Because Die Fledermaus and American Maid were created for the animated series rather than originating in the comics, and so the makers of the live-action show didn't have the rights to their use. So they had to create substitute characters.
Spoon! Amazon orders pilot for live-action The Tick reboot
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Because Die Fledermaus and American Maid were created for the animated series rather than originating in the comics, and so the makers of the live-action show didn't have the rights to their use. So they had to create substitute characters.
I thought Patrick Warburton was a perfect choice the the last Tick series. Too bad it wasn't handled very well.
Batmanuel was amazing. He easily trumped Die Fledermaus in just about every way as far as I'm concerned.
You're... Barry, Barry, Barry, Barry!
So the new Pilot is out on Amazon.
Pretty decent overall. Serafinowicz is pretty damned good as the eponymous hero (though his suit is a little too bright for me), whilst Griffin Newman's Arthur is solid too. The entire episode is very much "The Pilot" in its structure and storytelling, so in fact little or no plot is advanced, but you get a nice look into the normal lives of people dealing with not-so-normal people flying around.
Starts with a brilliant joke about livestock, has a terrible (but, I'm sorry, perfectly ghoulishly funny) back story for poor Arthur, drops Jack Earle Haley in as the Villain (both comic and pretty horrid too) and ends with a great running gag about "secret levers".
The production levels were good (I especially enjoyed the CGI overshots of New York helping give it a more cinematic feel to it all), but the tone, for anyone not aware of The Tick, could be seen to be a little askew. Arthur's struggles feel very grounded, but juxtapose them with The Tick bounding around with his over-affected hero's voice and I can see non-fans raising an eyebrow or two.
It looks like The Tick, it feels like The Tick, but (as evidenced by the Pilot's end) it could do with being a 45m show instead of a 30 minute one. I don't mind a cliffhanger, but the story had only just started to wind up.
Seek it out, worth a 28 minute gander - 7/10
Hugo - Look at you wheedling away at your dung hill of contraband. I am The Tick! And I say unto you, stop your evil ways!
Pretty decent overall. Serafinowicz is pretty damned good as the eponymous hero (though his suit is a little too bright for me), whilst Griffin Newman's Arthur is solid too. The entire episode is very much "The Pilot" in its structure and storytelling, so in fact little or no plot is advanced, but you get a nice look into the normal lives of people dealing with not-so-normal people flying around.
Starts with a brilliant joke about livestock, has a terrible (but, I'm sorry, perfectly ghoulishly funny) back story for poor Arthur, drops Jack Earle Haley in as the Villain (both comic and pretty horrid too) and ends with a great running gag about "secret levers".
The production levels were good (I especially enjoyed the CGI overshots of New York helping give it a more cinematic feel to it all), but the tone, for anyone not aware of The Tick, could be seen to be a little askew. Arthur's struggles feel very grounded, but juxtapose them with The Tick bounding around with his over-affected hero's voice and I can see non-fans raising an eyebrow or two.
It looks like The Tick, it feels like The Tick, but (as evidenced by the Pilot's end) it could do with being a 45m show instead of a 30 minute one. I don't mind a cliffhanger, but the story had only just started to wind up.
Seek it out, worth a 28 minute gander - 7/10
Hugo - Look at you wheedling away at your dung hill of contraband. I am The Tick! And I say unto you, stop your evil ways!
I saw the clips that were released yesterday. I was a bit underwhelmed by Serafinowicz -- he didn't have the same over-the-top, Adam-Westian bombast of Townsend Coleman's and Patrick Warburton's Ticks. He even came off as a bit menacing.
Do you have to pay to see the whole pilot?
Do you have to pay to see the whole pilot?
Well you have to be an Amazon Prime member, I believe - but the first month is free so you can subscribe and then cancel any time within that 30 day period with no penalty.
I thought there was plenty of bombast in the overall delivery, I have not seen the clips you refer to. There is plenty of silliness too and, without Serafinowicz completely entering the role, it could have come off as ridiculous, which frankly it should. But it doesn't. There is a darker element to this portrayal, but it fits the tone of the rest of the story, and (as mentioned in the original comics from Edlund) you can see the character is just a little bit off, as if he really has broken out of a Mental Institution at some point. Which works with what they have done with Arthur too,
No doubt, it is a re-envisioning for the grittier 2010's, it's not as OTT as previous versions, however I found plenty of goofy humour, Serafinowicz doubling down on the "we can do anything" gumption, plus he's really strong.
