3 out of 5

Directors: Various Robot Chicken people

Due to the rapid-fire format of the show, Robot Chicken doesn’t seem to really get better or worse, it’s more just luck of the draw if an episode learns toward laughs, chuckles, or head-scratchers. The first season was certainly the freshest, although it was a mixed bag between dork humor and political / pop-culture forays, and depending on your tastes, you’ll generally prefer one over the other. Seasons 2 and 3 ferried away some of the political bits in favor of Lindsay Lohan / Britney Spears slathering, which, again, works if you like it… and doesn’t if you don’t. I’m only mentioning this because thus far I’ve found Season 4 the most balanced. They’ve gotten most of their stock humor out of the way and so are reaching more into obscurity, which produces some really inspired sketches. Yes, it’s still a random hodge-podge, and some bits go on for too long and some aren’t long enough, but that’s the name of their game. There are even some non-toy almost-animated bits which, again, shows a willingness to experiment which I dug. And the repeated frequency of the humping robot is another plus. Nothing new for RC fans, but it’s getting “refined” in a nice, sloppy way.