This Week In [adult swim] Week in Review

Hey there Swimmers!

Wanted to try something different for a change… hopefully I can manage to entice others on staff to participate in writing/helping to write these on a weekly basis. Let’s see where this goes…

So, to be honest, I haven’t watched a whole lot of Sunday Night Swim as of late. Though, with the jam-packed schedule of new episodes, I felt obliged to check out at least most of it. I’ll recap what I did manage to see:

Robot Chicken — The Departy Monster:

I’ll be honest (as if I haven’t already,) for those who don’t know me I have a serious disdain for the show after Season Two. Without going into details, I feel like the show’s become pretty stale and continually relies on massive amounts of bodily fluid and frat boy jokes.  Having said that, I didn’t really tune into this week’s episode to watch… but in waiting for Squidbillies, I did catch the last minute or two of the final segment: It was about the characters of Wizard of Oz (sans Dorothy) going to Oz (the jail from the old HBO series of the same name) which included a cameo by JK Simmons (You’ve seen him in recent years in Spider-Man or heard his voice in Portal 2. He was a cast member of aforementioned show before going on to bigger things.) Suffice to say, it kind of made me chuckle. Kind of.

Squidbillies – The Return of Gaga Pee Pep:

I wasn’t expecting a “Return” episode so quickly… But I wasn’t (totally) disappointed. I was kind of sad, however at the end result… Gaga died. – Although, in the Williams Street Universe, that rarely means anything. If I had to speculate, I’m sure it had something to do with Jesco White (a.k.a.: The Dancing Outlaw) who in real life was the inspiration for Early Cuyler (yes, there’s actually a crazy person in the world like Early.) …I think besides that, the disappointment for me was the fact that there was a lack of “SKA!” – If you’ve seen the Squidbillies Extra with Jesco, you know what I’m talking about. Regardless, a great episode. Looking very much forward to next week’s Season Finale.

China, IL – Feral Student:

I’ve only seen a couple of China, IL eps. But what I’ve seen, I definitely enjoy. I think the BIG deal about this episode isn’t the episode itself, but the fact that it actually aired uncensored (I’m talking no bleeps and bloops… pure F and S Bombs!) I’m not entirely sure whether or not this was an accident… Could the infamous Turner S&P (which was made fun of in the Aqua Teen episode “Gee Whiz”) have overlooked this episode, allowing it to accidently air sans beepage? Or was this some kind of experiment on [adult swim]‘s part? It’s certainly not uncommon… the Space Ghost: Coast to Coast episode “Dreams” featuring Triumph the Insult Comic Dog aired uncensored, with Moltar dropping an S Bomb after Space Ghost’s “Bang it up the ass” argument. My guess is this was definitely an experiment, seeing as how Comedy Central does it all the time now. The truth is, cable TV isn’t as sanctioned as broadcast is. Censoring is just a way to keep sponsors from pulling out of ad space during commercial time. Thoughts on this? I want to see some comments below.

The Heart, She Holler – And So it Begends:

I hadn’t seen much leading up to the premier last night. I actually had the opportunity to sit in on the Press Hour at New York Comic-Con, but since it was in a different room than all the others, and because I was exhausted by that time, I decided not to. At any rate, I love Patton Oswalt and I’m a fan of most of the PFFR stuff (for those who don’t know, they produce Delocated, Xavier, Wonder Showzen, and a bunch of other weird shows… most of which are on [adult swim],) and this first episode definitely had a lot of both of those. To summarize the story, the owner of “Heartshe Holler” has passed on and leaves it to his son (whom he locked in a cave “5 minutes after birth.”) this obviously upsets Heartshe’s two daughters (One, played by Kristen Schaal, who is the town slut. The other, who is married to the town’s Sheriff, and is obviously a telekinetic – as we learn later in the episode.) Boss Heartshe attempts to “teach” his son how to speak words… eventually revealing that he has ulterior motives for bringing his son out of exile… though those plans are squashed by the son’s lack of vocabulary. Overall, I really like where the show started. It makes it seem like a cross between a TV drama (along the lines of Dallas or Dynasty) and a trippy mindf**k (along the lines of previous [as] mini-series, Young Person’s Guide to History,) that only PFFR can deliver. Bonus points go to the cameo by John Gemberling (from Fat Guy Stuck in Internet) as the guy in the yellow trucker cap, during the funeral scene. Can’t wait to see the rest of the series this week. I’ll definitely try to recap it, if in fact this column catches on.

Like what you just read? Have comments? Suggestions? Etc.? Drop ‘em in the comments box below. Thanks for reading!