Season Review: Krapopolis Season One

Hey, remember a couple years ago when NFTs were getting hyped up as the next big tech trend? Well, what if we made a show on a major network to promote it, then ditch the gimmick when it gets rightfully mocked and condemned, but release the show anyway? Sounds basically like what happened to Krapopolis, one of Fox’s newest shows, Krapopolis, which has been a big help during a season when most of their other shows got reduced in episode count due to the writers and actors striking to preserve their jobs. I realize that’s a lot of background that’s not about the show itself, but I’d say it’s pretty important context. Anyway, set in a mythical version of Ancient Greece, Krapopolis follows the life of King Tyrannis as he tries to rule over one of the world’s first cities as the early versions of modern conveniences begin to emerge. Tyrannis is also joined by his exiled goddess mother Deliria, his laid back monster father Shlub, and his half-siblings Hippocampus and Stupendous, as they do their best to manage defending the city of Krapopolis from incidents both inside and out, as well as futilely try to make me forget that this show WAS MADE TO HOCK NFTS.

While a good portion of the episodes in Krapopolis focus on the characters marveling over the sudden invention or discovery of a thing or concept that is like something in the modern day, like money, or school, or a court system (even if some characters will make snarky comments that implies something like that already existed), thankfully there is plenty of focus on developing the characters in a usually interesting way to keep the show’s main gimmick from getting old. More often than not, the main focus is Tyrannis, sometimes having some dysfunctional fight with Deliria, while the B-plot is usually the brains of Hippocampus in some sort of mishap with the brawns of Stupendous, while Shlub kinda gets an even mix of focus and side focus. They’re a pretty balanced out cast in terms of personality and variety of stories, including the less than orthodox dynamic of them as a family of half-siblings and non-married parents, which I guess we have Dan Harmon to thank since he is the show’s creator. The show also has a more mythical setting with a vast array of gods and monsters, something its animated peers tend to steer away from, and while it doesn’t take advantage of it as much as I’d like, there is at least a clear interest in making use of it, including the gradually developing plotlines regarding the retaliation by nature spirits and the growing resentments by mortals towards gods.

With nearly two dozen episodes to its name already, I wish I had more to say about this freshman season, but while I see the potential beginnings of something special here, so many episodes often let me feeling pretty cold. A lot of these Fox animated comedies often take a season or two to find themselves, so it’s fortunate that Krapopolis already had a renewal for three seasons right off the bat, but it’s hard to find much in the way of clear positives with this first batch. Even worse, it’s hard to come up with any distinct issues that the show could really work on other than…be funnier, I guess. Or maybe come up with some easier to look at designs. We know the show will be back in the Fall, taking the 9:30 Sunday slot from Family Guy of all things, so it’s clear that Fox has confidence in it to get better, but clearly they’ve seen some episodes I haven’t because I don’t know how it got even this far. Oh wait, yes I do. It’s because they wanted to sell NFTs. Well, that solves that, see you next season when Fox decides to outsource some of the scripts to ChatGPT!