Change Places!

First off, I'd like to thank Steve Pierski, creator of Dueling Analogs for posting my fan art and sending web traffic my way.  Beware though; his latest creation is Duke Nukem (I'm a huge gamer nerd) in a nightmare fueled hooker outfit.  Shudder.

Back on topic, I decided that we should "change places" this post -- instead of talking about British shows that American's should watch, I'm going to write about American shows that British people should watch.

The top of my list is Venture Brothers, on Cartoon Network during their Adult Swim run.  They just started their fourth season, and it's truly the best season so far.  I've liked Venture Brothers from the first season, but they've developed the characters and the story from the beginning, and it really shows as episode after episode builds and builds until you're dying for your next Venture fix.

I always hate trying to describe a show.  For full information, I always suggest the Wikipedia page.  Why  you should watch it though:  it's perverse, violent, bloody, hysterical, and almost always a bit awkward.  I laughed my ass off in the latest episode.  It started out with the Monarch had already captured the two boys, Hank and Dean.  Monarch was arguing with Dr. Venture for the ransom money, when another rival of Monarch, Captain Sunshine, busts in, kicks his ass, "rescues" Hank, and then flies off.  Due to the rules of "arching" (when you're a bad guy and you're fighting your "arch-nemisis") Monarch is then obligated to get Hank back from creepy, suburban pedophile Captain Sunshine.  Doesn't make sense?  Neither did Mighty Boosh.  Just go and watch it.

Another awesome show is Titan Maximum, another Adult Swim exclusive (see a pattern forming?).  It's like watching Voltron all over again, but this time with bad language, flaring tempers, and sexual tension.  The show starts after the glory days of Titan Maximum (the Voltron-esque robot).  The team was in retirement, until one their members decides to take over the world and they have to reform TITAN MAXIMUM!  Seth Green is the voice of Gibbs, the bad guy, and he does an awesome job. Definitely check this show out; they just started a few weeks ago, so it would be very easy to catch up.

Speaking of Seth Green, look for just about any show he's been in.  Chances are good that it's another great show to watch.  Him and Matthew Senreich also do Robot Chicken, the wonderfully perverse sketch comedy that uses dolls from the 80's (think He-Man, Thundercats, Rainbow Bright, etc) with claymation and effectively destroys your childhood memories.  They've done two Dr. Seuss rhyming stories, one about Whores down in Whoville, and the other Horton and the town of what-WHAT!!!  Others of note is Skeletor and other badguys stuck in traffic ("Behold! The gaseous stench of Skeletor's breakfast burrito!"), the tooth fairy receiving the award for darkest sketch in comedy history, and a good 2 minute clip of Hello Kitty hacking up a hairball.  They are currently running the fourth season stateside, but because they're all small clips, you'll get a lot of perverse enjoyment out of it.

So apparently this post turned into "Why you should watch Adult Swim."  Didn't mean to, but what the hell, they deserve it.  All these pictures today are from their site. The really, REALLY great thing about them is that they post a lot, and I mean A LOT, of their shows on their webpage.  Go forth, yon British peeps, and know that there are some cool American shows amongst the rubbish.

A Trip Through Time and Space

Emphasis on "trip."

I finally sat down and started watching the Mighty Boosh.  I hesitate to say that I understand the show now; let's say I'm now able to differentiate between the things I should understand, and the things that have no understanding. 

The show is about two friends, Howard Moon and Vincent Noir, who work at the "Zooniverse," a crap-tastic, underfunded, badly run zoo.  Shenanigans ensue.  No, really.  In the first episode, Howard Moon is black mailed by his boss, Bob Fossil, to fight a kangaroo.  Noir convinces him that he can train Howard before the fight, which is less than 2 days away.  They buy horrible training suits, those nasty vinyl, speed suit type atrocities.  There's a scene where Noir is showing Moon tapes of previous kangaroo fights, with words like "disembowelment" and "eat off a man's face" but I couldn't quite focus on what was being said.  The scene is set up so it your looking at Moon and Noir from the back of the TV, and while the tapes are playing, the only thing you could really see is Howard Moon's distinct man-bags in the vinyl suit.  I deserve either an apology or breakfast, one of the two.

Noir gets help from their local mystic, Naboo, who blows special dust on Noir's face that sends him on a vision quest and....look, it's ridiculous.  Do you even believe me?  I wouldn't. 

Think of the show as if Family Guy musical numbers got mixed with Robot Chicken's randomness,  fourth wall jokes a la Chowder, and horribly trippy segments like Misadventures of Flapjack. But all live-action.  And British.

I'll mention again that you can catch The Mighty Boosh on Cartoon Network during their Adult Swim  time slots.  However, I suggest that you watch it unedited -- it's difficult enough to distinguish what should make sense anyway.