Season Review: Mike Tyson Mysteries Season 3

Punching out on Mike Tyson for the year.

Get it, because that one boxing game?

Like I’ve said in the past few weeks, and possibly multiple times at this point, this show is pretty weird, pretty clever, but not always very funny. Its roots are in its animated ancestors of 70’s talking dogs and caricatured celebrities, and it never shies away from these connections to its credit. On the contrary, it embraces them wholeheartedly, though almost to the point of strangling them so tight that its guts and intestines become visible.

I mean, not to put too fine a point on it, but the bread and butter of this series are essentially “good god, don’t cartoons get strange sometimes?” Which, in all fairness, they do. You don’t need to look much farther than their peers on Adult Swim to get that point across. It just seems to wear down the edge of that message when the comedy of a given episode is powered only by that. “The Beginning” makes a turducken out of every forced “origin episode” out there, “Love Letters” snowballs from love letters and affairs to melting former Russian spies, and “Foxtrot Academy for Boys”…has a tree brought to life with magical semen and then has to go steal penises from its suppliers. That’s not to say these aren’t funny ideas upon the initial viewing, just that when your job is to really think about these plots in order to give a proper written review of them, it really leaves you wanting for any assurance of your own sanity.

Plus, it’s not like there haven’t been clear signs that these writers can put in good character work when it suits them, even when it’s about really superfluous parts of the cast. “All About That Bass” began as just competitive jealousy but evolved into a story about love that could have been. “Broken Wings” explores Pidgeon’s dilemma of living in a bird’s body and trying to reclaim his life in ways I thought they used up after his focus episode last season, but damn if they didn’t prove me wrong. And “Ring of Fire” really touched on Marquess’s more present character flaws and escalated them to create genuine drama and tragedy (for me, at least). So, it wouldn’t exactly be fair to say they don’t have some real talent for good TV writing when the mood strikes them.

I guess what it boils down to is that this show is kind of a paradox. It tries to be unique by being everything, and it tries to give itself a broader appeal by having a very niche and insular sense of humor. It can make you think, and it can sometimes make you laugh. But more often than not, it makes you pause, process, have a brief chuckle at the absurdity, and then make almost want to go through that same kind of ten minutes again that same time next week.

Simply put, Mike Tyson Mysteries is a show built on its aftertaste, when it could be more about the immediate flavor. Maybe that’s the intent, and there’s certainly not a lot of other shows like that, but it makes you wonder what could be. Give it a look if that sounds like your kind of crazy. It can give you that fight or flight feeling, but for this year, I’m fighting. See ya next year, maybe!

SCORE
8/10