Lucy: (seeing Washington in ruins) Oh, now what do we do?
Matty: Now we rebuild, or whatever.
Matty: Now we rebuild, or whatever.
Mulligan is an animated series produced created by Sam Means and Robert Carlock for Netflix, released in May 2023.
Taking place in a dystopian future in which Earth is destroyed by an alien attack, what remains of humanity has the chance to start society over from scratch, led by hero and newly-appointed president Matthew "Matty" Mulligan (Nat Faxon) and a rag-tag band of survivors. It's an opportunity to learn from humanity's past mistakes and get things right this time. Or make the same mistakes all over again. Probably the second one.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Parody: Of alien invasion genre movies such as Independence Day.
- After the End: The series takes place after most of humanity is wiped out by an alien invasion, leaving roughly 1132 survivors (in the Washington D.C. area) trying to rebuild society. Meanwhile, the alien armada's commander and sole survivor Axatrax is imprisoned in the bowling alley of the White House, often used by Matty for advice or schemes.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Deconstructed. Turns out that electing a President on the basis of "I saved the world with a lucky grenade toss" was an extremely lousy idea.
- Beta Couple: Simon and Farrah. As of the first season finale, it hasn't happened yet, but each of them has pushed for it at one point or another.
- Body Horror: While it's downplayed by the show's art style, TOD-209 is still a Brain in a Jar, fully exposed, with its eyeballs still attached. Think of that one scene in RoboCop 2 where Cain's brain is shown inside a tube : this is what TOD looks like In-Universe.
- Childish Tooth Gap: Matty sports this, emphasizing his Manchild personality.
- Corrupt Politician: Senator Cartwright LaMarr, Matty's vice-president. A hardcore Republican who loves small government (except when he can directly benefit from big government), LaMarr goes out of his way to sabotage efforts to rebuild, curry favor with the (formerly) rich and famous, manipulate Matty, pass meaningless laws that heavily empower corporate interests (even though corporations don't exist anymore), the list goes on. In fact, he unabashedly insists on being bribed before he'll lift a finger to do anything, despite the fact that money doesn't exist anymore.
- Cyborg: TOD-209, a heavily-armored and weaponized Brain in a Jar version designed by Dr. Braun and her colleagues to help combat the invasion. It didn't go as planned, as he was sent out before he was finished and because of it would only attack national monuments instead of alien ships.Braun: I told them he wasn't ready.
- Deadpan Snarker: Braun, Prioleau, LaMarr and Axatrax are usually full of sardonic quips, most of them at the expense of Matty and Lucy.
- Healing Factor: Axatrax's species is capable of regrowing body parts within a matter of hours.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: It doesn't take long for Matty to become hated by what's left of society after becoming president with his idiotic decrees and ideas, with one of his goals being to become liked again.
- Homeworld Evacuation:
- According to LaMarr, most of America's scientists and intellectuals fled the planet on Jeff Bezos' space ark, with a cutaway showing them getting blown up from being inadvertently rammed by a passing alien ship.
- The Cardibeans doomed their homeworld by using up all their natural resources and poisoning their environment. Axatrax's armada was assigned to clear away everything on Earth for resettlement, only for the plan to have a wrench thrown into it by Matty.
- I Have No Idea What I'm Doing: Matty has more than once admitted that his job as leader is harder than it looks and not knowing what to do a lot of the time.
- Manchild: Matty in spades. Most of the time he lives his life by various movies, is extremely gullible, and has the mentality and attention span of a hyperactive five-year-old. Needless to say, this hasn’t done wonders for rebuilding humanity as all ideas have to be run by him and it makes him easily manipulated by LaMarr.
- Meaningful Name: A mulligan is a term in golf for a stroke that is replayed from the spot of the previous stroke without penalty, due to an errant shot made on the previous stroke.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Zhao seems like a stand-in for Kim Jong-Il.
- Only Sane Man: Braun, Prioleau, and Axatrax are the biggest ones, with LaMarr being this to a somewhat lesser extent.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Matty's "council" of who he deems the smartest people left on Earth. The only two who really qualify are former military scientist Dr. Farrah Braun and historian Simon Prioleau. Aside from them, we have former beauty pageant queen-turned First Lady Lucy Suwan; slimy and manipulative Senator Cartwright LaMarr; sole-surviving British citizen Jeremy who was added because his accent makes him sound smart; newly-appointed General Scarpaccio/Jayson Moody, an aimless teen who wears a Marine general's uniform he took from a corpse; one of the former backup singers for The Carpenters, a dentist, and the owner of a shoe store that didn't get blown up.
- Ruling Couple: An interesting example because Lucy rejected Mulligan as a romantic partner, but they both feel the administration will run more smoothly with a first lady for ceremonial purposes. However, they're both OK with the arrangement.
- Sad Clown: Most of the time, Matty is a childish buffoon who is probably the least qualified person to lead humanity. However, he turns out to be somewhat more self-aware than he lets on and possesses the desire to prove that he isn’t as big of a screw-up as everyone thinks he is.
- Skewed Priorities: Most of the time, Matty’s in a completely different universe than everyone else when it comes to priorities, such as trying to find a nonexistent secret treasure when the others want to access the seed vault to grow more food.
- The Unfavorite: Matty was apparently this to his parents, going by his claim about his dad leaving his drywall business to Matty’s younger sister. Even Axatrax believes it to be harsh.
- Unfortunate Names: Axatrax's home planet is called Cardi-B, with Axatrax fervently claiming it to be a coincidence when Matty lampshades it.
- You No Take Candle: TOD-209 talks like this.
