Review: Krapopolis “Wife Swamp”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Tyrannis returns from a voyage with a mermaid girlfriend after supposedly defeating a Kraken, but when he finds out it was staged, he ends up in hot water with Poseidon. Meanwhile, Stupendous tries infiltrating a pack of wolves but ends up bringing about the human alliance with dogs.

OUR TAKE

After an okay double premiere last week, Krapopolis continues with an adequate follow up. Which is fine, since these kinds of shows often take awhile to really find themselves and understand what works, but rarely get the chance to get that far, especially in terms of Fox animated comedies. The Simpsons didn’t really become close to its best seasons until the third or fourth seasons, and the same could be said with Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers. And yet so many have been cut off at their first or second seasons before that could happen, with the only one managing to avoid this in recent years being The Great North, which landed a third season and got a fourth season renewal (though we’ll see if that sticks). Likewise, Krapopolis has already gotten a second and third season set out for itself before the first episode premiered, so it’s got a guaranteed runway to try things out for a good long while. Here’s hoping that it finds some ways to help its characters stretch their legs and become more defined, because right now they feel almost confined in what they’re starting out as. Again, very likely because it’s early days for the show, I’m sure they’ll figure things out at some point.

Anyway, this episode definitely feels like more of the same as the last two episodes. The main theme of the show so far seems to be that the characters come across the beginnings of something in the modern day, national alliances, Olympic sports, and now becoming friends with dogs. Anything involving becoming friends with animals is pretty much always going to instantly add points with me, so seeing Stupendous get basically a pet wolf is definitely a plus. Also interesting the last scene is about negotiations between two parties considering the Writer’s Strike just wrapped up this past week. But as for the main plot about Tyrannis, I guess it’s neat that he would normally be the Steve or Chris of a show but he gets to be the lead. Then again that can get rather old fast if they’re not careful, so perhaps the novelty of that will wear off after not too long. But once again, it is only the third episode, so we could be seeing a marked improvement in the episodes in the near future. It’s all up in the air right now. Stay tuned!