Hugo - stronger than 10 men, stronger than 20 men. Stronger than a moderately busy bus stop of men.
I thought there was plenty of bombast in the overall delivery, I have not seen the clips you refer to. There is plenty of silliness too and, without Serafinowicz completely entering the role, it could have come off as ridiculous, which frankly it should. But it doesn't. There is a darker element to this portrayal, but it fits the tone of the rest of the story, and (as mentioned in the original comics from Edlund) you can see the character is just a little bit off, as if he really has broken out of a Mental Institution at some point. Which works with what they have done with Arthur too,
No doubt, it is a re-envisioning for the grittier 2010's, it's not as OTT as previous versions, however I found plenty of goofy humour, Serafinowicz doubling down on the "we can do anything" gumption, plus he's really strong.
Hugo - stronger than 10 men, stronger than 20 men. Stronger than a moderately busy bus stop of men.
The pilot is free, since they want people to watch their pilots and give feedback on which ones they want picked up. I just watched the whole episode. It's pretty good, though definitely darker than previous versions. It's not even clear whether The Tick is a real person or Arthur's hallucination, though I doubt they'll go the Fight Club/Mr. Robot route.
One was the Tick attacking the bad guys, ending with the explosion. The other was the Tick/Arthur scene in Arthur's apartment from the "secret lever" bit with the coatrack through the reveal of the flying suit.
On the whole, Serafinowicz did a pretty good job. Once I got used to his approach, it worked pretty well. I do think his vocal performance was more effective than his physical performance, though. He doesn't quite have the jawline for The Tick, and his expressions didn't convey the character as well as his voice did. Being in the stiff costume didn't help; maybe they'll make the neck a little more flexible in the future.
The production values were pretty good, and seeing actual, big superhero action and effects was a vast improvement over the previous live-action series that was basically just Seinfeld in weird costumes. I note the costume design was by Colleen Atwood, who also did the Flash and Supergirl costumes. I'm still not sold on the Tick's new, more exoskeletal look; it does fit the name better, but part of what was fun about the original design was that he didn't look anything like a tick. (As made clear in "The Tick vs. The Tick," where he went up against a namesake hero whose costume actually did resemble a tick.) And Arthur's high-tech, bulletproof flying suit is kinda neat, but I liked the frumpy, homemade look of his original Mothman costume.
I tried to take Amazon's survey and give my feedback for the show, but I got fed up when it just kept going and going and asking questions I couldn't adequately answer. (How the hell can I pick out my three favorite shows of all time, and what business is it of theirs anyway?) They should've kept it brief or made the questions optional -- they'd get better response.
How can I watch this? Please. Free makes me very interested in watching this.
Just go to Amazon.com, select "Amazon Video" in the search field, and type "The Tick." It's the first result. (At least it works in the US -- I don't know about elsewhere.)
Interesting, my first impression is that Serafinowicz came off like the cartoon Tick mixed with Adam West.
Thank you, very much!
Well, as I said, there was more of that in the rest of the episode than I felt there was in the clips. Overall it worked pretty well.
I think it's just that I have a rather exacting ear for sound patterns, including speech rhythms, so if I get used to a character sounding a certain way, it can take time for me to get used to a different version, even if it's in the same ballpark.
I didn't watch much of the Warburton Tick, it rubbed me the wrong way right from the beginning. I think I might try it again some day as I feel I can watch it now and judge it better on what it actually is on its own merits instead of what it's not.
So only having the cartoon to base it on, Serafinowicz doesn't have the sheer physical square-jawedness but I really liked his physical dominance at the warehouse and the mean joy with which he dispatched the bad guys. When he gave the laugh when he opened the door to the goons it reminded me of something from like a 40s serial or what not where the main hero just flat out scoffs them with no regards to feelings. It helped sell that this unlikely guy can get the job done when necessary.
So only having the cartoon to base it on, Serafinowicz doesn't have the sheer physical square-jawedness but I really liked his physical dominance at the warehouse and the mean joy with which he dispatched the bad guys. When he gave the laugh when he opened the door to the goons it reminded me of something from like a 40s serial or what not where the main hero just flat out scoffs them with no regards to feelings. It helped sell that this unlikely guy can get the job done when necessary.
