Coming in, I expected a pretty good series filled with Ho Yay that mocked historical fact in favor of telling a good story. So far...no dice. Yes, it's a decent show, and I'd probably tune into it if there was nothing else on, but it really doesn't seem that memorable to me. In fact, as you can tell by the title, it's surprisingly mediocre.
Sure, there are some interesting ideas here, like Eli Whitney creating flesh-eating robots rather than inventing the cotton gin, or Beethoven being a professional wrestler instead of composing great music, and there are some funny episodes like the one with Confucius, but largely the jokes fall flat and the ideas don't blossom. And that's not even including the ideas that just plain aren't that interesting, like Abe Lincoln pulling pranks or the Wright Bros. being stuntmen. I mean, sure, those two are plausible, and they could lead to humor...but they don't. They just end up largely being not that funny.
This doesn't even take into account that the plots are pretty much Strictly Formula. Essentially, what happens is: bickering between Larry and Tundrussel at the start of the show, followed by the alarm going off, followed by a trip into the past where they discover that some historical figure is misbehaving, followed by them correcting the behavior, followed by them going back to the ship. It's pretty much never played with, and it gets boring after a bit–even more so when they switch from doing a 15-minute short followed by a 7-minute short to doing typical Two Shorts format.
In short, while the series did have a decent amount of potential, it was pretty much mediocre, with a plot that was Strictly Formula, no Character Development, and in the end, not much interest to this viewer.
Time Squad: Surprisingly Mediocre
Okay, so, Time Squad isn't all that great.
Coming in, I expected a pretty good series filled with Ho Yay that mocked historical fact in favor of telling a good story. So far...no dice. Yes, it's a decent show, and I'd probably tune into it if there was nothing else on, but it really doesn't seem that memorable to me. In fact, as you can tell by the title, it's surprisingly mediocre.
Sure, there are some interesting ideas here, like Eli Whitney creating flesh-eating robots rather than inventing the cotton gin, or Beethoven being a professional wrestler instead of composing great music, and there are some funny episodes like the one with Confucius, but largely the jokes fall flat and the ideas don't blossom. And that's not even including the ideas that just plain aren't that interesting, like Abe Lincoln pulling pranks or the Wright Bros. being stuntmen. I mean, sure, those two are plausible, and they could lead to humor...but they don't. They just end up largely being not that funny.
This doesn't even take into account that the plots are pretty much Strictly Formula. Essentially, what happens is: bickering between Larry and Tundrussel at the start of the show, followed by the alarm going off, followed by a trip into the past where they discover that some historical figure is misbehaving, followed by them correcting the behavior, followed by them going back to the ship. It's pretty much never played with, and it gets boring after a bit–even more so when they switch from doing a 15-minute short followed by a 7-minute short to doing typical Two Shorts format.
In short, while the series did have a decent amount of potential, it was pretty much mediocre, with a plot that was Strictly Formula, no Character Development, and in the end, not much interest to this viewer.