Season Review: Pacific Heat Season One

Netflix has been dominating with original series of late. There’s the political drama House of Cards, comedy Orange is the New Black and sci-fi thriller Stranger Things. With Pacific Heat Netflix boasts a clever animated series that bears unavoidable comparison to Archer. From the humor to animation style, it’s an apt comparison. But despite these similarities, Pacific Heat remains an enjoyable new animates series with a great cast and subtle humor.

The Australian comedy, like Archer, lampoons the spy genre. Particularly, the James Bond-style spy thriller. The misfit cast of cops includes Zac (Santo Cilauro), Todd (Rob Sitch), Veronica (Lucia Mastrantone), and Maddie (Rebecca Massey). They’re constantly messing up, though they believe they’re a slick, suave squad. Especially Todd, who risks getting shot at the expense of wearing a helmet, and then getting helmet hair.

Humor largely spoofs the spy genre. This manifests in such ways as constant screw ups, miscommunication, and blatant tropes. “Todd, you ok?” Zac shouts. “No, I’m running out of racially-based putdowns,” Todd replies. Moments like this make Pacific Heat pretty hilarious. Brief flashbacks offer bits of backstory as well as hilarious moments.

Dialogue is taut and punchy. This is compounded by the core characters who are for the most part, genuine idiots. They’re constantly misunderstanding one another. Humor is mostly dry and there are some Family Guy style moments albeit thankfully toned down. In one instance, there’s a Nerf gun in the weapons arsenal, which turns out to be for Zac’s nephew. Jokes come rapidly, as a steady string of quips and banter.

Yet Pacific Heat occasionally falls prey to the tropes it highlights. Several jokes feel decidedly racist or sexist. Additionally, Pacific Heat doesn’t quite have as much personality as it could. Where Archer (again, the comparisons are really unavoidable), features witty pop culture references from the likes of The Eiger Sanction (that might be my favorite Archer episode ever). Pacific Heat instead relies on puns and generic humor. “Talk about making a splash,” Todd comments when examining a body that’s washed up on a beach. He follows this up with “Life’s a beach.”

While Pacific Heat isn’t a masterpiece, it’s not unfunny either. “Looks like she’s been hit on the back of the head,” Maddie observes. “The question is by who,” Todd states. “Whom,” Maddie corrects, to which Todd replies dully “Two questions.” The who-whom joke is pretty uproarious in its subtle cleverness, and there’s a bevy of material with such intricacy. But for each of these moments is a generic joke that borders on racism. Pacific Heat also tends to repeat the same material a bit which can be slightly overbearing.

However, Pacific Heat isn’t a complete loss. It features a standard 22-minute runtime, vivid animation, and solid scripts that craft an engaging narrative. The plot lacks depth, and the characters are hilariously dimwitted. If you can look past the sometimes offensive caricatures, Pacific Heat does have its moments where it shines, however, Archer it ain’t.