FALL TV EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

 

CHINA, IL

** (out of ****)

 

On paper, the idea of Adult Swim is pretty genius, and rare. What other channel or sub-channel offers television creators, mostly of the animated sort, a chance to put whatever comes out of their crazy, drug addled brains, with the only rules being the same FCC rules that everyone else has to follow. That’s on paper. What has happened since the initiation is that Adult Swim has found its own voice, which can be good for people who are already fans of Adult Swim, as they can assume they will like new shows the channel provides. But in the case of China, IL, which started on Adult Swim’s old website Super Deluxe, it has been put through the Adult Swim filter, making a show that is closer in look and feel to other Adult Swim shows, but has removed almost all of what made the show unique. The changes are evident right away, as the show is now fully animated, as opposed to a slide show of crude drawings with occasional movement. You can understand this change when moving a cartoon from the internet to television. But also missing is the pseudo-musical aspect of the show, with the characters breaking into raps whenever they feel like it, as is the diatribes of a character named Baby Cakes, who is a functioning retarded giant with no hair. Although he has an odd way of speaking, like calling lettuce leafy-weefies, his “perspective on life” is always interesting, if not hilarious, and along with the raps, was the bread and butter of the internet series. In the first episode, we barely get any Baby Cakes, but we do get a plot involving a pissed off Ronald Reagan traveling through time to shit in the mouth of a man who, as a kid, did a bad Reagan impression in a talent show. Hilarious, sure, but the episode was filled with plot twists and gross-out gags that we can find on any other Adult Swim show. Get your act together, Adult Swim. Accepting a wide range of shows and senses of humor could result in another 12 oz. Mouse, or you could find the show that helps you get your mojo back.

 

-Ryan Haley