The new “Tick” hitting Amazon today is a half-hour comedy, just like the last two “Tick” series. Some of the same jokes are in both the first Fox cartoon episode and the Amazon pilot (particularly evident in The Tick’s first visit to Arthur’s apartment) but there are unfamiliar elements as well.
* In the Amazon pilot we seem to spend a lot more time with Arthur away from The Tick.
* There’s a new backstory for Arthur involving The Terror and weaponized syphilis.
* The pilot does not introduce Der Fledermaus, American Maid, Batmanuel or Captain Liberty.
* The pilot suggests there will be far more episode-to-episode continuity than we’ve received in prior “Tick” incarnations.
* Arthur’s sister Dot is much more prominent than I remember, and her presence hints that this new Tick will lean a bit more heavily into drama than we’ve seen before.
* Patrick Warburton didn’t wear a mask, but new Tick Peter Serafinowicz comes with one.
* The Tick is now involved with the acquisition of Arthur’s superhero duds.
* In this version Arthur gets both a Tick and a tick.
What hasn’t changed in the new pilot script penned by Tick creator-mastermind Ben Edlund? The Tick himself is still really funny.
If Amazon greenlights it to series, will it be better than the first two TV Ticks? I’m thinking maybe. And I loved the first two.
Premiering tonight:
Bottlesnikes & Grumbles (Netflix) Aug. 19
Fridays, July 25-Aug. 12, 2016
(Adults 18-49; repeats in gray; earlier weeks in parentheses)
6.4 (7.5) (---) (---) Olympics
0.7 (0.6) (0.8) (0.7) Shark Tank
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0.5 (0.5) (0.6) (0.7) Blue Bloods
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