Review: SuperMansion ‘Groaner’s Wild’

Spoilers Below:

Although it doesn’t officially premiere until October 8th, the first episode of the Seth Green/Matt Senreich/Bryan Cranston comedy has been released on YouTube here. Let’s see what we’ve got…

A supervillain thief broke into a secret government vault, but Titanium Rex and the League of Freedom (Black Saturn, American Ranger, Cooch, RoboBot, and later Brad) were there to stop him. Unfortunately, they toppled the Washington Monument in the process, and had to appear before congress to discuss their future.

While under investigation, the team set out to stop another evildoer, The Groaner, a clown/prop comic villain. He was easily apprehended, but it turned out that he was responsible for 150 pages of expenses charged to the League, much to the chagrin of Sgt. Agony, a military-grade accountant.

Fortunately, RoboBot recently converted to Judaism, and managed to cook the books and temporarily save everyone’s asses. But with an aging leader and increased scrutiny, how long can the team survive?

In Case You Missed It:

1) Items held in the secret government vault included: The Declaration of Independence; Washington’s teeth; Clinton’s ball gag; and a red, white, & blue diamond.

2) The team’s slogan is: “The League of Freedom – Keeping American Free…er!”

3) “You’re so far in the red, you’re like a pilgrim at an Indian brothel!” Yikes.

4) The clothing catalog held up by American Ranger was called: “Habercrotchie & Gamble.”

5) Brad’s (attempted) excuse for his massage expenses: “They were therapeutic massages! Okay, they were just massages. Okay, they were erotic massages. By a prostitute. Actually, ‘prostitute’ is probably too nice a word. I’m not even sure it was a chick. You know, I learned a lot about myself. Stuff I wish I could unlearn.”

Full disclosure: I actually reviewed this episode over two years ago when it was a potential Adult Swim pilot called UberMansion. I really don’t remember much about it, other than the scene where Titanium Rex (Bryan Cranston) was attempting to whiz in a urinal, and the fact that I rated the episode pretty highly. (Editor’s note: The original UberMansion pilot was shorter, and didn’t feature as many characters as the SM version.)

On my second time through, I think I enjoyed it even more. Sure, the plot revolving around a misfit crew of superheroes is a bit played out (especially since we now have Hulu’s The Awesomes) but who cares? If a show is as funny as SuperMansion (or the pilot, at least) then it doesn’t matter. And SM really packs the jokes into every second.

It’s not just a barrage of random shit either; it really has a unique voice. The Simpsons has its social & pop culture satire, Family Guy has its cutaways, South Park has its politics, and SuperMansion has what I can only call “corrective humor.” The only parallel I can think of is a show like 30 Rock. Fans of that show came to expect puns galore. Almost every line spoken was immediately backtracked to reveal a second, less conventional (but much funnier) meaning. SM barely uses any puns, but still backtracks constantly. A character will spout a sentence of dialogue, and then either be corrected by themselves, or another character. And it kills in all forms.

Sometimes it’s in the form of a repeat gag, like Cooch misunderstanding what a cat burglar is. Other times (and quite often), the show lampoons typical superhero or action entertainment by poking holes in their template. When the Blue Menace tried to correct Titanium in the first scene, the latter retorted with, “I was just bantering!” Later in that same scene, the Menace lamented the fact that the League took time during their fight to assess each other, saying, “You know, it’s really frustrating when you talk like I’m not here.” Even after besting their foe, a relieved Rex said, “Oh thank Christ, he’s not dead,” which is something that action films often neglect, only caring about the defeat and not the fact that a thief might have basically been murdered.

For one final example, Sgt. Agony instructed his helicopter pilot to fly away as he was warning the League of Freedom – ensuring that he got the last word.

These corrective jokes aren’t the only type of laughs, though. There were plenty of pokes at Titanium’s age, which were funny, but I’m skeptical about the sustainability of them over the course of an entire series. Others are just plain funny; I must give credit to whomever wrote the Obama drinking fountain joke and the Sonia Sotomayor one as well. (Although they should have kept it to one president joke, in my opinion.) Ballsy moves, but well executed.

Fans of Robot Chicken will be pleased to hear Seth Green’s voice pop up quite often in minor characters. Minor characters who, by the way, are capable of being just as entertaining as the main ones. The titular clown and RoboBot’s rabbi should each get mentions here.

And all this was put into a full 22-minute episode, which, considering SuperMansion comes from the Robot Chicken guys, is even more impressive given that it’s double the length of that show. Speaking of length, I promise my reviews won’t be quite as long as this one. There’s just so much to highlight, so much potential, and thus so much to look forward to.

SuperMansion has its official premiere on Thursday, October 8th on Crackle.

https://youtu.be/eDc56F5izvU