I thought the cast was good -- especially Warburton, who was the perfect Tick -- but the material was mostly very weak. Only the episodes written by Ben Edlund ("Pilot," "The Terror," and "The Tick vs. Justice") were any good, because they were the ones that actually dealt with superhero tropes and plots and got humor out of them. Well, there was another one, "Arthur Interrupted," that was relatively good, and it was written by the animated show's co-writer Richard Leibmann-Smith. The rest was written mainly by sitcom writers without genre experience, and was produced mainly by Seinfeld veterans, so it was just warmed-over sitcom plots in the Seinfeld mold, aside from the fact that the characters were supposedly superheroes. And I hated Seinfeld.
I watched The Tick pilot earlier today and I guess my opinion is:
I loved it and I hated it.
Peter Serafinowicz is perfect as The Tick. Every time he was on screen, I was engaged and he left me wanting to see more of him. If you haven't watched it, be advised he doesn't appear very much in this first episode.
Unfortunately, I could not say the same way about anything else. All the scenes with Arthur feel like they're taken from an entirely different show. There's a tonal disconnect between the scenes where The Tick appears and when he's absent that is very jarring. I don't know if the darker scenes with Arthur are too dark or if the scenes with The Tick are too light (probably the former). It's like the producers had two half-episodes that they edited together and they don't match.
I think there's a lot of potential here, but the tone of the storytelling needs refining. It's like Ben Edlund, the creator of The Tick, forgot that while The Tick could be darkly funny, you have to remember the funny.
I loved it and I hated it.
Peter Serafinowicz is perfect as The Tick. Every time he was on screen, I was engaged and he left me wanting to see more of him. If you haven't watched it, be advised he doesn't appear very much in this first episode.
Unfortunately, I could not say the same way about anything else. All the scenes with Arthur feel like they're taken from an entirely different show. There's a tonal disconnect between the scenes where The Tick appears and when he's absent that is very jarring. I don't know if the darker scenes with Arthur are too dark or if the scenes with The Tick are too light (probably the former). It's like the producers had two half-episodes that they edited together and they don't match.
I think there's a lot of potential here, but the tone of the storytelling needs refining. It's like Ben Edlund, the creator of The Tick, forgot that while The Tick could be darkly funny, you have to remember the funny.
I'm interested enough to continue watching but I felt it was a little... off. My experience of the Tick is from playing the game on Sega Genesis and some of that old TV series which I definitely enjoyed. He was always kind of goofy and bizarre but this new actor playing him just seems a bit serious I dunno the chemistry just seems off somehow from what I've experienced. One thing I remember is that he was kind of a lovable oaf which the new guy isn't exuding yet. Maybe he'll grow on me. I'm glad the Tick is back in some fashion though.
This is definitely an edgier take on the premise than previous versions. Edlund's made no secret of that. Part of the point, apparently, is to keep up with the times, to satirize today's superhero movies and shows, and part of that is a darker or more grounded approach, a tragic backstory, a more arc-driven narrative, etc.
I wonder how much we'll see of that Superian character, who seems to be either the Superman or the Dr. Manhattan of this universe, the first superhero. I also wonder how they can get away with a Superman pastiche whose name is literally just one letter off from "Superman."
I wonder how much we'll see of that Superian character, who seems to be either the Superman or the Dr. Manhattan of this universe, the first superhero. I also wonder how they can get away with a Superman pastiche whose name is literally just one letter off from "Superman."
I think it has potential. It's very hard to get a bead on it since this was mostly set up, we didn't even get to see Arthur and the Tick together as a Crime Fighting duo.
I felt like it would have worked better if they threw us into this world with Arthur and the Tick already a team, but they probably felt they needed to properly introduce the concept to people who aren't familiar with The Tick (which I imagine is a lot, since the show was a long time ago, and the cartoon even longer).
I felt like it would have worked better if they threw us into this world with Arthur and the Tick already a team, but they probably felt they needed to properly introduce the concept to people who aren't familiar with The Tick (which I imagine is a lot, since the show was a long time ago, and the cartoon even longer).