Fired on Mars

Can't believe the low reviews here. 2 episodes in and I'm unbelievably hooked. Maybe the reviews are people expecting some typical Fox animated sitcom??

I'm a sucker for any story set in bleak and realistic sci-fi. This show fits the bill perfectly for capturing the disparity around total corporate control, and these jobs that really have no reason to exist other than for the sake of expansion. It's Cyberpunk in the refreshing modern sense (still thematically consistent with the genre staples from the 80s, but adjusted for current New-Age, passive aggressive megacorps). It's witty in its environment and construction, but it's not exaggerative or over the top. Both episodes got some big laughs out of me, but also had these wonderfully bleak and somber moments. The dialogue and voice acting is all wonderful, and really made a lot of the characters feel complex and notable.

The animation should sell people on this show alone! It's absolutely stunning. It's thoughtful and colorful, and reminds me a bit of if Ugly Americans was a graphic novel. The style is really similar to the work of Daniel Clowes; it's a wonderful look that hits that perfect point of being unique to what's been done, while also still being very visually pleasing. So many shots are so thoughtful and truly feels like you're watching a graphic novel.

I can't wait to see where this show goes. The cynic in me says, great, another animated show for me to fall in love with that will undoubtedly get canned before it's time. I hope I'm wrong. I hope more people see this. Cause if for nothing else, this show should be admired for bringing something inventive in a landscape of, quite frankly, not a whole lot of exciting animated shows right now.

Nowadays the animated streaming series for adults are closed in the segment of being silly, explicit or low profile jokes, which are fair and valid likes, but it doesn't mean every adult animated project has to be like that. This is where it goes out of the trend.

Fired on Mars breaks out of this segment to explore the anxiety of peoples mind, so the public can be connected and identified with all the problems and fears Jeff (Main Character) goes all around the story.

It's acceptable the fact that the first episode feels cringy at certain moment, but that feeling turns to a menace towards Jeff that will be kept after that bases built on the episode. It's a more serious animated program than the actual trends, meaning that treats topics for reflections towards people's life and goals at the future.

I would also be afraid to say this, but if you like Bojack Horseman by topics like traumas, affections and feelings, you will like Fired on Mars as an interesting approach.

Based on other reviews here I believe this show has fallen victim to poor advertising, or a misunderstanding of what "adult animation" means.

This show is not really a comedy, by most measures anyways, it does contain jokes certainly, but that is not the main focus of the show. The show is more of a sci-fi mystery drama, with light humour scattered throughout, and on viewing it solely by that metric I think it's been quite good so far.

This review is being written after watching the first 4 episodes, which I found to be interesting enough to make me want to keep going and understand more of what's going on.

I will concede it's hard for me to say right now if the show is "good". We are only 4 episodes in as I write this, and shows of this sort often live or die by their endings, but the show is "interesting" for certain, that's really the best word for it.

The show has an eerie lonely tone, aided by the music and backgrounds which fill the show with an uncomfortable vibe... as do the series of errors made by our protagonist.

So, I want to talk about our protagonist Jeff for a bit here. Jeff is a fairly average guy by most measures, but he's very self-absorbed without even realizing it. He enjoys meeting people but only talks about himself, he seems very bad taking an interest in others. He has a surprisingly large ego, but it leads him to be totally crushed by even small setbacks, that leads him to make error after error as he tries desperately to find a place he can click into. It's interesting that despite his self absorption he doesn't seem to desire anything more than a fairly standard life, he wants a family and a nice house, and a job that he'll receive admiration for, but that noticeably doesn't put him at the top of the food chain, he's not a cut-throat gunning for an executive role, he just wants a consistent normal life... something I'm guessing he's never really had before, which has lead to his desperation to achieve this goal.

This is a lot to say about a character who I think many people will cast off as "annoying" or even "one note" if they're not trying to analyze him much. But Jeff seems to be an extremely consistently written character who has a consistent and understandable drive, even if it feels like we're missing some critical details about him. Jeff is, to be fair, an annoying person at times, this is on purpose by the scriptwriters, made clear by much of the cast of the show finding him actively annoying, but I think it works well for the show overall. Still, I can understand how this could be a turnoff to viewers... Jeff simply put it not a great guy, and not everyone wants to watch shows about kind of annoying guys.

Overall, if you went into this show expecting something in the vein of something like Family Guy or most "adult animated comedy" for that matter I do think you will be disappointed, this is a frankly dreary and anxiety inducing show, it is not a lighthearted romp you'd watch with your friends.... But it's a very interesting show, that feels like it has something unique and interesting to say, and I plan on finishing the show to see what that is exactly. I'll likely add an update to this review when I do finish the show.

For now I'm giving this show an 8/10, the show does have a few weird moments and things I didn't enjoy, but overall I think it does very little wrong if you're taking it at face value as a sci-fi mystery drama, it's a solid start.

• - - - - - - - - -

To be maybe a bit petty for a moment I want to add a note, and point to one other review on here, called "It's SUCH an original and fun idea! Right?" that was written when (like my review) only the first 4 episodes were available. This review is horribly misleading as whoever wrote it seems to have fully misunderstood a reveal in a particular episode. The review seems to imply the show has an "it was all a dream" type of moment, or that it becomes stuck in a dreaming format, but this is not true, at least of the time of writing this. I feel like this person got to a particular moment, assumed what was happening incorrectly, and then stopped watching and wrote their review. It is quite baffling because what they are complaining about simply does not happen as they describe it at all. Is it impossible something like that could happen? It's not impossible, but as of now it's not the case and I won't judge the show for an ending they "could do" before it even ends.

I was on the fence but figured the subject matter was interesting and decided to give it a go. Right off the bat I will say the longer you stick with this the more it sucks you in.

By the end of the final episode I can say I am definitely looking forward to a second season on this one. You might struggle with the first one or two episodes but I urge you to stick it out.

It's a darkish satire on corporations and humanities future in space, definitely not straight comedy but there is definitely humor throughout. Honestly one of the harder things to review but with how low this shows rating is I felt I had to give it a bump.

I would say if you enjoyed things like bojack (but less depressing), or ugly americans (but more serious) than you should give this a shot.

I think its clear from all the 2 and 3 stars that this show is simply too smart for most people who review on here:

"Not sure what their (sp) going fer, but I watched this show for 3 minutes and it WASNT family guy, sucks, 1 star"

This clearly isn't a laugh out loud comedy, or even a comedy, I guess. Scifi drama with comedic elements is probably a better sell - I wasn't aware of any advertising but it sounds like maybe HBO mixed up the messaging.

The show is engaging, dark, and satirical, and while it takes place on mars, Jeffs struggle to find meaning and the setbacks from failure are something we can all relate to. At first, I wanted Jeff to get sucked out an airlock, but by episode 6 or 7 you are actively rooting for him. Thats called character development, and its pretty neat.