Krapopolis

I'm a huge fan of Dan Harmon so my expectations for this were high. Unfortunately this show didn't come anywhere close to meeting those expectations. I love the concept and the cast, but this show ultimately lets its own potential down.

The first issue that stuck out like a sore thumb was the poor comedic timing. Harmon's comedic timing is usually on point, but this felt way off. In fact it felt similar to other Fox duds like Duncanville or Housebroken.

The show isn't horrible, and it did manage to get a few chuckles from me, but I need more than that from a comedy. Both Community and Rick & Morty managed to make me laugh out loud with nearly every single episode. They also managed to make me care about their stories with each episode. That didn't happen with Krapopolis. The stories here are boring, the characters are boring, and the comedy is boring.

I'm honestly shocked that this is a Dan Harmon show because the quality I associate Harmon with is nowhere to be found. I wanted this to be so much more, but sadly it ended it being on par with the typical mediocrity found in modern Fox animated shows like Duncanville.

Seems like people didn't give this show much of a chance considering how many 1-3 star reviews popped up after just the first episode or two. Yes it's not R&M or Community but damn people at least wait until after the first few episodes to leave such bad reviews.

Really this show is in the 5-7~ range IMO, parts are good and parts are bad but it does have its moments. If you like Greek mythology and goofy comedy it's entertaining at least, the setting is interesting and the style of humor does seem a bit more like Community than R&M though it shares themes with both like dysfunctional family dynamics.

Seems like the kind of show that will improve over the first couple seasons as it spends more time world building and building up the character dynamics. Wasn't sure about it during the first few episodes but it does improve and going in blind helped, if you have high expectations you'll probably be disappointed but it seems like a lot of people are being overly harsh due to it not being Rick and Morty 2.0.

Hopefully it gets another season or two and a chance to improve.

This show successfully entertained me for the entire duration. That's saying more than almost anything else streaming right now. I laughed out loud a few times, I connected with the characters and I enjoyed the setting. What more could you want?

It's important to recognize that the goal of this series is very different from that of Rick and Morty, to which many viewers are comparing it. For one thing, it's not over-the-top gross, nor does is it have a fast talking crazy man moving the plot forward faster than we can keep up. The humor is not shocking and the concepts are not groundbreaking, but it's also not attempting to achieve those goals.

Krapopolis is more grounded, slower and easier to digest than Rick and Morty. It feels a lot more like a Matt Groening sitcom, which isn't a bad thing. The question is: is it succeeding at what it's trying to accomplish? I think it's doing a fine job. I liked it a lot more than Disenchanted, for example. The characters are more interesting, the world appears to be more developed and I actually laughed a few times.

The strength is in the dynamics of the relationships. It looks like each episode is going to pair different cast members together to get a unique chemistry each time. The story rests more on the group rather than on one single lead. In that, it reminds me more of Community than of Rick and Morty. Like Community, Krapopolis might need a few episodes to find it's stride. Right now, I'm giving the show an 8, which is generous, but I can see it reaching a 10 with time if it's trajectory continues to match Community's.

There are three noticable weaknesses of the show so far: 1. Some of the jokes are a bit forced, and would thus be better left unspoken. I think we can all agree that being unfunny is not a good look. Thankfully, this has only happened a few times. 2. The characters are still a little two-dimentional. Aside from Tyrannous and Dementia, each personality can be summed up in a single sentence. I think this could have also been said about Community in the first episodes. 3. The stories are not as polished as in Harmon's other projects. Both in Rick and Morty and Community, you knew exactly what the objective and the stakes of each episode were and the conclusion paid off every time. Here, the story arcs aren't as well defined.

That being said, if the quality of the jokes stabilizes, the characters find more depth and the plot becomes more clear, which I could easily imagine happening, Krapopolis could turn out to be another 10/10 Harmon show. I'm excited to see if it does!

I feel like too many people have too high of expectations of this show, seeing as it came from the mind of Dan Harmon, one of the creators and the main writer for Rick and Morty. But here's the part that blows my mind: It's a LOT like Rick and Morty. It carries the same quick-witted humor and social/familial dilemmas, all while having fun reinventing the origins of many aspects to mankind, with a heavy Greek myth twist.

It starts out a bit off, to be honest. I felt like the modern speech infused with ancient Greek times was a tad annoying. I feared this show was going to try too hard, and just end up flopping. It had that atmosphere the first episode.

I am glad I stuck through it because it only took me through the second episode to really start getting into it. A lot of the fun has to do with putting fun spins on Greek gods. It exposes the Greek gods for what they really are: just like mortal humans, only with the gift of immortality. They're just as egocentric, crooked, zany, and erratic as mankind. They have family problems. They are NOT all-knowing, and they can have feelings.

Let's just take a moment to mention how awesome Matt Berry and Richard Ayoade are. I might be biased as a huge "The IT Crowd" fan, but those guys are just great. And I'm fast becoming a huge fan of the character Hippocampus, for a fish he's really got some huge balls. The way he deals with characters like Prometheus, or even his own step-mom. Pretty badass.

There is a lot of subtle humor too. Silly humor, cynicism, dark humor, irony, you know, the fun stuff. Like Deliria forcing two mortals to fan her while basking next to large fire lanterns. Or how little the lives of mortals are valued, by both gods and humans (and monsters). It's a good show, give it a try if you like adult animation and Greek mythology.

While there were a couple of zingers that earned a silly giggle from us the humor was mostly the same we've heard from most of the 'comics' doing the voiceovers before and sounded unlike they were playing a character role but playing the same tired roles they've been playing for years.

Some of Matt Berry's jokes and Richard Ayoade's dialog were mostly repeats from The I. T. Crowd or What We Do In The Shadows albeit with a mostly different cast.

While we clearly enjoy the other shows we were hoping for something different this time. I'll watch a couple more episodes to see how it develops but for now it seems very mediocre considering the stellar talent list.