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Rating:  -
Probably the most hysterically funny TV show ever! Beats Seinfeld! (by a narrow margin). Would've loved to see their take on the comic "Night of a million zillion ninjas", and they dumbed down the Red Scare to robot status, but hey, whatareyagonnado? Patrick Warburton is wonderful in the role, and the cast is exceptional. Nestor Campbell is wonderful as BatManuel, and his delivery is excellent! Fans of this show should file a class-action suit to put it back on the air.
Rating:  -
I don't know why, but the cartoon version was just about the funniest show I had ever seen, but for some reason it didn't transfer well into live-action. The comedy was flat and the Tick mostly came across silly. Bat-Manuel sp? was the only character that seemed to elicit a chuckle. I was suprised at how unfunny this series was considering Patrick Warburton was tailor made for the Tick. I loved him as Cronk in "The Emperor's Groove" which was essentially the same dumb loveable character. If you haven't bought this DVD yet, I'd hold out for the cartoon release.
Rating:  -
I've been a fan of The Tick since the original comic book series in the late 80's. Writer Ben Edlund was genius on this series, but alas the comic only lasted 13 issues with him as creator. The Tick continued in other series written and drawn by other writers and artists but they never lived up to what Edlund did and interest in the comic faltered. Then the cartoon came along and although it was quite good it basically reduced a smart teen/adult comic to a show for a 10 year old audience, although it did contain enough twisted humour to appeal to the eclectic grown up which is a good thing and came with Edlund's involvement in the show. The live action tv show with Edlund's involvement once again provided a series that was directed at a more mature audience and proved that The Tick character was easily capable of transending any audience. As with previous incarnations however, the show was shot down much too early. This DVD collection is well worth a purchase if you are a fan of the character. The episodes are clever and well written and the characters are great. The only disappointments I can sight are that just as you are getting used to the true genius of the show, it ends. Not even enough episodes were made to consider this a season and that's just too bad. Shame on the studio for cancelling a show that had so much potential, but that seems to be the thorn in The Tick's side no matter what medium he adorns. My only real complaint about this set is that there is an extra that is web linked, meaning that you put the disk in your pc drive and click on a link to a website where you can watch a badly streamed 20 minute interview with actor Patrick Warburton who plays the Tick. The interview is good with inside info about the making of the show and so on, so I have no idea why it wasn't included on the dvds themselves? Someday when it is taken offline you won't be able to access it and anyone who buys the set after that point won't ever get to see the extra. This is a terrible marketing tactic especially when the dvds could have been beefed up with more material such as this. Fans deserve every bit of material especially since the series was cut short. The set is rounded off with some commentary on some select episodes which are cool. Great overall but the stupid weblink to a internet only interview angers me enough to take 1 star off an otherwise entertaining package.
Rating: -
I have argued to friends that TV is a medium with vaster potential than cinema. TV has an extraordinary advantage: more time, time to develop characters, story lines, long story arcs (a 500 minute story will beat a 100 minute story if you have a good script writer involved), and anything else you care to produce. But unfortunately TV as we have known it is largely a dismal affair: television executives. Show me a new show with creative brilliance, great writing, wonderful characters, and intelligence, and I will show you a series that is probably not going to be long in this world. TV execs want series that you can grasp and completely understand while eating a sandwich and drinking a beer, chatting the whole time with friends on the phone.
THE TICK is one of these unfortunate shows that made the mistake of trying to do something original and different, and to do this with tremendous wit and intelligence. I have to be honest: THE TICK never became a great show, but it is obvious that it had the potential for greatness. Shows always take some time to find their feet. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER didn't become truly great until the second season, and most series follow this pattern. They get better as they go along, and unfortunately THE TICK didn't get to fulfill its potential.
The genius behind THE TICK is Ben Edlund, who followed the cancellation of THE TICK with some utterly brilliant scripts for FIREFLY and ANGEL. Edlund breaks many standard conventions with THE TICK. For one thing, we never really learn all that much about The Tick. Most super hero shows deal at length with back story, but despite having appeared in comics, in an animated series, and a live action series, we know little more about The Tick at end than we did at the beginning. We know that he is a bit of a well meaning dimwit, given to extravagantly complex and high flown sentences, good hearted, virtually indestructible, and apparently about as strong as Superman. He might, in fact, be less vulnerable than Superman, since he apparently doesn't have his own version of Kryptonite. Apart from vulnerability and super strength, however, it isn't clear that he has any other powers. He lives in a city filled with super heroes, but amazingly few if any of them possess their own super abilities. Most achieve their trademarks stunts through gimmicks, like The Tick's sidekick Arthur, who can only fly when opening his moth wings out of a backpack. But The Tick truly is blessed with almost godlike abilities.
Although we only had the show for nine episodes, it was clear that it was going to be a superbly written, well-conceived series. The four performers making up the heart of the show were all great, especially Patrick Warburton in the title role. David Burke was great as Arthur, a nebbish accountant who had Walter Mitty fantasies of becoming a crime fighting super hero, which he largely fulfills by becoming The Tick's sidekick. Liz Vassey plays Janet aka Captain Liberty, who although a very effective hero (in fact, after The Tick, she seems to be the only one of the four who actually does any crime fighting), is beset by a host of personal problems, mostly having to do with men and her willingness to giver herself to them. Nestor Carbonell often steals the show as the would be Romeo and super hero chick magnet Batmanuel. Although apparently bereft of any crime fighting abilities, Batmanuel seems to have become a superhero for the same reason that some guys join bands: the chicks. The quality of the guest stars was consistently superb, with name performers like Ron Perlman (almost unrecognizable under the worst hair do one could ever hope to see on a super hero), Christopher Lloyd as Arthur's boss in the pilot, and Armin Shimerman (who is best known in make up as Quark from DEEP SPACE NINE and out of make up as Principal Snyder from BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER), who is truly unrecognizable as the elderly super villain Destroyo.
The DVD set isn't great, I'll admit, but I think many reviewers exaggerate how bad they are. As far as special features go, I find that I rarely access them. I'll listen to a commentary once, but the actual film or series several times. I do wish they had included more information, and I also agree with some reviewers who wish they would bring out the cartoon series. Nonetheless, I'm grateful that we have the nine existing episodes of what might have become a classic television show.
Rating:  -
I bought this from a GoldBox offer and then realized it was not the cartoon! I haven't received it yet, and already I hate it! Please put out the cartoon series on DVD!!!
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