Season Review: No Activity Season Four

 

We usually see television shows and movies that center on law enforcement saving the day, most notably cops and FBI agents. These elements are pretty standard for the action genre outside of the whole superhero affair. However, we haven’t seen many projects that focus on what’s going on behind the scenes. Stuff that happens to workers when they’re not in the middle of the action. This is where No Activity comes into play.

Released as a CBS All Access original in 2017, No Activity is an American remake of the Australian comedy series of the same name created by Trent O’Donnell. O’Donnell is also responsible for developing the remake with Patrick Brammall, one of the show’s actors. It serves as a comedic take of what goes on in between the action. Most notably, the series centers on two low-level cops named Nick Cullen and Judd Tolbeck, who try and fail to make a name for themselves in their cases. It does sound boring on paper, but thanks to the chemistry and the dialogue between the group of characters, it was successful enough to stand out alongside the action-packed cop shows we’re used to nowadays. That represents my experience with this show entirely.  

I didn’t think I would enjoy No Activity because of its concept, but after watching the first few episodes, I was pleasantly surprised at how entertaining it was to watch people have humorous and awkward conversations with one another. The amount of enjoyment I had with the show made me excited for its fourth season, especially since it underwent a massive makeover, which might be due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year that shut everything down.

Unlike the first three seasons of No Activity, which were portrayed in live-action, season four was entirely created with computer animation. It was a fresh format that may not look as smooth as I thought it would, but that doesn’t make this latest season extremely unwatchable. The animation in season four happened to have its perks, such as the visuals, most notably the drug trip sequences, and the character designs. I thought the animators did a pretty good job translating the cast from live-action to animated when it comes to the designs. Well, most of them. The way they animated Fatima (played by Sunita Mani) wasn’t that good compared to the rest of the characters. The only major issue with the animation that has been bugging me since the beginning of season four was the frame rate. I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but there were so many moments where many frames were skipped over whenever the characters move. It’s like the format was combining two types of animation styles: CGI and stop-motion. Now, I don’t mind stop-motion animation as much as everyone, but the way the animators handled it was undoubtedly jarring and inconsistent. It completely goes against everything stop-motion animation stands for. Suppose O’Donnell and Brammall are considering using this format again for the show’s possible fifth season. In that case, they seriously need to take the frame rate into account before it heavily affects the show’s quality.

As for the story arc itself, it’s what you would expect from a show like No Activity. It was an entertaining series of awkward conversations that either advanced the plot or slowed it down a bit. The previous seasons focused on Cullen and Tolbeck as partners in the police department. Season four took a different direction by shifting its focus to Cullen as an employed FBI agent tasked with taking down a cult known as The Collective with his new partner Agent Risoli (voiced by Jillian Bell). Tolbeck only appeared in a couple of episodes where he’s on temporary leave after he caused an accident that killed his partner Reinhardt (Joe Keery). The season also introduced its viewers to Dirk (Will Forte) and Sue (Samara Weaving), a married couple whose relationship has changed drastically by The Collective.

While it allowed the writers to play around with the new pairings in terms of dialogue, the execution didn’t exactly leave that big of an impression. Cullen’s partner Risoli wasn’t very likable due to her annoying personality, and the lack of Tolbeck was pretty disappointing for the most part. The Dirk and Sue segments also had some moments of hilarity, but their story arc wasn’t without its problems. One of those problems came from its third episode, which introduced its viewers to Dirk’s adoptive daughter Madison. She only appeared in that episode and was never seen again afterward. It felt like a wasted opportunity for the writers to develop the relationship between a father and his daughter. With how flawed the new supporting characters were, it’s no wonder why they decided to reunite the old gang during the last four episodes.

Overall, the fourth season of No Activity is another suitable series of comical mishaps that offered a fresh look and some new partners. However, it’s far from a cult comedy as its appeal was affected by its choppy animation and some hit-and-miss story beats. Other than that, its cast and decent comedy made the season enjoyable enough to satisfy plenty of followers of the show.