The Tick on Amazon Prime ~ Is it any good?

I bought my first Tick comic in 1988. It was hilarious. It was irreverent. It was not for kids. I wouldn't say it was necessarily bad for kids, but it wasn't aimed at them in any way. It was for the average comic reader, which contrary to popular belief has always been predominately males between the ages of 18-35. I was with the Tick at the start and have seen him through a lot of iterations.I even ran a small Tick fan website in the 90s. When I say I am a fan of the Tick, I mean I am a fan of the Tick.

This was my first Tick ~ 1988 (I still have it)

That early Tick fought Ninja's a lot!

The theme of whether or not the Tick was truly crazy was often touched on in those early comics. While it has never been completely abandoned, it has also taken more of a back seat in the last few Tick shows.

The animated show pretty much kept the humor of the books but took the edge off of the surreal life that was the hallmark of the comics. This Tick might not be crazy. True he didn't know who he really was, true he jumped into danger without giving it a second thought, but was he crazy? This tick won the right to defend the city in a yearly contest in Reno by, "surviving the deadliest engine of destruction 1974 had to offer."

The show was hilarious, but it was very obviously changed from the dark overtones of the comic. Actually pretty much everyone was crazy in the animated show!

Fox's live-action take on the Tick was much the same. This Tick was amazingly cast with Patrick Warburton in the lead role. He was the perfect Tick. Goofy, funny and fun. Didn't know much about the world around him at all but I never found myself wondering if he was actually insane though. When I saw him attached as a producer on the new show I was very excited and hope this new show would be more of a continuation of the original live-action fun.

Patrick Warburton was the Tick

Now we have a new Tick. I'm going, to be honest, it took me several episodes to start liking this show at all (and I'm still not in love with it). This is a darker version of the Tick, with much more in common with the original. This Tick may or may not actually be crazy. This is also a smaller Tick profile than was presented by either Warburton or the animated cartoon and it is hard to get used to. I don't like the costuming much at all. Arthur especially doesn't look like any of his previous incarnations. The new costumes are just clunky.

All that being said, by the end of season one pt.1 this Tick is starting to grow on me. It was funny by episode 6 (the last one of season 1 pt.1). Peter Serafinowicz's Tick is growing on me. Griffin Newman's Arthur, not so much (but I am having real trouble getting past the costume). I also dislike that the main villain is the Terror as he was the last bad guy in both the animated series and the first live-action.

So far the supporting cast is weak. We have no Bat Manuel (or Die Fledermaus on the animated show), no Captain Liberty (or American Maid) but the one really great supporting cast member so far has been the anti-hero Punisher type vigilante called Overkill (who is definitely an updated Big Shot from the cartoon).

Anyway, in closing, I really wanted to tell you I loved it. Especially since it was the first and only subject I wrote about in this blog for over a year. But I can't. I can tell you I'm starting to like it. I'm starting to find the humor. I'm starting to get used to the underlying darkness of whether or not the hero is actually insane. I don't love it though... not yet.

Season 1 part 2 is coming ~ I'm hopeful but not ecstatic

I'll keep watching - for now!