Krapopolis review: In Dan Harmon’s latest, the history is ancient and the jokes are slightly fresher
Gods, monsters, and mortals fight it out in Fox's new animated sitcom
TV Reviews Dan Harmon
It may be set in a mythical long-ago, but the future of Krapopolis, which premieres September 24, has been foretold: three seasons greenlit by Fox before a single episode tickled the eyeballs of Community and Rick And Morty fans primed for Dan Harmon’s next brainchild. Clearly, somebody up there loves this animated satire of the ancient Greek world (and, by extension, ours). By “somebody,” we don’t mean Zeus; one prays the Olympian boss hurls thunderbolts at the writers’ room to juice up what is (from the three episodes provided for review) a moderately funny and naughty ’toon.
Like Rick And Morty (which Harmon co-created with Justin Roiland), Krapopolis rests on a foundation of family sitcom that spins off into adventures our heroes narrowly survive and barely learn from. Also like that show, it has a quailing youth as its semi-relatable center: the ironically named Tyrannis, voiced with bratty nasality by British comedian Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd). Although Tyrannis dreams of uniting Krapopolis with neighboring cities to form an empire, he doesn’t really have the brains or brutality to pull it off. For that, he must rely on his motley family of gods and monsters—who couldn’t care less about civilization.
It’s not clear what, if anything, Tyrannis (who sports an olive clasp on his tunic) has inherited from his forebears. Mother Deliria (Hannah Waddingham) is the classic overbearing narcissist, a goddess too self-adoring even for Olympian egos. Undermining her son’s adulting at every turn, she frequently dispatches mortals who displease her by turning them into snakes, telepathically flinging their bodies miles away or, in one amusingly protracted bit, transforming a bard’s lute into spiders. For all his bluster and sarcastic retorts, Tyrannis is a mama’s boy. His father, Shlub (Matt Berry), is a mashup of centaur and manticore, a monstrous Lothario composed of human, horse, lion, and scorpion parts. By far the chillest of the clan, Shlub is mainly interested in chasing tail—any species’ tail. “Son, as monsters we have to be careful about our messaging,” he offers as fatherly advice. “Bad monsters kill people; good monsters have sex with people. Trust me, that’s where the action is.”
In this quarrelsome blended family, Tyrannis is constantly competing with his half-siblings. Stupendous (Pam Murphy) is a dim-witted, musclebound cyclops who lives to fight and kill. Half-mermaid Hippocampus (Duncan Trussell) rolls about in a wheeled baby chair with a glass globe on his head. A scientific genius and socially awkward megalomaniac, Hippocampus is the brains of the family. “I didn’t become a scientist to make normal people smarter,” he says, scoffing at Tyrannis’ request that he create a written language. “I did it to make them terrified of my god-like power!”
The animation follows the flat, deadpan style standard these days: mostly static backgrounds with minimal movement by characters in the foreground. Snappy, joke-a-second dialogue toggles between pointedly dumbass lines—“I am Asskill,” roars a cannibal barbarian, “Son of Kill, slayer of ass”—and wittier quips. Tyrannis informs citizens that barbarians terrorize victims because they’re too lazy to fight. So, he reasons, they can beat the barbarians by greater laziness. “That’s the point of civilization,” he explains, “refusing to move. Planting your food next to your bed, eating it when you feel like it, and pooping it right where you buried your parents.” Cue crowd murmurs of approval.
World-building and characterization unfold efficiently enough, checking off milestones in human development. War is (kinda) averted with the cannibals next door; the Olympic Games are invented by accident; and humans and wolves learn to live together. Goodness knows there’s anthropological raw material to fuel multiple seasons, but the formula starts to feel tired. Partly it’s because everyone’s two-dimensionally vain and vapid, but also the sentimental lessons are half-assed and unearned. You wish Harmon and his team had come down in either the “humor and heart” or “sick nihilism” camp. King Of The Hill excelled in the former, and Family Guy tilted toward the latter. And although their voice work is deft, Waddingham and Berry mainly inspire thoughts of a Ted Lasso or What We Do In The Shadows rewatch.
