March 6, 2011

Frisky Dingo: Season 1


Adam Reed is the man responsible for both Sealab 2021 and Archer, two of my all time favorite animated shows. As soon as I learned about this little show called Frisky Dingo that he made in between the end of Sealab and the beginning of Archer, I knew I had to check it out. And now I have done so. In typical Adult Swim fashion, Frisky Dingo episodes run only eleven minutes in length; getting through this first season of thirteen episodes was no more taxing than watching a two-and-a-half-hour movie. And in a lot of ways it felt very movie-like. Each episode began with the conclusion of the previous episode, aside from the first two episodes which served as introductions to the two main characters, a supervillain named "Killface" and a superhero named "Awesome X." I can't find the right words and phrases to describe Frisky Dingo aside from "irreverent" and "absurd" and other catch-alls for nearly all Adult Swim programming. But this was still more watchable and enjoyable than most Adult Swim programming. A lot of the awkward humor fell flat, but every now and again (maybe two or three times an episode, on average) there was a legitimately funny situation or dialogue exchange. And it isn't as if I minded watching the few minutes of "plot development" that came in between the laughs. In a weird way, the show feels like a hybrid of Sealab and Archer in that it contains plenty of the absurdity of the former but stylistically feels more like the latter. Unfortunately, it doesn't work quite as well as either of those two shows. But then, that's a mighty high pair of standards to live up to. You'll probably enjoy Frisky Dingo if you can stand the absurd fast-paced gibberish style of Adult Swim. That said, this is not must-see TV. I enjoyed it just enough not to mind that I was watching it.

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