Have you ever fallen into the trap of reading webcomics? The oatsWe’ve done it and laughed a lot about it many, many times. We find it hilarious because creator Matthew Inman sees humans as mostly dumb, fluid-spewing bags of meat and pets as flawed heroes who love us (or in the case of cats, tolerate us). But there’s also plenty of humanity and heart beneath the parody. Inman’s animated series based on his popular Exploding Kittens The card game brings that combination of silliness and heart to a wider audience.
EXPLOSIVE KITTENS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening shot: A shot of the gleaming towers of Heaven. God (Tom Ellis) is drinking a martini in a waiting room. An angel comes out and says, “The board of directors will receive you now.”
The essence: The board of directors at Heaven Inc. is not very happy with God, because of the fires he accidentally sets and the loud nature programs he plays on their television. They think he’s out of touch and the best way to get him back in touch is to banish himself to Earth and answer the prayers of a human family there. But he’s going to live there as a cat.
He discovers that he is Godcat when he lands with a thud on Earth. Aslandeus (David Gborie) and Craig (Tom Kenny), the board angels assigned to watch over him, tell him that he has powers, but that they are limited. Godcat is soon caught by animal control officer Abbie Higgins (Suzy Nakamura), who discovers that he is the person she is there to help.
Godcat manages to rally the forces of the other cats at the animal control shelter to escape; he hops into Abbie’s truck as she drives home. Somehow, he quickly manages to convince Abbie’s family (RPG-creator dad Marv (Mark Proksch), washed-up teen YouTuber Travis (Kenny Yates), and teenage scientist Greta (Ally Maki)) that he is God in cat form. He is definitely a cat, though, as he impulsively pushes things off tables and goes into “feline berserker mode” when he sees a red laser pointer.
Since the family is not very religious (Abbie believes more in guns than religion, having been in the military), no one knows who prayed to save the Higgins family. Eventually, he goes back and sees footage of Abbie saying, “Oh my god, my family is a mess.” Saying “Oh my god” constitutes a prayer, and Godcat is determined to help them so they can get back to heaven.
What shows will it remind you of? Co-created by Shane Kosakowski and The oats‘s Matthew Inman (Mike Judge and Greg Daniels are also EPs), Exploding Kittens It is loosely based on the popular card game of the same name that Inman created. Its style reminds us of a slightly more refined version of Inman’s comics, but the comedy atmosphere is less Family man and more Bob’s Burgers.
Our opinion: We have been fans of Inman. The oats For a long time, we laughed a lot at his comics when they depicted humans as fluid-spewing meat bags and pets as flawed heroes. But there’s always been a river of humanity running beneath Inman’s sense of humor, and that’s what we see with Exploding Kittens.
As much as Godcat seems like a prickly genius who feels his most perfect creation is the mantis shrimp, he almost immediately begins to care about the Higgins family and works to help them. Does he have an ulterior motive? Sure. But when Aslandeus and Craig tell him he has a lot to make up for — including people building nautical-themed bathrooms — we can see a scenario where Godcat stays with the Higginses indefinitely, reluctantly caring for them like most cats end up doing with their human staff — i.e. caretakers.
There were several funny moments in the first episode, but there were no jokes from start to finish, and that’s a good thing. It seems that was influenced by Judge and Daniels. King of the hillThe show that the two created was never about a joke a minute; it built its fan base with well-drawn characters and good stories. We already have a good idea of who each member of the Higgins family is by the end of the first episode, and the longer the show’s writers sit with Godcat and the Higgins family, the deeper their characters will become.
Sex and skin: None in the first episode.
Parting shot: Godcat spies a black cat in the yard next door. When a pentagram-shaped fire erupts around the cat, he realizes it is Beelzebub (Sasheer Zamata), who is now on Earth as Devilcat. Devilcat spits out a furball and swallows it as the fire spreads around him.
Sleeping Star: Mark Proksch is always funny as a drab, nerdy nobody (he plays Colin the energy vampire in What we do in the shadowsfor example), and is quite funny as Marv Higgins, who loves torturing his family with his extremely complicated role-playing games.
Pilot’s most typical phrase: After a road rage incident with a crossbow, during which Godcat calls her “Colonel Kurtz,” Abbie sighs and says, “I love being a model citizen.” How delirious!
Our calling: PASS IT ON. Exploding Kittens It has a surprising amount of heart for a show about a cat who thinks he’s God because, well, he… is God.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting, and technology, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV addict. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and elsewhere.