The Flintstones with gore and raunch, plus a spot-the-mythological-reference game, Krapopolis is a pretty one-joke series: Look at what a random debacle ancient civilization was. Is there any wonder it’s falling apart now? Either there are endless savage variations on that joke or there needs to be characters so nuanced and vibrant that they rise above the limitations of the conceit. (We’re waiting for a clever recurring mortal.) Not all animation classics arrived fully formed in season one (The Simpsons, famously). And again, we were only given a taste of this new show. But let’s hope this mighty empire doesn’t take eons to materialize.
Krapopolis premieres September 24 on Fox
31 Comments
Oh. It’s this animation style again.
I might give it a shot but none of the trailers has anything but the most painfully obvious comedy so probably not, really. Hell if Richard Ayoade needs work that badly I’ll gladly watch a new season of Darkplace or buy his books over again.
He sounds like he’s doing it all from some decommissioned Spanish Cold War submarine pen that’s been converted into a delightfully po-mo 4.5-star hotel in between takes of Travel Man.
Well if it’s shit work you might as well half ass it, right?
“Hi, Richard. When can we get started on the record for episode 6? Tonight?”“So sorry, Daniel, but Olivia Colman and I will be spending all day getting pampered at a spa that uses trained capuchin monkeys as massage therapists.”“Oh, wow, Olivia Colman? She’s so cool. Tell her I said hi!”“No.”
“The Flintstones with raunch and gore” is maybe the best indictment of a show that I’ve seen recently.
I’d rather watch a show just about Alva from Disenchanted
“Tyrannis (who sports an olive clasp on his tunic)” has got to be one of the more/most puzzlingly-included character details I’ve seen grace a review. I actually command-f’ed “olive” because I thought there was some olive significance I was missing.
It was the style at the time. Also, in those days they called 5 drachma pieces “bees”!
I’m guessing it’s a reference to him being super peace loving , or possibly just war avoiding?
It’s a reference to martinis, because Dan Harmon is a raving alcoholic. Hence the pimento.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Maybe it was so we could pick him out of the included still photos?
You had me at Matt Berry. I’d listen to him read a damn phonebook.
I think I saw that episode of Toast of London.
Well, at least the animation looks like shit.
Read this in Matt Berry’s voice.
“That’s the point of civilization,” he explains, “refusing to move. Planting your food next to your bed, eating it when you feel like it, and pooping it right where you buried your parents.” Eh, that’s a pretty funny line, but most every other joke in the trailers didn’t land for me. Hard to explain, but this show seems very Fox Animation Block-y, where the humor is trying to reach the most wide audience possible. Bob’s Burgers broke out of that model and retains its own weirdo humor, but this show looks pretty flat.Also, is there still blockchain integration in this show for some shitty reason? Review didn’t mention it.
I got a “Community” Notification for this?As someone who remembers when this show used to review both Community and Rick and Morty on the regular, I feel inclined to give this show a watch due to Dan Harmon’s ties to the show. That being said, I don’t see the Dan Harmon in the show itself….at least from the early ads.
is this the one that was also sold on the premise of everything in the show being available as an NFT?
There was some sort of NFT component to it. Thankfully, that looks like that’s been dropped completely.
Still left with a disappoint show from the look of it. The talent behind it is great, but the trailers for this have not looked good at all.
i cannot wait for some new art style to take over. i presume it’ll be uglier and with even less animation and directing, but at least it’ll be different and new.
Berry and Ayoade in an animated series that…looks like ass? Sure, I’ll try it.
Reminds me of the terrible animated shows Waco O’Guin and Roger Black made, whose names I thankfully can’t recall.
WaddingtonWaddingham.Beyond that, I do think it makes sense to order 3 seasons when it’s animation if only to get it made. If it’s a hit, great! No one has to wait a long time for more. If it’s not, you’ll have something to burn off.
The Simpsons was fully formed in Season one? that’s news to me
That’s literally the opposite of what they said
They greenlit THREE seasons? That’s about how long it took for Rick and Morty to run out of ideas.
I feel like now that I’ve read this review and watched the trailer I know enough to make an informed comment about whether or not the show will be any good and offer advice about how it could be made better.
Looks gorgeous.But I have a very limited interest on this.
First two episodes debuted tonight and I found them to be aggressively mid. It wasn’t insultingly bad, but there was nothing that made me want to watch it. I typically give shows at least a half season but if that’s what the show is gonna be like, I’m surprised they’ve greenlit other seasons.