Review: Krapopolis “Ice Week!”

Overview

Tyrannis struggles to keep his cool when he gets the hots for a visiting reporter; Shlub is paid a visit by an old friend; Hippocampus and Stupendous risk missing the festivities altogether.

Our Take

A couple of big developments have quietly happened to FOX’s Krapopolis since the show’s season one finale that may or may not affect the quality of the series moving forward. For starters, the NFT market has imploded over the last year, an element that helped make Krapopolis more lucrative and therefore easier to renew which it has been through the show’s fourth season. You’ll notice on the Krapopolis website that it has been heavily downsized and anything having to do with the NFT shop has since been removed, so clearly FOX has thrown in the towel on Blockchain Creative Labs after $100 million and nothing to show for it.

Next, Yale graduate and Rick and Morty writer and producer, Alex Rubens is the one running the show now instead of Jordan Young. For what reason, who knows, probably because show creator Dan Harmon wanted more Rick and Morty creatives to try and make this show a success. So far, from just the standpoint of renewals, it is, but what about from a comedic perspective? Unfortunately, I think this show needs a LOT of work in that department.

For starters, we have far too many characters in Krapopolis and in an attempt to keep them all relevant in a weekly basis, a bunch of them pair up and do off and do a bit and hope it lands, of which I would say only 50% really succeeds. The two main plots featuring Tyrannis/Tina and Shlub/Opie get the marquee guest stars in Alison Brie and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, both of whom offer a nice bounce to the voice cast that is largely benign in execution. I don’t know how to explain it other than everybody in this show is just so quiet in reading their lines with no real effort other than maybe the occasional Matt Berry (Shlub)/Hannah (Deliria) back and forth with is the only real conflict the show presents other than Tyrannis’ attempts to get dates. Everybody else’s contributions are largely forgettable and not very entertaining.

Alex Rubens is a super talented producer, but Jordan Young had that experience in working on multiple adult animated sitcoms with big casts like BoJack Horseman, The Simpsons, Close Enough, and others where not everyone HAD to be accounted for on a weekly basis, and even if they did, they’d have something a bit more compelling than what I’m getting here. Here’s hoping this show can wake up because this one’s putting me to sleep.