"It's gonna get pretty weird in there."
— Dr. Roberts
A live action psychedelic comedy series from [adult swim].
A man visits a decrepit facility to seek help for impotence issues.
This facility is the headquarters of Dream Corp LLC. and its creator, Dr. Roberts. A (most likely illegal) therapy facility that delves into the patients dreamscape to find the source of their individual issue.
It's also really effing weird, with a staff that includes a stoner nurse, a sardonic robot and an oddball assistant. And now the man, dubbed Patient 88, has a job there to pay his bills. So begins his employment at Dream Corp LLC.
Dream Tropes LLC:
- Ambiguous Time Period: While the show never gives a conclusive year for when it's set, some dialogue and technology suggest that it's the early 2000s.
- An Arm and a Leg: Randy loses a hand when he sticks it in a laser. He gets a robot hand later, and barely seems to miss his original.
- As Himself: When Joey goes mad with dream power during the season 1 finale, she decides to adopt the voice of Liam Neeson to sound intimidating. As provided by the man himself.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite the oddity of himself, his staff and the ramshackle state of his tech, Dr. Roberts succeeds in helping almost every patient who comes by.
- Butt-Monkey: 88 can never catch a break.
- Call-Back: During the opening of season 3, Margot finds a pickle on the floor. 88 thankfully walks by before she reenacts "Pickle Trip" on herself.88: Don't eat that.
- Darker and Edgier: "The Krux" is largely devoid of the shows usual dark humor, instead giving a haunting look into the fractured mind of a Serial Killer. Complete with Downer Ending when Dr. Roberts, for the first time, just can't help a patient.
- Food Pills: Dr. Roberts is constantly drinking canned beverages that seem to be various foods in liquid form. It also seems to be all he can eat: in one episode, he’s seen drinking a can of popcorn while everyone else enjoys it in solid form.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: At the end of Season 1, Joey gets left in the dream world and has not been mentioned since.
- Indentured Servitude: After his card declines on his first visit, Patient 88 is forced to work at Dream Corp in order to pay off the cost. This is rarely mentioned after the first episode, but it's implied he chose to continue working there, as he mentions being ready to quit working several times during the show.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: The root of Patient 75's hoarding habit is how in his childhood, his parents would move so often (sometimes several times in a year) that he wouldn't get the chance to make any friends.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: The most concise description of the show.
- Mushroom Samba: In the episode "Pickle Trip", Patient 88 eats one a pickle which has been spiked with a huge amount of drugs (including mescaline, LSD, and MDMA) and spends the whole episode hallucinating. It's honest hard to describe.
- One-Word Vocabulary: Or two words. In "Dust Bunnies", T.E.R.R.Y.'s roomba friend Leonard can only say "dust bunnies".
- Rotoscoping: How the dream world is portrayed, in a manner similar to the adaptation of A Scanner Darkly.
- Rise of Zitboy: Randy gets the mother of all pimples on his neck in "Woomba". Which turns out to be full of bugs.
- Running Gag: "Sign spinners. I hate those guys."
- The Shut-In: Randy. He hasn't left the building in 16 years because he went to Dream Corp to cure his fear of heights and ended up catching Agoraphobia
- You Are Number 6: Patient 88 is given this designation after his arrival, and is referred to as such even after he starts working there. All patients are referred to by a numbered designation, as Dr. Roberts explains.Dr. Roberts: "The number dehumanizes you, allowing us to concentrate more fully on the science, It's like not naming a farm animal before you're eventually gonna slaughter it"
