How good is Comedy Central’s new animated series Moonbeam City? Does it compare to Archer?
It was inevitable, once Comedy Central picked up Archer in syndication, they’d try to commission a knock-off. Archer is one of the most successful animated shows in Cable TV, season six averaged just a hair under 1 million viewers, and considering that most of it’s viewers are millennials which DVR the show, watch it online, etc… that’s awesome. When you also take into consideration how late the show airs, it’s downright monstrous.
This is where “Moonbeam City” comes in. Dazzle Novak (Rob Lowe) plays the womanizing cop protagonist role. Pizzaz Miller (Elizabeth Banks) is his angry Chief, and Rad Cunningham (Will Forte) is Dazzle’s rival at the police station. Chrysalis Tate (Kate Mara) has been fetching coffee and doing grunt work at the police station, but wants to get into the field.
The story isn’t original, neither are the characters. But the voice-acting is great (Will Forte is a fantastic antagonist on any show) and the idea of an Animated 80s themed noir is awesome. I’m not used to the animation style and maybe it’s that I’m used to the uncensored style of Archer, and the fact that it airs right after South Park but the self-censorship in Moonbeam City bothers me. A character that bangs a random mall food-court music act in a donut shop, and has strippers gyrating on him in his office doesn’t say “crap.”
I don’t know. It feels a bit neutered. This woud’ve passed as edgy in the late 90s or early 00s, but now it just seems like the Comedy Central standards team just killed the show. I love the back and forth between office temp Chrysalis Tate and Dazzle Novak, and hope that duo continues to work together in future episodes. The show definitely pokes fun at itself and the 80s, and it’s pretty funny.
Granted, the first episode of Archer wasn’t all that edgy, compared to the rest of it’s first season, and it was a little slow to develop (due to all the exposition) as well. I’m hoping Moonbeam City gets better, because right now it’s only getting a 3.5/5.
“Moonbeam City” airs Wednesdays at 10:30pm on Comedy Central.