Season Premier Review: Mike Tyson Mysteries ”The End”

Spoilers Below

It’s the first episode, and we find out that Mike Tyson receives messages from messenger pigeons with mysteries that need to be solved. Problem is Tyson’s daughter Yung Hee is looking at colleges to attend, Pigeon wants to be human again, and John Chambers doesn’t really have a point. The crew heads to Cormac McCarthy’s house for their first mystery to solve the mystery on how to write a book. All of the sudden, a chupacabra bites Cormac’s friend Raphael leading Iron Mike on a mission to kick the shit out of the beast whom now has Yung Hee held captive. Fortunately, Mike Tyson has a left gut punch that pretty much ends all, and a Cormac McCarthy that has a horse body whom can kick ass. We find out the monster was John Updike. Raphael comes back as a ghost, and our mystery solvers head on into the moonlight.

Mike Tyson Mysteries continues the flag bearing that Adult Swim has been doing as of late in premiering THE most unique animated content you will see anywhere on television. Slowly the network is moving past franchises that helped build the Adult Swim brand, and its place is stellar efforts such as Rick and Morty and now Mike Tyson Mysteries.

That’s not to say the series doesn’t have its flaws. For starters, we have no musical score of which I typically think is needed in a series such as this. If the producers recall, the goofy music really helped make the Scooby Doo franchise, and make no mistake, that’s what you’re getting here…a Scooby-Doo geared towards an older audience. Yung Hee (played  by Rachel Ramras) has ‘Daphne’ written all over her, but with an attitude that’s all her own. Finally, we meet John Chambers played by Academy Award winner Jim Rash, but for now he’s the one character we don’t really have a back story to, moreover, we don’t know what the fuck he’s even doing here. I suppose with time we can find out, but imagine a New Yorker inspired character with all of the stereotypical rich prick that goes with it.

Producer Hugh Davidson really does a fantastic job of building out a cast that not includes the brilliant Mike Tyson, but already has installed a workable secondary character in the Pigeon played by the fantastic Norm MacDonald. With Mike Tyson, we certainly laugh at a lot of the silly things that Mike says as he deals with whacky situations (the ‘Bird Sex’ song is going to be stuck in my head for a while), but Norm is certainly going to be that bankable number two guy that is more than capable of delivering hysterical lines of dialogue especially in the voice game.

Overall, Mike Tyson Mysteries looks to be another solid mainstay for Adult Swim and certainly returns WB Animation back to its prime-time form. And while we need to shore up some areas to make it in the same league as other Monday Night fare that airs on this network, it has all the tools to go a long run.

Watch it here.