Review: Hot Streets “Got A Minute for Love?” ; “Snake Island”

Two minutes to Midnight.

Overview(Spoilers Below)

“Got A Minute for Love?” 

King Anubis of Egypt sends his son Daniel Kim to Hot Streets so that he can get married and eventually have children to keep the mummy way of living alive. Our agents have been dealing with mummies all day, so when Daniel convinces Jen to come with him to Egypt and get hitched, the duo follows suit and kill Anubis which allows Chubby to become the new King…

“Snake Island”

A mysterious substance called “Murder Powder” is causing a rift in the sky that could potentially allow the Snake God to come down to Earth and enslave humanity. Like all religions, this one’s got a cult following, so French, Baranski, Chubbie, and Jen head to the temple of the Snake God to put a stop to it. They do just that, but not before Chubbie snorts all of the Murder Powder he can get his paws on. After Baranski breaks the Snake God’s neck, all goes back to normal.

Our Take

Hot Streets is a new animated series created by Bryan Wysol and produced by the guys who gave you Robot Chicken and Rick and Morty. But, those expecting a series reminiscent of either of those vaunted franchises will have to look elsewhere. Instead, Hot Streets looks more like a cross between Scooby Doo and NYPD Blue, and the result is pretty damn solid if I do say so myself.

Scott Chernoff voices the role of “Donald French”, a more gullible and underserving subordinate to Agent Mark Baranski (voiced by JD Ryznar), the latter of whom is the stronger paradoxical worshipper to your crime capers. Joining them is Baranski’s niece “Jen” (voiced by Chelsea Sanders), who is susceptible to coercion due to her probably clinical depression, but acts like your atypical “Velma Dinkley” type role in that she’s the “smart girl” solving crimes. Last but not least, “Chubbie”, (voiced by Justin Roiland), that, like Scooby Doo, finds himself in a heap of trouble usually during the course of the episode.

The effort isn’t completely unlike Adult Swim’s Mike Tyson’s Mysteries, in that we get supernatural silly cases, but where Tyson kind of falls short in the areas of musical composition, dialogue, and voice acting, Hot Streets more than excels. Roiland sounds like he’s got a sock in his mouth while doing the voice of “Chubbie”, but that’s not gonna stop our rival fake press outlets from putting Rick and Morty in their byline to attract those fans, and in fairness, I still like the dog quite a lot in this show. Where the first two episodes improve upon the pilot is that I think the producers did a better job of establishing Donald and Mark’s relationship, workplace, and in some cases, intimate home lives (wait until you hear what Baranski can do with a buttered apple).

Similar to Apollo Gauntlet or Adult Swim’s recent limited series, Tender Touches, there are definite visual miscues in the show’s production, but I think that adds to its cocktail of throwback sweetness that should hopefully establish Bryan Wysol as a legit producer capable of further establishing himself outside the shadows of his more famous production marquee.