I like to think of Adult Swim as the modern, obnoxious middle school boy of television. Once they have a concept that they think is more rebellious and shocking than the last, they follow through and make that concept as sickening as possible. At least when the middle school boy figures out using the same curse word more than once gets old, he quits, whereas Adult Swim likes to try and beat their viewers' heads in with their monster of a show. Just as they did with Squidbillies and Metalocalypse, Adult Swim has brought us yet another cartoon they thought was shocking in content, but comes across as another pile of garbage.
Mr. Pickles is one of Adult Swim's latest creations in the field of horribly animated shows, featuring the adventures of a boy and his dog, Mr. Pickles. The catch? Mr. Pickles is possessed by a demon and commits the goriest murders possible, even crossing the line so far as to commit necrophilia. In the meantime, the boy's grandpa has to convince the family that Mr. Pickles isn't really Satan, as Mr. Pickles repeatedly tears apart pedophiles and criminals in front of Grandpa. From there on out, the adventures are filled with encounters of some of the ugliest and most disgusting characters ever conceived.
Before I continue, I'd like to say a few things. Are you proud of yourself, Adult Swim? You made me use the phrases “disgusting" and “gory." Go ahead and pat yourselves on the back because that seems to be the only reason why this series was ever produced in the first place: to make the reviewers say “disgusting" and “gory" as a description for Mr. Pickles.
After subjecting myself to the entire first season, I found no reason for me (or anyone else, for that matter) to come back for the recently announced Season 2. Everything about this show is ugly from the animation to the character design to the voice acting to the theme song to the end credits to the murders themselves!
I usually don't like tearing apart cartoons, but Mr. Pickles is NOT a cartoon. Cartoons should have some wit to their humor. They should have an art style that gives them a charm and visual that is unique to the show. These factors are what gives a cartoon some watch value. Mr. Pickles misses all of those marks.
The show is animated, entirely, using Adobe Flash. My issue here is not because the whole show is animated on a cheap program we use to watch YouTube videos. No, my issue with this is the quality of the show. There are some shows out there that are animated using Adobe Flash, too, but their quality is much better. The Amazing World of Gumball, for instance, has numerous characters animated in different art styles similar to Blue's Clues, The Fairly Oddparents and old stop-motion cartoons. Mr. Pickles looks like an ugly flip book made by a fourth grader. There is no sense of depth and everyone looks flatter than a sheet of paper.
To make matters worse, the characters are so disturbing that any channel surfers might get nightmares just from passing the show. Why do I have to see every wrinkle and wart on these over-exaggerated stereotypes? Mr. Pickles makes The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack look like the Channing Tatum of cartoons. Mr. Pickles makes Dirt Girl look like the Sistine Chapel. Need I say more?
Among all of these problems, my biggest one focuses on the show's self-declared “comedy." Mr. Pickles gets its humor primarily through killing off as many characters in however many ways possible in the course of 11 minutes.
Allow me to call to call to the stand, South Park, the godfather of incredibly offensive humor. South Park has always been under fire when it comes to criticizing political figures, current events, and society as whole. However, in the execution, they do it with some wit in mind, unlike our possessed canine friend. They used a Game of Thrones plot to compare the unnecessary ruckus of the war between fans of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. They criticized society's issue with Walmart stores, calling out protesters who shop at a Walmart anyways. South Park even shows our own television shows in an unforgiving light. (Anyone remember the Honey Boo Boo episode?) Yes, on the outside, South Park seems like a fart-fest of toilet humor, but when you get past all of the offensive and outlandish jokes, South Park is trying to tell something to their audience.
This is where my earlier analogy comes in. What Mr. Pickles tries to make funny comes across as purely obscene, and not even in an intelligent way. Stereotypical characters come and go, but they all act as caricatures from bad Saturday Night Live sketches. Even though Mr. Pickles drops a few f-bombs here and there, they feel as if they were just thrown in for no reason. It's like when you hear a 12-year-old boy say a curse word. Sure, you're shocked the first time, but after another 20 times within the next 10 minutes, you realize he's only doing it for attention.
As for the blood and gore used for jokes, I wonder if the creators of Mr. Pickles have ever heard of a show that knows how to be bloody and funny at the same time. I mean, there is a show that does that, and they share the same network! Aqua Teen Hunger Force is one of Adult Swim's longest running shows, still airing new episodes to this day and preparing for its final season. This show, too, has horrible animation and a random, violent sense of humor. However, the show's style justifies itself on the animation and humor. The characters are lazy and, often, very stupid. Therefore, displaying scenes similar to a JPEG file is appropriate for this kind of a show. The comedy, although random, has some wit to it. I remember a scene where Master Shake wanted to hold a teddy bear with razor blades sticking out of its fur. Even though Frylock told Shake not to touch it, Shake touched it anyway and ended up getting his hand sliced off.
Mr. Pickles can't even do blood and gore right. All of the blood looks like faded red marker that bled through a coloring book. Even the murders aren't as spectacular as the show tries to make them seem. Speaking of murders, every time Mr. Pickles shows me one, using some gardening tool and committing unspeakable acts later or whatever, I'm always left unimpressed. Yet again, it feels like that one child in a grocery store that is acting out for the sake of acting out.
That's all can I see you as, Mr. Pickles; a spoiled little tot that shouts "Hey, look at me! I'm going on a murderous rampage, you little [insert offensive slang terms]!" You were a show created to solely try and shock your audience, only to come across as a poorly raised adolescent child that doesn't know profane comedy if it bit you on the tail. How you were picked up for a second season, I'll never know. However, I highly recommend you step up your game and try to be smarter with your obscenity by the time your season premiere comes. I'm a pretty big fan of dogs, and the last thing I want to say is "Put it out of its misery!" It's bad enough I had to sit through Old Yeller and Marley & Me as a youngling.
