Season Review: Strip Law Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

An uptight lawyer (Adam Scott) teams with a flashy Las Vegas magician (Janelle James) to bring some pizazz to the city’s stupidest cases.

Our Take:  

We’ve been hearing the common phrase, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”, for who knows how long.  Considering some of the wildest things that happened in that flashy, gambling-obsessed city, I can understand why.  However, that’s nothing compared to the strangest cases that occurred in Las Vegas.  This sums up Netflix’s latest adult animated series, Strip Law, which highlights what you would expect from its title: lawyers, sex, violence, and plenty of “WTF” moments.  In short, it seems like any other adult animated series we’ve come across on a streaming service, Netflix or otherwise.

In reality, Strip Law is exactly like any other adult animated series you’d find on a streaming service, both in structure and adult humor.  Whether that’s your type of preference would depend on not just your taste in dark comedy but also a show’s execution.  In this case, Strip Law takes a massive jab at the tropes we’ve seen in crime dramas like Law & Orderwhile injecting a 1980s visual flair into its Las Vegas setting.  Honestly, I haven’t watched a single crime series involving lawyers myself, but I have heard what they’re like, so I was able to catch a few references while watching the show.  But its true victory is that Strip Law can still be enjoyed even without the knowledge of crime shows.  Does it revolutionize the adult animation trend in terms of the concept?  No.  However, it’s one of the shows that compensates for its tolerable mean-spiritedness and satirical humor.

Not only does Strip Law satirize the Las Vegas environment and crime genre, but the ten-episode season also satirizes other familiar tropes that catapulted other adult animation content.  One example is its third episode, “The Bad News Bapples”, where Lincoln and Sheila coach a misfit basketball team to compete against his late mother’s former lawyer partner, Steve Nichols (Keith David).  That episode flipped the script on the traditional “misfit team” trope through its use of dark humor and visual gags, which could risk it being a bit too mean-spirited for its own good.  Fortunately, it’s able to find the balance between heartlessness, idiocy, and charm to make this “sports underdog” premise a slam dunk.  I also thought the second episode featuring Lincoln proving that his client is the real Santa was pretty entertaining, and it’s not just because of the client’s bizarre hobo personality.  It also satirizes the Christmas special narrative by setting it around Halloween.  What can I say?  I’m a sucker for holiday-themed episodes, especially those that merge them into one.

Strip Law may be guilty of possessing similar clues from other adult animated sitcoms.  However, it also delivered enough entertaining moments in its mean-spiritedness and satire to walk away from the crime scene with a slap on the wrist.  The series also benefited well from its voice cast, with Adam Scott and Abbott Elementary star Janelle James leading an unlikely band of seemingly incompetent lawyers with a charismatic flair.  After my experience with Feride vs. the World, it’s nice to see an adult animated sitcom that knows how to inject charm into its unbearable characters, let alone a group of dimwitted lawyers.  It doesn’t match the heights of other strong additions to the adult animation department, but in terms of the execution of its satire and self-awareness, I would say that this is one case worth tackling.