Editor’s Note: The Gritty Chimp is a well-established columnist for [adult swim] UK. It is [as]central’s honor and privledge to have Gritty as a columnist for our website.
Being a UK Swim fan is tough. Due to stringent TV laws forbidding adult content on a kids TV channel we’re without the life blood of Adult Swim which is a regular slot on late night Cartoon Network. This has left UK Swim as a bit of a TV nomad, roaming from channel to channel dropping a bit of juicy content here and there before packing its bags and moving on before anyone really notices. So far we’ve had brief slots on FX, a late night Tim and Eric freakout on 4 Music and most famously a big chunk of now dissolved TV channel Bravo.
The Bravo slot was the first and definitely felt the most ‘Swim’. For most of us dedicated UK fans it was the closest to the US format we ever had. We got regular bumps, a growing online community and a decent array of shows with just about the whole back catalogue from inception to 2008 to play with. The lone wanderer of TV land was building a concrete caravan, taking off its slippers and thinking about having a couple of kids.. Then it stopped (the reasons for which are still not fully understood).
Needless to say it’s been a difficult few years for UK viewers but we’ve been lucky enough to have had new content available regularly on adultswim.co.uk and we keep each other warm through fan sites and a great, frequently updated UK Facebook page. We must be doing something right as we even had Tim and Eric over this year. We’re hardened to adversity in the UK (or maybe we just enjoy a bit of misery… it’s one of the two) and thankful for any and all crumbs that fall from Lazzo’s big table.
But anyway, as of Wednesday 4th January we’re back… Kind of.
Turner have granted a bit of space on one of their free to air satellite movie channels , TCM2 in what feels like a cautious toe dipping into the TV pond once again. So what did we get? Well not much but let’s just say that first night was a night for firsts. After a couple of episodes of Robot Chicken (gotta get the kids in yeah?) we got the first episodes of Aqua Teen, and Metalocalypse. A cautious one hour slot indeed but a great introduction for us fans trying to get Swim virgins on our friends lists to watch it. What was lacking though was any kind of Adult Swim branding anywhere, no introductions, no bumps, not even a Swim themed channel card. Couple this with no advertising of any kind and you’d be pushed to wonder if anyone who stumbled upon it at 10pm last night managed to figure out what was going on.
But it’s a start, it’s Turner pushing its own content out on their own channel and that can only be a good thing. Let’s see how it goes…
