Review: Mystery Cuddlers

Overview

When the world’s cutest retired couple turns detective, they put the aww in hawwmicide.

Our Take

For the last month or so I’ve been sporadically bingeing The X-Files when I’m not watching cartoons or sports. At the time of this writing, I’m midway through season three (and loving it) and I can’t help but wonder if Fox Mulder is in love with Dana Scully and I just don’t know it yet…kinda like a Jim/Pam thing from The Office. The back-and-forth between the two stars of the legendary sci-fi show teeters from sweet to couple bickering to downright rabid and I’m here for it.

Adult Swim pilots can be tricky because at times these shows get picked up as is and sometimes you see something and you can’t help but think “I would like more of this, but less of it”. In the case of Mulder and Scully they have me hook, line and sinker, but in the case of Adult Swim’s Mystery Cuddlers, I’m on the fence on how much more I want of this. On one hand, the series is terribly cute, show creator Pen Ward and Jack Pendarvis are doing everything they can to sell this show on it’s cuteness and it almost works. The backgrounds are economically simple, the character designs remind me of very early Fleischer-era almost Felix the Cat where you wonder how can such a cute character get into so much trouble. That all goes out the window when a “Mustard Man” uses a very phallic mustard bottle to piss all over an art gallery then proceeds to smack the ass of a statue on the way out. THIS I love. Disgusting acts to weigh down the overtly cute characters is brilliant decision-making.

That said, I think 23-minutes of Pen Ward/Jack Pendarvis’ Mystery Cuddlers far too long. I found myself not interested in any part of this investigation as our main characters were almost too lovey-dovey for a miserable man like me to really gel with. Furthermore, the dialogue needs a LOT of work if you’re going to do a half-hour pilot where we spend most of our time with the two principal characters. Yes, we get some funny scenes on the way, but most of the show feels like endless doodles with no real center for what, if anything, is going on.

The cast is STELLAR like, I’m really shocked that an Adult Swim pilot got THIS cast to come onboard. My future-wife Dr. Pam Grier and Randall Park play-off of each other beautifully and legendary actor Michael Winslow is doing all of the sound effects which alone makes me want to see more episodes. Add in Weird Al, Brian Posehn,and Maria Bamford and you’ve got all of the cast makings of a good time.

Personally, I always felt like the best Pen Ward productions are the ones where he’s honed in a bit more on his canvas. Mystery Cuddlers is a 23-minute pilot for a quarter-hour show (like Adventure Time) that still allows us enough time to get a good amount of work in with Pam and Randall and gives plenty of breathing room for the likes of a Winslow or a Bamford to just go nuts in the background with ancillary characters.

Overall, Mystery Cuddlers has a lot of things that I really like but the one thing I don’t like is what I think is the biggest detriment of all when it comes to whether an animated series is good versus great and that’s runtime. I’ve spoken with numerous showrunners and creators in the adult animation space that actually prefer the shorter runtimes over the course of so many seasons and I think Jack and Pen should give this serious considerations as they ponder what the future of this show could be.