AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO WAS DISAPPOINTED BY LAST NIGHT’S METALOCALYPSE?
I know it sounds like I’m already down on Metalocalypse, one of the best shows on television – but the debut last night of Season 2 left me underwhelmed. Rather than spend more time concentrating on what makes the show so great – its satirical view of the cult of celebrity and, of course, all things metal – the creators chose to focus on the weird “impending metalocalypse” storyline that ended last season (with one of the weirdest fifteen minutes of television, like, ever). And this a very, very big misstep.
The thing is, the Tribunal – the bizarre governmental group that attempts to thwart Dethklok week after week – works incredibly well as a device to launch the band on their adventures at the start of every episode (ass backwards Tribunal explanations for why the band cannot get involved in comedy, have high school diplomas or girlfriends, etc., are consistently hilarious). But they shouldn’t be the focus of the show; every moment spent with them is less time spent with the Dethklok. Nevermind that Tribunal plot lines make little to no sense – they’re just not that interesting (note how little actually happened on last night’s episode).
Another problem was the re-introduction of the band after several months away: we quickly discovered that, after being attacked by the Tribunal during last season’s finale – an attack the band still mistakenly believes came from a crazy fan – Dethklok has gone into seculsion, fearful that an audience member may try to attack them during a gig. This uncomfortably recalled how many musicians must have felt in the wake of the Dimebag murder; maybe it was meant to be a commentary on that situation, but, instead, it kinda sucked the humor out of the moment.
That’s not to say that there weren’t flashes of the show’s trademark brilliance last night: the band calling their manager “a robot” and then apologizing with the well intentioned but badly misinformed declaration “You’re the best butler we ever had,” the carnage and destruction when they played the prison gig (convinced to do so only after realizing they’d get to choose how 20-odd prisoners would be executed – they went with shooting them up into the sky as human fireworks), and, of course, the inside jokes: a vocal cameo from Silenoz and fireworks that re-created the cover of Six Feet Under’s Bringer of Blood.
Still, I hope next week’s episode is a helluva lot funnier. In the meantime, I can console myself with the Dethalbum and those awesome, limited edition action figures they unveiled at the San Diego Comic Con.
-AR
