Tuesday, September 24, 2013

On The Air: Axe Cop (2013)

10 years after Spike TV's ill-fated attempt at counter-programming [adult swim], Fox is trying something similar, but on Saturday nights, this after they'd tried to fill the void created by MadTV's departure with either reruns of primetime shows or a short-lived series hosted by actress-comic Wanda Sykes.

Axe Cop began as an online series after a modest drawing appeared on the creator's Facebook page 4 years ago. Someone at Fox saw the potential in making a weekly, 15 minute series, and picked up the rights. The series bowed in July with a primetime preview on the 15th before the official launch on the 21st.

The title character is simply known as Axe Cop, his partner is Flute Cop, and well, you get the idea. It's a send-up of crime dramas and superheroes taken to an extreme, even more so than the network's two adaptations of Ben Edlund's The Tick, and while Tick made us laugh, some of Axe Cop's tactics might make some people cringe. Like, would a real police officer carry an axe? Nope. And this is the network that has a serial killer carrying a broadaxe on one of their freshman primetime shows (Sleepy Hollow), and has a reputation for doing a lot of bizarre, outside-the-box ideas.

Where the show falls apart is the excess of expository dialogue. Trying to cram that into a 15 minute show, plus a plot that has more holes than a cake of Swiss cheese, including the implausibility of a car that can fly to another planet to a specialty shop that rents dinosaur horns. I like the artwork, but everything just collapses in the second half of the show.

Here's a trailer:



I wasn't laughing. I was doing some face-palming instead. Not a good sign.

Rating: D.

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