Let’s recap my thoughts since I’m sure you’re unaware. Adult Swim is awful now. Adult Swim when I was 13- 20 was great. Caught up? Good. I loved shows like “Home Movies”, “The Venture Brothers”, and it’s where I found “Family Guy” and “Futurama”. Those shows, while goofy, had somewhat coherent plots and relatable characters (remember the Griffins used to be likable).
“Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law and my current subject “Sealab 2021” were more on the side of ridiculous and random. I dislike all the anti-humor and randomness if it’s done poorly. Those two shows did it well for about 2 season then went off the rails. Adult Swim is completely off the rails now. Most of the live actions shows have laughs in them, but it’s usually a struggle. “Sealab 2021” relied a lot on silly and somewhat completely impossible logic and premises, but I think they strode the line well.
Don't you mean bizarro strode the line?
There is also the possibility that nothing has changed and I’m just a bitter old man by the age of 24. I will now get off my very tiny soapbox and impregnate you with nostalgia…at least about the first 3 seasons. Season 4 was rough, but there is a very good reason why.
Captain Murphy and his loyal-ish crew are stationed far beneath the sea in a lab. Hence. They are supposed to do science things but tend to usually goof off. I really should have watched the original “Sealab 2020” to make sense of the jokes on 2021. Then again, it probably would have been too much work just to understand this silly farce of a show. Non-sequitors and sight gags abound, SEALAB probably isn’t a MENSA members favorite show, but then again I think sometimes you have to really smart to understand how to be really stupid.
I’m a little fuzzy, because even though I’ve never smoked, I think I got a contact high just by watching this show. Things and people regularly get destroyed on this program, think of them all as the collective Carl of this Adult Swim Program.
Our cast includes the intelligent Dr. Quinn, black medicine man. He’s smooth with the ladies and is clearly the only one in the lab that belongs there. He’s smart, and when the plot calls for it, a robot. He’s also the subject of two awesome songs written and recorded by MC Chris, better known as Hesh. His main squeeze is Debbie. She seems to be the inspiration for current Lois Griffin. She’s morally bipolar, a sex fiend and acts smarter than she is. She’s a mix of all annoying female cartoons traits. We’ll conglomerate Peggy Hill, current Lois and Stripperella.
Two other guys on the ship are Stromy and Sparks. Stormy is basically what I think Ashton Kutcher based his career off of.
Sparks is the most evil man on the vessel. He is always scheming and stealing. He is even willing to kill to get what he wants, despite being so lazy he won’t get out of his chair. That’s why the put wheels on those things anyway. Why kill what you can’t kill sitting down?
I was wrong about Quin being the only competent one. That guy up there is Erik Estrada and he is also a member of the crew and he tends to have a good head on his shoulders. He’s more prone to flights of fancy though so he kind of loses credibility. His awareness that the captain is a lunatic makes him one of the crew members ahead of the game.
I love Dr. Ilad Virjay,
Black Debbie and Dolphin Boy, but they don’t get their own paragraphs because Captain Hank Murphy needs a lot of attention. He seriously does. Watch an episode. He’s like a little kid and needs attention all the time. Once he got bored and started a pirate radio station so people would listen to him. Murphy is a fearless leader, the only problem is he’s usually not leading. If he is, he’s probably going to kill everyone. Either that or make them do feng shui , let hungry killer dogs loose, declare martial law, force Indians to eat cow or leave his crew to go fight in the Great Spice War. I would have loved to be under his command.
Sadly when he leaves Captain Shanks comes. He’s not awful, but the magic is gone. In real life Harry Goz (voice of Captain Murphy) had passed and his son Michael took over as the new captain. I appreciated the attempt, but there is a reason my DVD collections stops at Season 3. It was a sad way for the show to end, but I have a feeling they didn’t have much longer to go anyway with Harry Goz on board. There is only so much you can do in the setting and with that style of humor. I think the numerous name changes and decline in quality from “Aqua Something You Know Whatever” proves random can only go so far. A real story arch is easier to carry. But “Sealab 2021” was great for my developing teen mind to digest. I hear early Adult Swim was only good if you were high, but I disagree. Being young and stupid helped too. Luckily nostalgia keeps me into them if I do catch any of it. I’m rambling a bit so how about I leave you with this:
