2 out of 5

Created By: Doug TenNapel

Man, so weird.  I’ve followed TenNapel to several projects, the majority of which have not disappointed.  Sure, in comic form he has a tendency to get a little sappy / Christian moraly, but the overall energy and imagination he brings to the table is generally enough to tip the scales into favorable territory.  Out of his cartoon work, two of them have had the involvement of Doug Langdale – G.e.e.K.e.R. and Earthworm Jim – and thus share a sense of humor, and then there was the 1 season of Catscratch, 2/3rds of which was frenetic genius before it slid into generic cartoon antics.  With the Langdale partnership, while I only have 2 cartoons for comparison, the 20+ Jim eps gave a pretty good indication of what the deciding factor would be: episodes frequently boasted quite original concepts and the basic TenNapel character designs and plot outline helped a ton… but sometimes it was just… annoying.  Lots of shouting.  When they tuned it down for season 2 and relied more on wit than insanity, it was good times.

So to G.e.e.K.e.R.  Main takeaway: there is a kernel of awesomeness here that makes you wish (or made me wish) that the main character had been designed a bit more favorably (Jim was goofy but cool – G.e.e.K.e.R. is just a drooling goof with an obnoxious catchphrase) and that the show had had more episodes to, as with EWJ, find its sweet spot.  Because the conceptual mash-up feels really unique: the living weapon GKR is stolen from the clutches of madman Moloch by Lady MacBeth (a sassy shaved head w/ ponytail cyborg voiced by Cree Summer) and Noah, a freakin’ baseball cap wearin’ T-Rex voiced Brad Garrett, whom I most recognize as Raymond’s deadpan brother from Everybody Loves Raymond.  Wouldn’t have imagined him for voiceover work, but it makes sense: a theatrical pitch, a great straight man.  The character designs for all of the non-GKR characters are so outside of the norm for a TenNapel project, MacBeth looking like the heroic figures of 90s-era G.I. Joe and Noah and the baddies in the exaggerated but “human” form of The Tick cartoon.  Tossing the morphing, moon-shape faced, Looney Tunes-esque GKR (whose programming is incomplete and thus he’s… insane) into the mix is such a wonderful juxtaposition that you want this to work.  Most episodes boil down to a Moloch plot to get GKR back, or GKR screwing something up and MacBeth / Noah having to pick up the pieces, but we can get our random kicks in via G.K.’s ability to morph into any and everything to maybe save the day or make things worse.

But I just couldn’t get on board.  The show offers up some nice action adventure moments, but these are stifled by GKR’s antics instead of enhanced, rendering the ‘excitement’ somewhat sterile, especially when combined with the threatless bad guys.  And G.e.e.K.e.R.’s constant drooling… gah, I’m just not big on the bumbling idiot format.  A show like Get Smart worked because Maxwell Smart had heart.  You rooted for him.  But G.e.e.K.e.R. rarely does anything right, and he’s so obnoxious to look at I could care less about his quest to be human.  And unfortunately, despite the man’s talent, Billy West chose a particularly obnoxious pitch for GKR, further creating barriers for my involvement.  Does this stuff knock the rating down that much?  Well, yeah.  EWJ may not have had any real sense of danger, but Peter Puppy and EWJ’s relationship made the randomness enjoyable.  Noah and MacBeth are cool characters, but they also sorta hate G.e.e.K.e.R., so I’m not sure what’s to keep us watching.  Still, I realize I’m mostly picking this apart due to a personal dislike, and I’ll admit there were some chuckles.  The final episode also showed a lot of promise, having the crew travel to a future where Moloch rules and the writing relying more on plotting nuances than just G.e.e.K.e.R. being stupid, supporting my thought that given some time to develop the show could have evolved…  Alas, that wasn’t how it went down.  So I only have 13 episodes for my judgements.  Here they be.