Season Review: Tom and Jerry in New York Season Two

In my long forgotten youth, I remember Tom and Jerry being frequently aired on Cartoon Network as they slowly built up their original programming. While I don’t recall necessarily laughing all that much at the iconic misadventures of this cat and mouse duo, I can say that they definitely stuck in my mind for a while, and I assume the same of many others in my generation considering all the memes that have spawned from those classic episodes. From there spawned several direct to video movies that also played a lot on Cartoon Network, along with a recently panned live action movie that involved Scarlet Johansson’s husband Colin Jost. Suffice it to say that Tom and Jerry have manage to do alright for themselves in the decades since their heyday, and now have a new series on HBO Max set in New York, possibly to tie-in with the new movie. This is the second season of this, but I haven’t seen the first and I probably don’t need to, though I did just go to New York for the first time so maybe I can judge it on that.

In terms of what you can expect from this new show…well, it’s Tom and Jerry. You get exactly what it says on the tin. Tom gets pulled into situations or causes problems that then faces consequences for, while Jerry is either messing with him or pulling him out of it. Their complicated friendship and/or rivalry is pretty accurately represented here, with it not being as simple as just pure hate and disdain but the two ending up in quickly escalating shenanigans. Often times, it’s not even about Tom chasing Jerry, just wacky stuff happening around them and their supporting cast, like that dog guy or that one girl cat that Tom likes. Although, I think there might have been a bit of lack of communication from the writing team, because within these six episodes, there were at least a few instances of a similar story regarding Tom getting switched out with an oddly similar looking cat, though in one story it was a down on his luck actor and in the other it was a royal pet. Also, there was an episode with Asian depictions that I hesitate to say was bad, but is definitely dancing on the line there. But those are about the only remarkable episodes that seemed worth noting.

All in all, if you want Tom and Jerry, you will get Tom and Jerry. If you want to show this to your kids to keep their attention, or are for some reason a longtime fan of these characters (likely putting you within retirement age), you could definitely do worse than watching these enduring gags and bits be animated roughly in what seems to be Toon Boom, complete with old sound effects that are honestly more creepy than funny coming out of modern animation. But hey, Tom and Jerry have stuck around in this medium for a reason, a reason that I suspect is that the heads of Warner Brothers are octogenarians, but I guess that’s good a reason as any to preserve them for this current decade. Just please, no more live action movies. Unless you can actually get Scarlet Johansson this time.