Trailer Breakdown: Moonbeam City Season One

We continue our daily breakdown of recently released trailers with a look back at this one for Moonbeam City that premiered at San Diego Comic Con. For those that don’t know, Moonbeam City is an absurdist take on the gritty, sex-drenched crime dramas from the 1980s.

Meet your star, Dazzle Novak voiced by Rob Lowe. Dazzle definitely has some similarities to Sterling Archer, and I think fans are recognizing that. However, it really is like comparing Peter Griffin to Homer Simpsons, in that you have similar characters, but going in slightly different directions that should make them interesting enough to stand on their own. Like Sterling, Dazzle is a womanizer, but unlike Sterling, Dazzle probably breaks the law just as much as he saves the law. And while Sterling’s exploits take him global, Dazzle’s police cases seem to be way more localized, which means we could be seeing more recurring characters.

Every time I see a trailer for this show, I can’t help but marvel at the backgrounds. Lush with purple and red pastels, Moonbeam City absolutely exhibits a color scheme that would fit in the worlds of Scarface, Driver, and anything Steve McQueen is in.

Rad Cunningham could also be a breakout character. Voiced by the brilliant Will Forte (MacGruber), Rad is a rookie cop that is just dying to see Dazzle fail at life. More so in this trailer than in the last one, Rad seems to be at Dazzle’s side a lot whilst taking on cases, and I think it’s going to be so much fun to see the higher and more erratic delivery of ‘Rad’ mesh with the more debonair and concise efforts of Dazzle.

Yep, this is Dazzle fighting a fire with gun shots and throwing shit at it. So far one of the funniest scenes of the show, and we’re just getting started. Dazzle’s IQ might be just as low as Peter Griffin’s.

One of my other favorite things about Moonbeam City is the musical scores. As mentioned before, very 80s-meets current electro-alternative themes akin to Ryan Goslings ‘Drive’ with band Night Club taking the helm of production duties. Major Lazer made an animated soundtrack work, I think these guys could, too.

Moonbeam City premiers September 16th @ 10:30 pm ET/PT, only on Comedy Central.