The Tick

The Tick

A superhero sitcom that aired on FOX in 2001.

The Set-Up: A rag-tag group of superheroes hang out and deal with the more mundane aspects of the superhero lifestyle – like renewing your hero license and dating chicks with a costume fetish. Patrick Warburton plays the Tick – doing his most deadpan uber-Adam West impression, spouting insanity like “Armless bandit... Empty your bladder of that bitter black urine men call coffee! It has its price and its price has been paid! Java devil, you are now my bitch.”

There are other actors. The only other one I’m familiar with is Nestor Carbonell, who plays Richard Alpert on Lost. Here, he plays Batmanuel. A horny, lazy, Latino take on Batman. It’s kind of like Mystery Men meets Seinfeld.

Typical episode: The heroes fall in with someone either weirder than themselves or more “normal” than themselves. Then they meet up at a café and discuss. Warburton’s character continues to be baffled by “the real world” as if he just landed on Earth – despite the fact that the real world depicted here is superhero-warped to begin with.

By the way, Arthur’s hero persona is “kind of a moth thing.”

Typical dialogue: When shown a picture of a naked woman, Warburton laughs, “This poor fellow has bosoms!”

My favorite episodes:

• 1.1: The Pilot. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld who would go on to direct the pilot of Pushing Daisies. In the first episode, the Tick is tricked into leaving his post at a bus stop and falls in with Arthur, who has just quit his desk job to be a hero full time.
  
• 1.3: “Arthur, Interrupted” Arthur comes out to his family about being a superhero. They immediately ship him off to a superhero-detoxing institution run by twisted fuck Dave Foley. Lots of gay humor.
  
• 1.7: “The Funeral” A superhero named the Immortal dies. Lots of dead body humor.
  
• 1.8 “The Tick Vs. Justice” Batmanuel has a fender-bender with Destroyo in a parking garage and discovers his trunk is full of nuclear weapons. A trial ensues. Lots of Silence of the Lambs humor.
  
• 1.9: “The Big Leagues” The Tick and Arthur are asked to join an exclusive league of superheroes. Lots of bigotry humor.
  

Least Favorite:

• 1.6 “Couples” When Arthur and the Tick meet another crime-fighting duo, they must decide who is the hero and who is the sidekick. More gay humor. The other crime fighting duo (Fiery Blaze and Friendly Fire) is really annoying.
  

How many episodes were produced? 9

Is there much continuity? There’s not much need for continuity, but there is some very detailed continuity (specifically Batmanuel’s broken arm) between the first episode and the second episode (which never aired) – despite the fact that the second episode takes place a year after the first. Weird.

Why was it canceled? The show was crazy fucking weird. There is no way something like this could catch on. Besides Fox kept changing the time slot.

Was there closure? While the final episode doesn’t tie up any loose ends (there aren’t any to tie up), it does provide a natural conclusion to the issues brought up in the first episode. In the pilot, Arthur is struggling to find a place where he fits in. By this episode, he learns that he has already found that place.

Any unattended issues? Nope. Destroyo, Apocalypse Cow, and the Russian robot programmed to kill Jimmy Carter have all been dealt with. Although Captain Liberty’s “wanty” issues may never be put to rest. And I wonder why Warburton's character is the way he is, but that's just me.

The verdict: Very funny, very cleverly written show. It’s all held together by Warburton’s innocent, boisterous performance. But it is never more than skin deep. It doesn’t evolve and the premise does get old after a while. Excellent in small doses.