3 gibbles out of 5

Creators: Christy Karacas,Stephen Warbrick, Ben Gruber

What happened?  Superjail season 1 was madcap visual acid trip insanity congealed with surrealistically blissful cartoon logic.  It was the kind of insane / stupid / unlimited imagination combo that gave Augenblick Studios previous show, Wonder Showzen, such a sharp edge, now released to full wackiness by the freedom of imagination.  But Superjail season 2 is like someone trying to remember season 1.  The same feel is sort of there, rumbling a bit in the backgrounds, and the general plot is there, but the energy is gone.  So what happened?  Well, apparently the creators tried to make the show have a “wider appeal”.  Good work.

Superjail is what it sounds like – a superjail, run by The Warden (voiced by David Wain) and policed by various recognizable oddities – Jailbot, the willfully violent and subservient robot that serves the Warden, Jared, the jail’s stressed out accountant, and Alice, the large-breasted totally-a-man she-beast who is the head guard.  And several recognizable prisoner faces around the jail.  Who knows what the plot was in season 1?  Someone would try to escape, or the Warden would have some planned update or addition that would go wrong, but soon enough everything would turn in to hyper gory animated montages of insane jail inventions slaughtering tons of prisoners and psychedelic color washes zipping over the intensely detailed backgrounds as the characters would run or be thrown from scene to scene.  It sounds one dimensional and it was on one hand, but the anything-can-happen attitude and the assured insanity from each short episode to short episode makes watching the entirety of the season easy to do in one sitting with one’s jaw hitting the floor.

But Season 2 followed a recent Adult Swim trend: the show is popular, so let’s extend the runtime to a full half hour.  Which makes the plotless plots a little harder to do, so now our writing team has to write some actual stories.  And frankly, they’re not bad – rival jails, or a new updated Jailbot being built, or The Warden getting lost – there’s still plenty of imagination to be found.  But longer stories generally means more characterization, which means instead of any and everyone getting ripped to shreds, we have to develop The Warden’s story, or Alice’s story, or Jared’s story.  And with more focus on developing these stories, less time can be put into the background insanity that defined season 1, making the jokes a little more planned out, with less need to have your eyes glued to the screen.

SJ Season 2 wouldn’t be so different feeling if it didn’t have an awesome comparison point with season 1.  The trademark violence is still there but it feels less energetic, more expected.  Perhaps it will open the show up to more viewers, but that leaves an empty spot on the extreme fringes for another show to fill.  And good fuck, don’t watch the extras.  The “interview” with the creators paints the dudes as fairly douchey douches.  I mean, yes, they’re artists, so they communicate through their productions and not their words, that’s fine, but why don’t you drop some other completely typical references and sound more like a dickbag.  *sigh*  I’M SURE I DO THIS TOO LIKE IN THIS REVIEW EXCEPT NEVER MAYBE I’M PERFECT   yes pretty sure i am

Otherwise – Cheeseburger footage.  Animatics.  Who watches these?  If you’re an animator, are they worthwhile?