Critic Reviews

As far as new, creative, original animated series go, Crossing Swords is one of the year’s best.

With so much of the tonal groundwork taken care of by that first episode, each new attempt to go back to that well gets less and less shocking. ... Yet, even when those people around Patrick seem thin, it’s the voice work on the show that becomes another saving grace.

“Swords” is occasionally funny but more often settles for outrageous — a Little People figure swearing and showing off his private parts! — which may work to a degree the first time, but grows tiresome and dull in repetition.

It’s reasonably funny sometimes—a relief, that, as ‘profane’ and ‘funny’ are its only obvious goals—but hearkens back to a time when shows like “South Park” and “Family Guy” felt consistently new and fresh.

The scripts pass pedestrian potty-mouthing off as the quippy intellect needed to get us comfortable at this low height of brow.

The series isn’t without moments of cleverness, but even the jokes that land mostly just emphasize how complacent the remainder of Crossing Swords is to coast on its crassness.

Every character is operating on a different level of vulgarity. ... Skip it, unless you’re in 8th grade and somehow haven’t already heard these jokes before.