Tag Archives: Amazon

Watched it on Amazon.

Amazon's version of The Tick

After watching the first three episodes of Amazon’s version of The Tick, I’m quite hooked.
Instead of being dropped in to a world where Arthur and The Tick are already a team, we instead get to see how that team is first created. There’s actual character development, and even the bad guys have back stories.
So far, there’s been a back story for Arthur, plot lines involving the supporting characters, hints at how the world has adapted to having superheroes as part of life, and even hints that we may get to find out how The Tick became who he is.
Possibly the best part though is Peter Serafinowicz’ portrayal of The Tick. The character speaks in the same flowery, over-the-top style as the original cartoon, and Serafinowicz’ is so earnest in his delivery that I can’t help thinking he’s channeling the late Adam West’s portrayal of Batman.
Highly recommended viewing.

Starhyke

Scrolling through an assortment of funny photos and links, on Claudia Christian’s fan page, I found a post from one of the page admins announcing that Starhyke is now available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
Starhyke was new to me, but ended up an amusing diversion. The show is a Sci-Fi Comedy, shot in the UK. It appears to have been a direct-to-DVD release, with other syndication coming later.
The premise, and honestly, a lot of the first episode, is quite dark: Humanity has given up its emotions in order to expand across the galaxy, and in the process, conquered or destroyed all the other races they encounter. The last race not yet conquered, the Reptids, have devised a plan to go back in time and prevent humanity from losing its emotions.
The comic premise (minor spoiler) is that a side-effect of the Reptids’ attack causes the crew of the ship sent to stop them to be confronted with unfamiliar and comically out-of-control emotions. Most of the gags center around the crew essentially becoming a bunch of adolescents in adult bodies as they try to track down their enemies. There’s also a secondary story of an unknown entity attempting to take over the ship.
Once you get past the grim premise, it’s actually a very silly show, a bit similar to Red Dwarf, but with a larger, dominantly female, cast. The entire series is only six episodes long for a total of about three hours of viewing. If you need a chuckle without a lot of sophistication, it might be worth a chance.
You can stream it on Amazon. I’d skip the DVD option.