Review: Dream Corp, LLC “Episode One”

The Doctor will see you now.

Spoilers Below

Out of work and having sexual performance issues, Patient #88 heads to a rather rundown lab to learn the roots of his problems. It’s here we meet Dr. Roberts (Jon Gries), head of the operation, his assistants Randy Blink(Mark Proksch), Ahmed (Ahmed Bharoocha), and T.E.R.R.Y.(Stephen Merchant) , plus a beautiful intern/secretary named “Joey”(Stephannie Alynne).

To help alleviate Patient 88’s issues, Dr. Roberts hooks him up to an alternate reality that I don’t quite think solves anything, but it ain’t free, so Patient 88 has no choice but to work at the lab to pay off his bill.

Our Take

Every genre of television has been lampooned by Adult Swim, whether it’s the Emmy-winning Children’s Hospital taking shows like ER down a peg or NTSF:SD:SUV ruining CSI, it’s safe to say that no matter how hard TBS tries with its own efforts, Adult Swim is the king here. Dream Corp, LLC is similar in that, fans of more serious fare like TRON, Inception, and The Matrix will certainly recognize traits from those films that are prevalent throughout the series.

That said, Dream Corp LLC does a lot to elevate the silliness of the series to MacGruber-like heights. For starters, Joey’s questionnaire was great, and Randy Blink does a solid job of being the sort of “Dwight Schrute” of the lab players coupled with T.E.R.R.Y.’s constant one-liner lobs that are difficult to ignore due to Merchant’s eloquent delivery. Like Morpheus in the Matrix, Jon Gries’ “Dr. Roberts” is your proverbial Mad Hatter, helping Alice down the rabbit hole. The difference being, we’re getting a new Alice every week, and Gries has a way better sense of humor.

This year there has been a lot of talk about live-action/animation “hybrids”, and by far, Dream Corp, LLC’s rotoscope presentation far advances the cause than say FOX’s Son of Zorn or Disney XD’s Kirby Buckets. Instead of one or two animated characters, Dream Corp, LLC is giving us whole other worlds to explore that, judging by the first episode, are beyond anything we’ve ever really seen on Adult Swim or on TV in general. I mean, where else could you go where Dave Coulier is still relevant? I can tell you exactly where…Dream Corp, LLC.