Review: Harvey Birdman, Attorney General

Where’s the porn star?

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Phil Ken Sebben has NO idea how he is President and threatens Harvey Birdman to fix all of this or he’s going to kick off a nuclear winter. During the course of his investigation, Harvey is rejoined by Peanut and Birdgirl, and eventually, we learn that Peter Potamus is behind this whole bit. Problem is, this doesn’t get Phil off the hooks, so he tries all sorts of alternative means in which to get impeached, everything from turning to past villains to even calling in a stunt awry. With a missile heading for the White House, Harvey and the gang decide to re-elect Black Vulcan as President, but Phil still needs to be impeached. We get exactly that, Vulcan becomes President, and Harvey becomes an author that is also framed for murder.

Our Take

Adult Swim is the one network that really hasn’t done anything serious about the Donald Trump presidency. Today, Comedy Central, Showtime, and a slew of online channels have had a good time at the former reality show host’s ascent through the ranks that eventually saw him capture the most important job in the world. Maybe Robot Chicken did a sketch here or there, but that’s it. But if the network WERE to do a show that lampooned current events, this is really the only proper franchise to do it with, and Harvey Birdman does it well.

The premise is simple, take the biggest buffoon in the Harvey Birdman world, and give him the keys to nuclear warheads. Within five minutes, nukes are launched Russian roulette style and the results are simply hilarious. That said, the soul of the Harvey Birdman, Attorney General’s parody has been done quite a bit up through now, and in numerous times with the animated sensibilities. Instagram has a bunch of independent ones, and even Phil Ken Sebben’s Stephen Colbert has an original animated series all about the President of the United States and his league of druids. And while I’m not sure Harvey Birdman does THAT much to differentiate itself, I had a bunch of fun seeing everyone come back in a sort of Brady Bunch Reunion type of way that sees Peter Potamus as this universe’s Alex Jones and villains from yesteryear that are clearly out of shape and have no business doing much of anything pertaining to world domination.

I actually think by far the best part of the series was the “holy fuck” cliffhanger of an ending. That’s clearly something that leaves the door open for future specials and I’d love to see that come to fruition. Will it happen? Too early to tell now. But this 30-minute rendezvous with an Adult Swim classic was a great way to introduce a slew of post-Rick and Morty millennials to a new brand all the while giving existing fans a good amount of payoff.