Review: Royal Crackers “Catalina”

Overview

Stebe’s bad dreams lead him and Theo on a mission to discover secrets about their father’s dark past.

Our Take

As if the Hornsby family couldn’t be more of a deranged Succession, this week’s episode features a surprisingly cogent tale despite the constant dream sequences, flashbacks, and whatever else writers need to fill 22-minutes nowadays. For me, it’s the non-stop comedic action sequences that do it for me. Very much in the vein of Mr. Pickles (who btw, totally has an homage in this episode), the series loves to slip in the hilariously violent sequences as it slowly drags you down into its storytelling depths.

It’s always a good time when we get to peel back the onions and see the hellish upbringings of Stebe and Theo as it helps explain the questionable life choices the boys have made in the first place that have led them to where they are today. That said, it’s interesting Stebe didn’t want Matt to tag-a-long on his journey to fucking Catalina given that Matt would be the likely heir to the throne sometime down the road and this journey would’ve been an apt primer, but perhaps the producers felt that would’ve had TOO much going on at the same time, and opted to keep things as simple as they can given the already multi-layered premise.

One of the areas of the show that has always impressed me is the ridiculous character designs from Titmouse. Between the monsters, the villagers, and even the aforementioned costumed homage, everything has such a grungy look to it that you can’t help but wonder how in the hell this is the same studio responsible for such visual fetes as Sovereign Reign and Pantheon. But, that just goes to show why this studio is as successful as it is and why it has been able to grow as much as it has over the last few decades.

Royal Crackers delivers the salty, crunchy, wins in this week’s episode that helps showcase an already strong start for the show’s second season.