Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.
There are times when a TV show feels like an odd duck for its network (e.g. Fox’s 2007 Pittsburgh-set sitcom “Back to You,” which might have lasted longer than a single season if it had been on CBS).
Other times, a series feels perfectly placed.
Luckily for Fox, its new animated comedy “Krapopolis” (8 p.m. Sept. 24, WPGH-TV) falls in the latter category. “Krapopolis” must seem like the right fit to Fox executives, too: They already renewed it through its third season.
From writer Dan Harmon, who previously created the live-action NBC comedy “Community” and co-created animated Adult Swim hit “Rick and Morty,” “Krapopolis” is set in mythical ancient Greece where Tyrannis (voice of Richard Ayoade, “The IT Crowd”) is trying to innovate his city. Tyrannis doesn’t get much help from his narcissistic mother, goddess of self-destruction Deliria (Hannah Waddingham, “Ted Lasso”), his sex-obsessed half-centaur, half-manticore father Shlub (Matt Berry, “What We Do in the Shadows”) or his siblings, gargantuan half-sister Stupendous (Pam Murphy) and half-mermaid half-brother Hippocampus, who looks like an octopus wearing an old-fashioned diving helmet.
The comedy comes fast and furious in early episodes, rarely taking a breather, and the comedic hit-to-miss ration favors the hits.
In the series premiere, Tyrannis attempts to create a civilization and leave savagery behind. It’s an uphill effort as a neighboring cannibal horde leaves a human skull at Tyrannis’ doorstep.
“If they’re truly cannibals, maybe a flaming human head is their version of a fruit basket,” Tyrannis says optimistically.
Episode two, airing at 8:30 p.m. today, is funnier than the premiere as Tyrannis seeks to stage the first Olympic games that devolve into a riot until Deliria sends a hailstorm that forces all the city-dwellers back into the coliseum where there’s conveniently no hail in an effort to restart Tyrannis’ games.
“The hailstorm killed my kid!” shouts one of Tyrannis’ subjects in the coliseum.
“Unfortunate,” Tyrannis replies, “but that’s why we have a lot of them.”
“Krapopolis” derives much of its humor from the period juxtaposed against modern conventions. In episode two, viewers meet Poseidon’s nephew, Broseidon (voice of Dave Franco), who’s derided as “famous for being famous.”
Given Harmon’s following thanks to “Community” and, especially, “Rick and Morty” in the series-for-young-dudes space, “Krapopolis” seems as close to a sure bet as any media platform can get these days.
