Season Review: Dicktown Season Two

The first season of Dicktown premiered weekly as part of FXX’s Cake sketch series and was quickly one of the true standouts of the aforementioned franchise’s attempt at hoping one of the shorts would turn into a longer series. With the animation production being handled by Archer’s Floyd County Productions, the show was going to have a head up on the competition for simply that fact alone. The result, is a second season that focused less on pleasing a weekly audience looking for shorts and more for the streaming audience that will probably just wait until all of the episodes are on Hulu and go from there.

It’s a good idea because, clearly, FX Networks’ handling of this franchise was obviously piss poor. With almost no marketing, moving the timeslot after two weeks, and the puzzling order of a show that featured two quarter-hour halves smashed into a 24-minute runtime, clearly, this network did everything they could to make sure nobody watched the second season of Dicktown. The problem is, I think the producers knew something like this would happen, and made the arc so awesome that it just simply couldn’t be denied, and instead, should be given the proper respect if ordered for a third season.

For those that don’t know, Dicktown takes place in…well…Dicktown, North Carolina. It’s there that best friends John Hunchman (voiced by John Hodgman) and David Purefoy (voiced by David Rees) take part in weekly puzzle-solving escapades of small-world problems. Don’t expect the international hijinks that is Archer, no, Dicktown doesn’t want you to stray too far from John’s houseboat. This season, John and David continue to do just that, but serial elements come into play when it’s learned that John may have accidentally fingered the wrong person for a case years ago and, as such, has to find out who the real culprit is. That’s not without a bunch of bumps in the road which includes having a falling out with longtime associate David, trying to have normal relationships with women, and a gaggle of town associates that help keep things fresh in a very Springfield-type way.

What gets in the show’s way is mostly production-related. The quarter-hour run-times need to be replaced with full 24-minute episodes and some of the ancillary characters that get featured in opening credits are seldom used. The voice cast is strong, and its voice cast is just as strong with Amy Sedaris, Paul F. Tompkins, Jon Glaser, and others all pitch in with over-the-top personalities that are needed to help balance out the soft-spoken Hodgman’s undertones. It’s a mix that works rather well and special kudos need to go out to Sedaris for portraying such a sardonic character that reflects the clear bipolar tendencies in her role as “Giovanna”.

Dicktown needs a third season, but FXX needs to stop with the early 2000 playbook that it uses to deploy new animated franchises. Changing time slots, no commercials of any kind, and snotty attitudes don’t work nowadays. Get with the program, FX Networks!