Birdgirl

I enjoyed the first episode. I hadn't watched much of the original series, and I can understand why fans of that would find this cynical and unappealing. I actually thought it was fairly funny, and it subverted some of my extremely low expectations. It may turn, but it's not garbage.

Adult Swim cancelled The Venture Bros. And Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell, two of the funniest, cleverest shows ever to grace the small screen. So what do they give us to replace them? Birdgirl.

In the Woke tradition Birdgirl is not funny, clever, witty etc... but it has girls. Most of the characters are female (with male characters portrayed as effeminate, weak and pathetic). Birdgirl tries hard and fails hard. It succeeds in being nonsensical without being absurd. It tosses 'jokes' at the viewer in rapid succession but none of them are funny.

This is the cartoon version of the female Ghostbusters movie. Weak sauce all around. Adult Swim going Woke is Adult Swim sinking to the bottom of the lake with concrete shoes on. Their pretty faces are already in Hell.

What's clear fairly early on in the pilot is that Birdgirl and Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law (one of my all time favorite shows, period) are pretty different. The animation style, the dialogue between characters, and the general tone of the show are unique, and that takes some getting used to if you're expecting the nonstop witticism that Harvey Birdman brought.

What I really like about the show is the thing it has that Harvey Birdman didn't: heart. Our lead character, as well as her best friend/possible love interest Meredith the Mindtaker, have some pretty serious conversations, and the internal battle of Judy vs Birdgirl in the mind of the titular character is treated with respect, while still being sure to have plenty of gags.

I look forward to seeing the show separate itself further from Harvey Birdman, while also still having the silliness that gave me so many laughs.

Why did they make this if they couldn't work off the main premise of Harvey Birdman? Lawyering for Hanna Barbera characters! Half the humor from the old show was taking those characters and subverting their place in a modern setting. Instead it's just a weird office with Birdgirl in it and no other relationship to the original show. Like, if they couldn't use those characters, why not try to use more modern cartoons like Dexter or Cow and Chicken or Ed Edd and Eddy, THEN add the familiar fast, non-sequitur humor.

Got bored, found HBAL on HBO and watched that again instead.

The delivery of these jokes is *often* too fast for most people which is why I wouldn't call this show 'laugh out loud' funny. There is very little time to actually laugh because it's always on to the next line of clever dialogue. And this show is clever. The characters are zany and extreme and the writers do a great job of depicting these qualities while moving a often pointless plot along. Think pointless like Sealab 2021 but more clever and more topical. Ridiculous that it is rated so low. For what it is it's an 8/10.