Review: Tender Touches “Heated Floors” ; “Heated Floors: Operetta” 

Would you believe me if I told you that the Operetta is actually better than the original?

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Charlene is attempting to cheat on her husband Curtis with a guy named Steve who also happens to be best friends with Curtis. Curtis freaks out when he learns of the situation and attempts to kill Steve with a knife, but instead of finishing the job, Curtis wants to actually help save his pal from an eventual death. Fortunately, this is a house with the benefit of a hideaway wall that can only be opened with a button, and inside there’s gauze or band-aids to help cover up Steve. But will we save Steve in time?

Our Take

Harmonquest is an animated retelling of what goes down when Dan Harmon plays role-playing games with his friends. Take that concept, and make it surprisingly less-dorky, and you’ve got Tender Touches. You know what’s odd about that? The series that stars Bradley Milner, David Bonawits, and Maxime Simonet, is actually pretty good. We’ve got a legit plot with established characters that are more-or-less improvised on the spot. Even better, the “Operetta”. Yes, the Operetta is essentially a replay of the first episode, but in song, and as such there’s almost a sense of a rehearsal aspect to the episode (aside from Charline’s character who is literally phoning it in). The end result is actually a rather compelling arc that the viewer is gonna wanna see the conclusion to, in both spoken word and song, the latter of which has a sweetness in its delivery, a spontaneity if you will.

The limited series is largely a format that is ignored by other TV networks that produce animation, and Adult Swim is on its third (two of which aired on Toonami), and I think having that type of variety is important. Especially if it gives an opportunity to the producers like so who ordinarily host the Adult Swim Streams a legit chance at storytelling, albeit, improvised.

I can’t believe I’m saying this…but this is a good show. It’s almost like holding a puppy, there’s a young energy about it that’s hard to control, but you’re getting puppy kisses in the process…or tender touches.