Critic Reviews

There’s an exploration of bureaucracy in the world of superheroes that implies a whole separate David Simon-worthy spinoff. There’s Serafinowicz, a true delight. And just when I was starting to get bored with how every episode ends on a cliffhanger, episode 6 ends with someone yelling “CLIFFHANGER!”

Anyone who thought the initial season of The Tick was good but mildly underwhelming will find quite a bit to like here. After years of people trying to tell this story and either failing entirely or succeeding when no one was looking (see the criminally overlooked 2001 series), this feels like the iteration of The Tick we’ve all been waiting for.

The inner lives of its characters is the real meat of this new series, even as it provides all the nonsensical one-liners, giant naked men, and superhero parodies that fans of these characters have come to expect.

Serafinowicz, with sharp, sunny delivery, nails the sort of delusion underpinning the myth, the cracked psyche that it would take to put on a form-fitting costume replete with bobbing antennae and leap toward the sky. And Newman, as the civilian roped into the Tick's schemes, comes up with a coherent way to sell a situation fundamental to the superhero story.

The series’ winking self-awareness makes for a fun, weird, intriguing show that has a strong sense of itself and the world it portrays.

Peter Serafinowicz summons just the right amounts of bravado, good cheer, and idiocy to be thoroughly endearing. Like the trademark antennae that dance on the Tick’s head, Serafinowicz has his character’s oddball rhythms down pat.

With key episodes written by Edlund and directed by Wally Pfister (who photographed "The Dark Knight,” ironically), the show is clever and crazy in the right proportions; it is always, in its outsized way, human and believable. It's everything I like in a thing like this.

The latest version remains as wonderfully quirky as all the others, but cleverly adds new layers of depth and character development that will (one would hope) allow it to play out over multiple seasons.

The series enjoys deconstructing superhero tropes but in its own offbeat way. You will probably need a few episodes to get into “The Tick, but the first part of the first season builds up nicely. By Episode 6, the series is all powered up.

The latest version of The Tick is very enjoyable; it’s smart and visually imaginative.