REVIEW: METALOCALYPSE “FANKLOK”

In the Season 4 premiere, the band attend Klokikon, a fan convention where they encounter many disturbing devotees. Things only get worse when Nathan starts dating a fan.

 

Spoilers Below

Holy frijoles!  Metalocalypse is back!  Now, I mean more than just season 4, because that was obvious.  I mean, the look and feel of the show returned to form.

When season 3 debuted, what seems like forever and a half ago, everyone was jazzed that it made the transition to 30 minutes.  Unfortunately, the show seemed disjointed from the other two seasons.  Yes, they “continued” with *SPOILER* Ofdenson coming back from the dead.  Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha lost their formula, and Dethklok went sort of stale.  This almost got to the point to where I thought the show was going to get canned.  And let’s not forget the full 17 months between seasons three and four.

Then there’s the run time and schedule.  I saw the change to a full 30 minute slot as a good thing at first for Season 3 as I thought it was a signal of the show hitting it big.  This is a show that needs to stay at a 15 minute run time.  Unfortunately, it took almost a year to run all 10 episodes of season 3’s and  yet the stories seemed forced, stretched, and very off from the feeling of season 2.

Now onto the real reason you’re reading this, the review:

There was an epic intro to the show, with an all new song.  *SPOILER* Mordhaus is back on Earth! And…Nathan has a girlfriend?  And she’s a fan?  Oh man.  Funny thing is, of all of the people to catch on, it’s freaking Pickles who catches that she’s a nutcase, at about the 2:20 mark.

Apparently, Murderface finally got on the cover of a magazine…even if it’s Smokaroonie Aficionado.  So, that triggers everyone else to steal his thunder, just in normal Dethklok fashion.   Jump cut to the Tribunal, going over the worst case scenarios of Explosion dating a fan, which of course leads to the end of the world.

Speaking of Project Falconback, Selatcia, Orlagg and Crozier are seen going over the economic stimulus that a new Dethklok album will have.  Oh man, if only that would happen when Lamb of God or Metallica put out a new disc!

The writers give an ominous feeling that Falconback will play a HUGE role in this season.  Hopefully, putting a bunch of unanswered season 3 questions to rest.  For instance, where was Ofdenson after he got “killed” by the Metal Masked Assassin.  Oh, and this is a personal question:  how on earth did Ofdenson get Edgar Jomfru back on board with Dethklok?  Anyway…I need to get back on point.

Later on, the guys find Trindle’s laptop on the table, and decide to snoop around on it.  They see her dating profile, and sees that she’s a bit cray-cray.  They go to Nathan, who is still blind with love, and doesn’t believe the guys.  They trek to Klokikon, so Nathan can prove them wrong.

Ok, anyone in the NYC area, take notice.  Didn’t Klokikon look a helluva lot like New York Comic Con this year?  With all the people in ill-fitting costumes, sweaty nerds, furries, and not to mention, some obscenely good quality, but really homoerotic fan art, how can you tell the two apart?  They quiz “even fatter Pickles,” and “Planetary sized black Skwisgaar” where Trindle’s exhibition was.  They find it, and Nathan kicks in the door.

Oh hey.  Remember when I said Trindle was a nutcase?  The climax of the episode comes when Nathan sees her…using her oral talents, on a lot of Nathan Explosion lookalikes which causes the real Nathan to run in horror to the roof.  Any horror movie can tell you that no good comes if you end up on the roof.  Eventually, she follows sporting a suicide vest strapped to her chest.  There, the rest of the band shows up, and creates a cigarette smoke screen to buy enough time to for Ofdenson to save the day with a Dethcopter.  Last second airlift for the win!

Like I said at the top, this is Dethklok’s return to form.  This is a show that needs to be at 15 minutes and stay there.  Hell, even Nathan’s singing voice sounds right again.  This had the exact formula as to why the show was such a surprise hit.  The band is acting like morons, Ofdenson pulls their asses out of the fire, and the Tribunal is scheming to a much bigger agenda.  This simple plot is what makes the show work as compared to Season 3 episodes as this was a great return for Metalocalypse.  Call it nostalgia, but this is why “Fanklok” is getting two very much unexpected thumbs up.  Let’s hope the rest of the season is as good as the premiere.