Review: Universal Basic Guys “Sunset Cruise”

When David, Andrea, Mark, and Tammy go on a cruise together, David and Andrea unexpectedly rekindle their romance; Mark’s preoccupation with reeling in a big fish leads to him catching a whale that jeopardizes the safety of the entire cruise.

Our Take

Now THIS was an episode. While I question the logic of a brand-new series taking us away from our NJ setting in only the show’s second episode, “Sunset Cruise” ends up being a hysterical trip out to sea.

For starters, Mark (voiced by show co-creator Adam Malamut) is really starting to establish his stupidity on that same level as Homer or Peter and this episode is a great example of that. An almost parody of the book Moby Dick, Mark’s nonsensical aspirations for fishing dominance is very much a Jersey Shore state of mind that can only be explained in various live-action docuseries like Wicked Tuna or Deadliest Catch. Furthermore, Hank’s (voiced by Craig Malamut) dinner date wasn’t very long in terms of runtime, but the check-ins constantly leveling up the ridiculousness of reveals of his date KILLED me.

This week’s episode also allowed us to dig into more of the show’s cast not unlike a Springfield with a particular focus on David (voiced by Fred Armisen) and his wife Andrea (voiced by Ally Maki). While Fred Armisen’s voice career is well-known having worked for series such as Big Mouth, Bob’s Burgers, and a dozen other series, quietly, new mom (congrats!) Ally Maki has also become a fantastic go-to for BIG series like Hit-Monkey, Exploding Kittens, and others over just the last couple of years. So putting these two together was a masterstroke and one I think not only shows in this episode but for years to come.

I happen to be a fan of Dave Portnoy’s One Bite Pizza reviews and one classification of pizza that he has helped popularize is the ‘football pizza’ which is to say it’s a go-to variety of food that you can expect to see at game parties, be it celebrated alone or with a group of people. Universal Basic Guys is the football pizza of FOX’s Animation Domination lineup. I’m not sure if it gets to the Emmy-level of sophistication that series like Bob’s Burgers and The Simpsons have over the years, especially now that the category has been increasingly busy with animated dramas the last couple of years, but if you’re looking for quality laughs this is a great show to go-to. Maybe calling it ‘football cartoons?’ will catch on?