The Tick: "Where's My MInd / Secret Identity"

Hugs and drugs.

Am I done with Preacher? Nope. Am I done with Defenders? Fuck no. Did I let any of that stop me from watching two episodes of The Tick shortly after it dropped on Amazon? Nope. I've been a fan of The Tick since the beginning. That other shit can wait.


About halfway through the second episode of The Tick, the show takes the one thing that could have irritated me and undercut the entire series and hilariously and definitively takes it off the table. The Tick is real, and Arthur knows he's real

This was evident to everyone in the show except Arthur, of course. But it needed to be pointed out to Arthur lest we Wilfred up the series, and the series did not need to be Wilfreded.

The other big change from the pilot is the suit, which they fixed. I could live with the old suit, but the new suit is darker and less textured - a lot like the suit from the 2001 series except with the full eye mask of the suit from the pilot. Definite improvement.

As for the episodes themselves, they're very much in line with the pilot - Serafinowicz plays The Tick to perfection, full of classic lines and utterances. He plays against the significantly different and fleshed out Arthur, with his possible mental illness and tragic backstory.

We get more glimpses of the larger world, from a superhero version of the 5th Amendment that keeps heroes from divulging their identity to the authorities, to news stories about a man made giant by radioactivity and a sea king getting caught up in a trawler net.

We get some backstory on our main antagonist, Lint, the electrically-powered former right-hand-woman to The Terror now working for Ramses and the Pyramid Gang. And we get more about Dot, who has a somewhat shady side deal going providing medical services to the underworld, including said Pyramid Gang. Through the guy who owns the rink for the roller derby team she's on The team she's on with MICHELLE FUCKING BUTEAU, YEAH!

Oh, and we have a 90's murdery antihero by the name of Overkill, who's a bit Batman and a lot Punisher. He's no Chainsaw Vigilante, but he'll do.