THE TICK, SEASON 2 (2019)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

The second and last season of THE TICK, consisting of ten episodes rather than the twelve from Season 1, proves reasonably entertaining. However, since the first season concluded Arthur's quest to find and defeat the man who killed his father, Season 2 doesn't establish a new arc that maintains strong suspense from beginning to end. Rather, the writers seem to have decided to fill the episodes with "house-cleaning," wherein they elaborate various story-points from Season 1.

The last episode of the previous season hints strongly that the Tick and Arthur, fresh from their triumph over the Terror, will become involved with AEGIS, the same intelligence agency that organized the deceased super-group, the Flag Five. The duo must apply with AEGIS for official superhero status, which is something of a dream come true for Arthur. This spy-agency more or less stands in for the entirety of government interaction with superheroes and their foes, and arguably the revelation of a hidden menace within the agency is the dominant plotline for Season 2.

The next most important plotline involves the Dysfunctional Duo confronting a gang of bank robbers, who somehow command a super-strong lobster-humanoid, nicknamed "Lobstercules" by the press. After the Tick's first inconclusive match with the lobster-being, who rivals the blue-clad buffoon in strength, he's obsessed with finding and defeating his new opponent. However, for reasons I won't reveal, Lobstercules is the innocent pawn of the robbers, and the creature's true nature not only reveals new aspects of the Tick's heroic character, as well as generating some of the season's best jokes.

Other plots are far less rewarding. Walter, the second husband of Arthur's widowed mother and thus Arthur's stepfather, is revealed to have been an AEGIS agent originally assigned to assure the safety of Mrs. Everest. This is only a little more underwhelming than the disclosure of the past history of Overkill's sentient vehicle, Dangerboat.

Perhaps more frustrating that the attempts to build up nugatory characters are the scripts' failures to deliver on characters who were fairly interesting in Season 1. The electrical super-villain Miss Lint adopts the identity of a new superheroine, "Joan of Arc." The scripts suggest that her investment in super-villainy may be waning, that she may be somewhat transformed by the act of impersonating a superhero. Yet she simply reverses her potentially heroic course for no clear reason.

Even less pleasing is the relationship between Arthur's sister Dot and Overkill. Though no actual romantic arc takes place in Season 1, they're clearly intrigued with one another. In Season 2, Dot begins molding herself in the image of a costumed crusader, studying Krav Maga and suddenly manifesting a psychic power. But Overkill seems more concerned with the fact that, in Season 1, the Tick made him promise not to kill any more criminals. This was a promising idea, as the writers could have shown Overkill tying himself in knots to spare crooks he'd rather exterminate. Instead, Joan of Arc resorts to some flummery to justify Overkill cancelling out his vow to the Tick-- but then, nothing happens as a result of this twist, either to justify Overkill's bloodlust or to show him becoming more merciful of his own accord. Further, the potential romance also goes nowhere.

Superian, the patron saint of costumed heroes, gets more involvement, but the main plot-- that he can't accept criticism from any of the citizens of Earth-- is predictable and unsatisfying. His presence does make for some good jokes at the expense of the Christopher Reeve super-series, like having Superian consider hurling all nuclear missiles into the sun or causing time to turn backwards. The last episodes make clear that had there been a third season, a new menace would have shown up on Earth, hunting Superian.

So this season's weaker overall than the previous one. But some of the joie de vivre I mentioned still survives. Although AEGIS is infiltrated by a corrupt agent, the writers of THE TICK don't subscribe to the politics of revenge seen in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, where the writers abolished SHIELD as a way of skunking the real-word CIA. But in THE TICK, the fantasy of a "good spy organization" is allowed to endure. I don't know if a third season would have stepped things up, got out of Season 2's "cruise mode." But I'd rather have seen a Season 3 for THE TICK than for INVINCIBLE.