Titan Maximum and other Adult Swim disasters

I have come to be increasingly bored of Adult Swim. There, I said it. I know it’s the hip channel youngsters watch these days but my God, what the Hell are they thinking? Over the past few years (mostly my college years) Adult Swim has been my choice of viewing. I have also purchased DVDs of some of their shows like “Aqua Teen Hunger Force”, “The Venture Brothers” or “Lucy, the daughter of the Devil”. This is not the case anymore.

My biggest problem with Adult Swim is that it’s become a boy’s club. What started with “Robot Chicken” has degenerated into shows like “Super Jail” (a guilty pleasure of mine, I must admit), “Delocated”, or more recently “Titan Maximum”. The heavy male-oriented, male-originated production of the channel becomes boring and repetitive, and shows that might have been innovative and groundbreaking at some point devolve into formulaic and stale versions of themselves. Yes, “Robot Chicken” was, once, a very funny and surprising show, where you would find new gags in every viewing and obscure references that were almost as fun to figure out than to watch. Today, this same show has become a collection of fart jokes followed by sex jokes followed by a medley of well to not very well known characters parodying themselves or some random movie. It’s understandable that it would come to this. There is so much you can do with a fifteen-minute pop culture puppet show before it runs out of steam. The only thing that has kept “Robot Chicken” on the air for this long is the presence of Seth Green. I’ve been to the Robot Chicken panels at Comic Con, the guy has incredible charisma and sells the show. But for how long?


Some shows still manage to keep my attention. “The Venture Brothers” is, perhaps, the best on the network. The animation is great, the characters are memorable and the plot lines are addictive. “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” will always be one of their strongest, amazingly. It’s funny, witty, crass and disgusting humor combined with the ridiculous movie they made have transformed this little show into a cult classic. “Metalocalypse” is fun, but will the new 20-minute episodes be able to keep audience’s attention? The great thing about this show is that it ends before you reach the limit of your patience, and leaves you with a warm, insanely bloody feeling. My kind of feeling.


There are shows that need to die so others can come and bring new blood to the network. “Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!” is a drag. It might have been funny at some point, but watching two not-so-young nerds running around doing bad mock eighties videos doesn’t work anymore. Three seasons are enough. “Squidbillies” has all the bad things of “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” and none of the good things. And more recently, “Titan Maximum”.


Now, these one is brand new. “Titan Maximum” was created by the same people responsible for “Robot Chicken”, and it’s not hard to tell. The show tells the story of a bunch of idiots who pilot a big robot to protect the world. With an awkward sense of humor and an attempt to create some character development, the show feels like a long “Robot Chicken” sketch that takes itself too seriously. Don’t get me wrong, I love good stop-motion animation. Moral Orel is probably one of the best shows to ever hit the TV screens. But this one just doesn’t work. I know it will not last long on the channel: it doesn’t have Seth Green to promote it.


Apart from this, Adult Swim has made some minor good decisions. Mainly “King of the Hill” and “The Mighty Boosh”, probably their best shows right now (and they’re not even produced by them but syndicated). As much as I like “The Oblongs”, it’s time to stop the reruns. There’s only a few episodes anyway! And please, PLEASE, no more “Home Movies”. How tedious can a badly flash animated show be?? And “Family Guy”? That show should have died when they canceled it originally. Now it just drags on and on with empty storylines that go nowhere and boring, repetitive gags.


Adult Swim has become a boy’s club, controlled basically by Seth Green, Tim and Eric and the guys who make ATHF. It saddens me to see how a network with such potential and with such a great interest to look for new talents wastes away due to the likes of such individuals. I’m still hoping the network heads will come to their senses and go back to basics soon. If not, we might have to look for the next channel to take it's place... Not Comedy Central though. "South Park" may be the best TV show on the air right now. But "Tosh.0"? I mean, come on!