[adult swim] Revisited

Posted on December 9th, 2007 by Dave

Ok, so it’s a little later in the year and I thought I’d say a few more things about this Fall/Winter batch of [adult swim] shows since writing my original piece. Tonight they’re having a few new episodes, including a new Robot Chicken.

And a new Garth Marenghi’s Darkplaces. It’s not that I didn’t like the show, I thought it was “OK,” I just didn’t get where it was coming from. I’m not sure if the show stands up on it own. I mean I’ve seen Lars von Trier’s “haunted hospital” TV series The Kingdom, so I have some kind of context (by the way I sat in a movie theater and watched all 4 hours of that bad boy!). But I wasn’t sure what the [adult swim] guys were doing. I didn’t want to look at the Wiki of it until I had watched it, but then I HAD to look that Wiki. The [adult swim] guys are based in Atlanta and the British accents on this show were authentic so sure enough, the show comes from across the pond. Made in 2004 to look like an 80’s show it kinda has to be seen to be understood. Check the screenshot below…

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job. MAN! Did it take me a long time to get into this show. Many of the [adult swim] shows have to “grow” on you, especially since I was NOT a fan of their last show (Tom Goes to the Mayor). But these guys have gotten odder and odder to good effect. And they keep finding weird ways to weird you out. For one thing tonight’s episode has a cameo by Jeff Goldblum! In addition, I’m beginning to get a real Wonder Showzen vibe from the show. And speaking of Wonder Showzen

Wonder Showzen creators, John Lee and Vernon Chatman, have a new show called Xavier Renegade Angel. On the surface the premise of the show is; a New Age freak (in both meanings of the word) travels around spreading platitudes and mysticisms then leaving things WORSE off than before. The show is done in basic 3D modeling, so it looks very crude but familiar to gamers. The humor of the show comes from the language. They tend to mix words and meanings around a lot, i.e. juxtapositioning (see my article on humor).