Review: Psi Cops “Breeder” ; “Small Townies”

Overview

“Breeder”

In their third adventure, the Psi Cops find themselves on the trail of a lizard-like, succubus-style alien. The creature uses the ‘Brilliant Celebration Room’ bar as her hunting grounds. Slapstick ‘Under the Skin’ vibes abound in another interesting outing for the worst detectives on Canada’s west coast.

As with the show’s first two episodes, there’s no shortage of easily gathered paranormal evidence on display – the ‘woman’ in question makes no effort to hide her sideways blinking eyes and snake tongue. Collecting that evidence becomes complicated when the Psi Cops concoct a plan involving the corpse of coworker Eric’s grandfather.

Finding himself roped into this week’s hijinks, Eric’s addition to the investigative crew creates a dip in energy for Psi Cops. The manic ‘yes, and’ improvisations that bring Kydd and Felixx to their convoluted conclusions are undeniably the driving force behind the show, and ‘Breeder’ illustrates how this can also be a liability. Eric (ably voiced by Dejan Loyola) suffers from being one of the lone voices of reason in a show disinterested in logical conclusions. As the only direct descendant of the corpse needed for their corpse-based emergency, it makes sense that Eric would be a bit of a naysayer, even if the corpse in question was an unsmiling Christ-hater. While his high-pitched complaints take up only a few minutes of the show’s 12 minute runtime, it just feels like there’s no room here for the conversational lag created by a conventional nagging foil. Kydd and Felixx are characters that crackle when they get going – why waste time having a character ask for corpse defilement to be kept to a minimum when we all know corpse defilement is going to be cranked to the max? Simply put, these two Mulders don’t need a Scully.

“Small Townies”

The fourth episode of Psi Cops sees the boys out of their comfort zone and wildly overcompensating as they leave the city and head to rural BC to investigate a series of mysterious car crashes. Recent insults from a child genius puts the detectives on edge – an emotional development they decide to take out on the unsuspecting citizens of the town.

This exploit is the show’s funniest offering so far – Kydd and Felixx are in fine form as they threaten and berate every small town person they encounter. Immediately upon arrival, a mimed car crash reenactment results in the gruesome death of the local sheriff, leaving the town defenceless against two big city idiots with their guns drawn and a plan to force facts to fit their theories.

The men oscillate from utter ignorance to indignant rage at a moment’s notice, punctuating their baseless accusations by ripping off people’s jewelry and ruining their meals. Their supreme surety in themselves, as always, takes them far further than it rightfully should, with Felixx especially exuding a confidence born of a recent movie-watching experience. Combining the fully unfettered Psi Cops energy in an open air environment with truly silly animated sequences (asphalt sommeliers, anyone?) make this episode a real stand-out in the season so far.