The old live-action show of The Tick, based on the 1990s cartoon that was based on the comic book, was a delightfully devilish guilty pleasure. The comedy was slick and taut, and the casting was practically pitch perfect. In fact, Patrick Warburton was expertly cast as The Tick, and David Burke was almost too perfect as the reluctant and worrisome Arthur. Liz Vassey and Nestor Carbonell also rounded out the cast with a great balance as Captain Liberty and Batmanuel.
The cheesy plots, the ridiculous rubber suit and Warburton’s off-kilter comic timing made it a bit of a gem, and reminded me of the more humanized super-hero schtick that Zack Snyder’s The Watchmen was gunning for.
Unfortunately, the understated realism and metropolitan flair from the original 2001 live-action series of The Tick hasn’t seemed to translate that well into Amazon Prime’s new super hero web-series. The latest trailer for the show tries and falters when it comes to comedy timing or attempting to draw laughs from any sort of social commentary or genre irony. You can check it out for yourself below, courtesy of JoBlo.
Many of the commenters had the same issues I had with it. The costume looks pretty cheap, despite the headpiece being slightly more accurate to the comic incarnation; the problem is that the outfit has a lot of busywork going on and the actor certainly doesn’t have the physique to pull it off. It gives his upper body this boxy look while his lower body looks kind of thin. Warburton really filled out the original Tick outfit, and the solid rubber muscle made it look as silly as it did authentic. That’s not to mention that the old 2001 outfit actually did look a lot more like it would be bulletproof compared to the spandex and lycra outfit that this new guy is wearing.
The action sequences also come off as underwhelming and a bit like a spoof on Deadpool, or maybe I’m just not in the right mind frame to understand what they were going for? It wasn’t violent enough to be labeled as a black comedy, and it wasn’t over-the-top enough for the screwball comedic effect. It kind of solemnly rests somewhere in between, like a half-hearted attempt at something entertaining that just kind of fizzles out. The comedy also fell flat for me; I neither chuckled nor laughed.
I do wonder if they’ll bring back the other heroes or will they focus on The Tick and Arthur for the first season? I also wonder if they’ll revive the American Maid or if they’ll go with Captain Liberty? I always personally preferred the American Maid because it was such a ridiculous super hero gimmick that was designed to be overtly badass.
Anyway, the 2017 revival of The Tick is set to air on Amazon Prime starting August 25th.
