Tropical Cop Tales

Rather than leaving a short, overly dramatic, reactionary review in all caps with five exclamation points after every sentence I'm gonna leave a reasonable (in both criticism and length) review of Jim Hosking's Tropical Cop Tales based on the first 4 episodes. Now look, if you didn't see or like the writer/director's previous works (the short film G is for Grandad and the feature debut The Greasy Strangler) then you may as well not give it a chance because this is exactly the same humor, style and visual wise. Personally if you aren't a fan of the weird stuff Adult Swim used to play ten years ago at 3am (Tim and Eric, Check it Out, Xavier: Renegade Angel, Tom Goes to the Mayor) or even some of the more recent weird stuff (The Eric Andre Show, Off The Air, Too Many Cooks, Unedited Footage of a Bear) then this is not for you. I think a good friend of mine said it best when he said that this was Adult Swim trying to get back to its weird, gross, absurd roots after getting a big mainstream hit like Rick and Morty. This is a niche show will almost no appeal to mainstream audiences which is a good thing, it provides some variety in terms of type of humor and content available on the programing block other than re-runs of Seth Macfarlane shows, Robot Chicken and Richard & Mortimer. But the bad thing about Tropical Cop Tales being a niche show is the large amount of negative feedback it gets from people who want only those re-runs on the block who then leave 2-3 sentence reviews in a reactionary fashion claiming it is the worst thing to ever air on TV. In my opinion it's a weird, wacky, gross, dumb, absurd show with good music and visuals. I find it very entertaining but it is far from perfect because it is on TV it can't go as far as The Greasy Strangler does which waters down the director's creativity. Either way I enjoy it and if you enjoy The Greasy Strangler, any of John Waters' early works or stuff like Tim and Eric then I would say give it a shot, the episodes are only 11 minutes long so it's not much time lost. So far (based on the first four episodes) I'd give Tropical Cop Tales a 6-7/10

EDIT: It is really great while drunk 7/10

Clearly this show isn't for everyone, or even 10% of the world, but if you loved The Greasy Strangler, you will love this.

Strangler is one of my favourite movies, so this is just more amazing madness to enjoy.

I didn't really care for Hosking's second film (An Evening with Beverly Luff Lynn) because I thought it was a little slow, and watered down. Tropical Cop Tales is neither. It's insane (sometimes even crazier than Strangler) and fast paced.

Watch the trailer on YouTube, if you think it looks bad, you will definitely hate it. Anyone who is a heathen like me will love it.

The first few episodes I saw made me say wtf so many times, but then I did a marathon and watched all 10 episodes in order, not once, but twice. After two times through, I love this show!! There are still a couple wtfs but it makes way more sense, and is just hysterical. The goofy songs/tunes get stuck in my head and make me love it more!!

If you enjoyed "The Greasy Strangler" this is right up your alley. Sky Elobar and Michael St. Micheals make appearances as well!

People seem to forget that Adult Swim is a hot bed for psychedelic programming. It's meant to be watched high out of your mind. This show is primarily focused on its imagery, rather than primarily focusing on plot and even lines. The "acting" is a parody of movie and TV tropes, which is why it's so goofy, shot so cinematically, and consists of literal gibberish and alliteration. It's also super political, and makes fun of political situations with more goofiness.

Y'know how people say one should watch certain shows past the pilot? Well, this is a prime example of one of those shows, which is another play on tropes. The first episode is even aptly named in order to give the viewer an idea of the ridiculousness. Anyone that reviews this negatively doesn't understand what a performance piece this show is. You can't watch this without an altered perspective. I recommend watching it with your friend Lucy. It'll make sense when you do.