Critic Reviews

George Takei is Hit-Monkey’s best surprise. His performance as Shinji Yokohama is compelling, shocking, and heartbreaking (perhaps in that order). He has great chemistry with Olivia Munn, who plays his niece Akiko, and their scenes together are quietly effective. ... The series is highly bingeable while also providing satisfying individual installments. ... However you choose to watch Hit-Monkey, you’re in for a treat.

Monkey has moments of remorse and seems to hate being a killer, but at the end of the day, Hit Monkey is at its best when it’s simply a show about a monkey killing bad guys.

The second season of Marvel’s Hit-Monkey is better than the first, simply because the show’s creators figured out how to make it funny and deepen the show’s characters at the same time.

As a rowdy rumination on redemption, forgiveness, and the enduring quest for purpose in a world gone ape, Hit-Monkey still has appeal.

Hit-Monkey himself isn’t a bad character, as one-joke characters go, and he grows more expressive as the series goes along. By the end of the finale, I was curious about more of his adventures, but I would recommend either a change in setting or an expansion of the writing staff, beyond people hung up on flaccid quips and caricatures. Monkeys deserve better. The genre deserves smarter.

We’re just not sure where the show is going to land on the tonal line. Takei and Munn’s characters could go either way. And, given that we don’t know a ton about Bryce, we may learn things about him that bring out Sudeikis’ considerable dramatic acting ability. We don’t need Hit-Monkey to be all serious or all funny. But it’s really hard to get a handle on what it wants to be, much less where it’s headed.

Its leftover characters feel scattered, while its new ones feel interchangeable, all as the series sets up a more interesting premise for a potential third season somewhere down the line.

Given what it takes to render a world like this, and the glimmer of potential it does show, something like “Hit-Monkey” should never feel this hollow.

All told, “Hit-Monkey” is a prime example of a show that has all the makings of a good time, with a ridiculous, borderline silly plot and a talented cast and crew to bring it to life, but somehow everything is botched along the way.