"Weird Planet" is a cute but nerdy animated series from the author of "Rick and Morty"

On August 9, the first three episodes of Strange Planet premiered on Apple TV+. The potential hit turned out to be too soft and even lazy to be taken seriously.

Nathan Pine's web comics are used as the primary source for the animated series. In them, blue men, called "creatures", live in a world that is as similar to a human as possible - though a little more absurd. For example, a recommendation from a job is called a compliment document. The webcomic is very popular on the Western Internet, so it is not surprising that it has come to a full-fledged animated series.

A serious team worked on "Strange Planet". In addition to Pine, who wrote the original webcomic, the script was written by Dan Harmon ("Rick and Morty”, “Community”). The studio ShadowMachine (“Horse Bo Jack”) is responsible for the visual series.

So, the action of the series takes place on a "strange planet", very similar to the Earth, where "creatures" live, very similar to people. They explore the absurd things that surround them in everyday life, and also look for ways to solve their usual problems.

Naivety is annoying

The tone of the series, sewn into both the script and the visuals, seems curious. The closest analogue is Gravity Falls with its naivety and childish approach to problem solving. The difference in the age of the characters: in the "Strange Planet" adults behave childishly, and hence the infantilism, and to some extent naivety. And this is perceived ambiguously.

The ways to solve the problems of heroes are always so simple that they look as superficial as possible. For example, if your family does not like what you love, then just keep looking for a common language - and everything will be fine. Are you a teenager with no friends? You just have to wait and Friends will appear on their own. With each episode, this simple and naive recipe looks more and more dubious, and eventually becomes boring. Whatever the conflict, it will resolve itself.

Bizarre language substitutes for humor

The entire humor of the animated series is based on identifying strange things surrounding a person, just people are replaced by "creatures". And language plays a huge, decisive role - it serves as a way to search for everyday absurdity. Aircraft are flying cars, the parent is a rescue car, alcohol is a weak poison, and so on. Perhaps, only the first series really makes you laugh with its language games, but gradually the monotonous humor gets boring.

The structure of the episodes only highlights the problem. For the first 5 minutes, the viewer is shown a backstory in which there are a lot of language games, then the main plot begins, which is much more boring than the beginning of the series. For example, the first episode first tells about the planes and the emotions that they cause in passengers, after which the story of the flight attendant begins. And if the backstory seems funny, then the main plot is too simple. sitcom Not terrible, but definitely not great. Good enough to keep the show on, but not funny enough to recommend to anyone.

The visuals are rather disappointing.

The presence of a webcomic as a primary source guides the authors of the series. They borrow a visual style but fail to develop it. The webcomic took its toll on minimalism, but the series required some development of the original style, but Harmon's team abandoned the experimentation. As a result, a cute and calm color palette looks too boring and even empty. Especially when it comes to the background, its uniformity and immobility are striking.

Strange Planet is a cute, sometimes funny, but overly predictable series that manages to stray into self-repetitions by the middle of the second episode. Sometimes it seems that, apart from a play on words (not always witty), Strange Planet has nothing to offer. And the visuals hint that you can just as well read the original comics - in them, minimalism seems more justified.