Mary Shelley's Frankenhole

Dino Stamatopoulos' Adult Swim follow-up to the masterful Moral Orel. This is also a stop-motion series. It doesn't hit the emotional heights of Orel, but it's pretty damn brilliant. An immortal Victor Frankenstein works as a mad scientist for any historical figures who arrive at his castle via Frankenholes. He helps Thomas Jefferson get a new penis, makes Gandhi a vampire and gets Jesus a new pair of socks. He often interacts with classic movie monsters, including Nosferatu, who only speaks in intertitles. A lot of crazy stuff here. The wit is super quick - it has to be with the classic Adult Swim 12 minute runtime. The voice acting is particularly great, and I especially love Andy Dick as Jesus. Probably the only time I'll ever say I like Andy Dick, but he really hits it out of the park with his performance in two episodes of this series. I don't know if this series is ever going to continue, but I hope it does. Too bad it was never popular and never got a proper DVD release. It's easily one of my favorite things that's ever been on Adult Swim.

This show's premise is utterly unique: Victor Frankenstein, who has attained immortality, has become bored in his gothic-horror-world, so he reaches out to celebrities and historical figures across time, offering to use his science skills to solve their problems.

There's a lot to love here: from the nuanced, slightly creepy paper doll presentation, to the historical and movie monster references. The voice acting is pretty good, the character interpretations are wacky and fun, and most of the plots are pretty well-paced. Britta Phillips adds some pretty memorable tracks as well.

There's also some things not to love so much: the show often relies on toilet humor, and while Victor is witty, he's also a thoroughly unlikable narcissist. Some characters get an inordinate amount of attention, despite being extremely flat and forgettable (Dracula, Hitler and Joe come to mind here).

It was a show that wasn't really destined to be a mainstream hit, but it definitely is worth a look.

I think this is screamingly funny. It's not for the faint of heart but almost nothing is these days anyway. At least if its offensive to some, it's smart and funny enough to get away with it. Ironically, I didn't find this as dark, brooding and disturbing as Moral Orel. Instead, I found a lightness to it. With clever quips and nonsensical non-sequitors, it's not so introspective. Where Moral Orel tries to hold a mirror up to our souls and show us the dark hypocrisy of life, this is pure adult fun. The characters are so over the top that you can't take them seriously and it really doesn't seem like you're supposed to. There isn't a lot of exposition so the whole concept is a little bewildering at first, but by the time you hit the later episodes, you'll have connected enough dots to enjoy it a bit more.

Can't wait for the new season which is apparently coming in 2012.