - the big dumb superhero that doesn't understand the world around him. I'm glad I bought it, but I can see why it got cancelled - there is nowhere obvious for the story to go. I seem to be collecting cancelled animal themed American TV series: Firefly and Greg the Bunny - both of which I'd rate above the Tick

Rating:

- Cab't believe this show was cancelled
The only downfall to this video is that it is too short. I wish it would have been on for several years. This is hilarious stuff. A must have.

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