g r o t t o 1 1

Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets
Brian Tiemann
Silicon Valley-based purveyor of a confusing mixture of Apple punditry and political bile.

btman at grotto11 dot com

Read These Too:

InstaPundit
Steven Den Beste
James Lileks
Little Green Footballs
As the Apple Turns
Entropicana
Cold Fury
Capitalist Lion
Red Letter Day
Eric S. Raymond
Tal G in Jerusalem
Aziz Poonawalla
Corsair the Rational Pirate
.clue
Ravishing Light
Rosenblog
Cartago Delenda Est




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Monday, June 5, 2006
01:30 - Lemme axe you something

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Over the weekend Adult Swim showed the pilot episode of Korgoth of Barbaria, which is the first new series they've premiered in what seems like years that has not been overtly political.

Seriously. After Family Guy, American Dad, Robot Chicken, Moral Orel, Squidbillies, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, Minoriteam, and of course The Boondocks, I'd begun to despair of seeing any return to the halcyon days when Cartoon Network late at night meant Brak and Space Ghost and other goofy callbacks to the classic Hanna-Barbera/Warner library that reveled in the silliness of the medium rather than the increasingly unwatchable drumbeat of political vitriol that the entire lineup has become. (Honestly: a week or two ago, there were something like four shows in a row whose premise was centered around some bitterly ironic, self-flagellating send-up of "white culture", culminating in the Boondocks episode in which Uncle Ruckus becomes a stage preacher exhorting the black masses to embrace the path to "white heaven" where an overtly racist Ronald Reagan in bleached cowboy gear held sway. I couldn't help but think that whether or not they'd consciously intended to put all these similarly-themed episodes of various different shows together in the same lineup that night or not, even the most dutifully apologetic white liberal might start to feel just a tad uncomfortable under this ceaseless barrage of vicious and hateful self-mockery. All you'd need to really complete the evening would be to flip over to that episode of Wonder Showzen about "white people, having fun / global domination over everyone / white people, smile so bright / genocide for everyone who isn't white".) I'd begun to think that even if Korgoth was just another mopey and formless piece of non-animation like Twelve Ounce Mouse or Perfect Hair Forever, I'd latch onto it like a limpet if only, if only it would grant me the singular boon of not being political.

Well, I'm in luck, it seems: not only is it not political, it's good. It's got the Tartakovsky/Rudish team behind it, so the directing and timing have some familiar-feeling twitches to them—but the visual style is something new, and the premise is refreshingly setting- and character-driven, instead of relying on cynical digs at current events. It's a grandly over-the-top, blood-drenched, muscle-bound, axe-swinging, post-apocalyptic barbarian saga with corny genre-bending gags and a soundtrack full of wheedly-wheedly rock guitars. It's like it's everything that could have been awesome about the animated shows from the 70s if only they'd had budget and good directors and distribution channels that paid for good writing and didn't mind selling to animation-hungry adults instead of formula-trained kids.

Don't get me wrong—I don't love this show. It's uneven and gross and some of the gags just don't work particularly well. But it's another new venture into the world of animated series that do something other than make fun of Bush, and for that alone I'm encouraged. Enough so that the show's intrinsic qualities such as good storytelling and fun animation are just icing.

Amid Amidi of Cartoon Brew is hopeful as well, as it happens.

Speaking of ventures, the second season of Venture Brothers is on its way to screens on the 25th, and there's rumor of other shows in the pipeline which might too be universes unto themselves instead of vehicles for more political smarm. I for one can't wait. DARKNESS falls upon the house of Venture!!!

Now, what I don't know is whether Adult Swim is lining up these new shows because they're apolitical, perhaps realizing that they'd overplayed their hand with the recent monocultural offerings and might have started driving away more of their audience than they'd thought was at risk—or if these shows have simply been on the way for a long time and only just now happen to be hitting screens.

It might well remain a mystery, unless they choose to address the question up front in the bumps (always a possibility). But at least I know this: I haven't seen Saved by the Bell in the Adult Swim lineup lately.

Perhaps they can be taught.


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© Brian Tiemann