Starring: Tom Ellis, Sasheer Zamata, Suzy Nakamura, & Mark Proksch
Rating: 3 / 5
It seems like a risky bet to make a TV show based on a tabletop card game. Sure, there’ve been some recent toy-based film successes like “Barbie” and “The Lego Movie”, but let us not forget the horror that was “Battleship”, not to mention the graveyard of failed video game inspired films. So it’s against that backdrop of low expectations that “Exploding Kittens” premiere on Netflix with… well, not exactly a roar, but maybe a gentle meow.
The show focuses on God (voiced by Tom Ellis) who is sent down to Earth as punishment for a night of drunken debauchery. But rather than keep his usual muscular “God bod”, he’s forced to take the form of a cat (though with the same long white beard). What starts as a simple task of helping out the dysfunctional Higgins family expands into a longer mission of God-turned-Godcat tasked with helping mankind and making up for years of disinterest and poor management (you know, like war and nautically-themed bathrooms). But before he can do that, he must also contend with Beelzebub (voiced by Sasheer Zamata), the daughter of the original Satan himself. She’s struggled succeed in her father’s shadows, and so she too has been relegated to Earth to get better at her job of torture and just overall evilness.
God’s main task it to help the struggling Higgins family. Father Merv, a lover of tabletop games whose biggest aspiration is to become manager at his job at a local big box store, is married to Abbie, an aggressive former Navy SEAL who struggles to find purpose in her boring suburban life. Their children, Travis and Greta, are misfits who also struggle to fit in. While Travis spends much of his time trying to become internet famous, Greta is frequently concocting (often failing) science experiments.
The show is based on the tabletop board game “Exploding Kittens” that is itself created by Matthew Inman, the cartoonist behind the popular webcomic series The Oatmeal. Inman serves as creator and showrunner, and fans of The Oatmeal will be happy to see the same visual style carried over to this series. There’s also influences from TV sitcom veterans Mike Judge (“King of the Hill”) and Greg Daniels (“The Office”), both of whom serve as executive producers, and their absurdist influences is felt throughout the series.
The jokes here come rapid fire, with the kind of punchy lines you’d expect in something like “The Simpsons” or “Family Guy”. The writing weaves together puns, pop culture references, and absurdist visual gags; one minute, cats are forming together to create a fighting suit, a’la “Voltron”, while the next a character is wheeling in a cask of “Kegernet Sauvignon”. The targets are spread wide, mocking everything from nosy “Karen” neighbors to IKEA to the French language itself. Some jokes land and some miss their mark, but there’s enough variety that if one joke doesn’t work for you, the next one might.
The series’ 9-episode run has some flat points, though. There’s an overarching plot, but most episodes are one-offs that follow a typical sitcom plot structure. At times, it felt like I was watching something you’d find on Sunday evening on Fox, albeit if the standards and practices department were away on holiday. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, of course, and fans of shows like “Solar Opposites” or “Bob’s Burgers” will feel right at home. Just don’t expect the wit and depth of, say, “Bojack Horseman”, the animated Netflix comedy from a few years back that really pushed the genre ahead.
The show’s best moments come from God adapting to life as a lowly “Godcat” as he maneuvers through a typical fish-out-of-water (or God-out-of-Heaven?) plot. Tom Ellis (who ironically played Lucifer in the TV series of the same name) voices the role with just the right amount of gravitas to give the character a kind of self-importance that make his failures all the more humorous. Sasheer Zamata, meanwhile, brings a warmth and comic timing to the role of Beelzebub / Devilcat. The plotlines focusing on the Higgins family are less interesting, but there’s an earnest sweetness as the family overcomes their differences and learns to accept and love one another.
Unlike some other recent additions to the adult animated comedy genre, “Exploding Kittens” doesn’t aim to be groundbreaking or deep. It lacks the philosophical commentary of “Rick and Morty” or the melancholy poignancy of “Bojack Horseman”. But it’s a clever, charming show that provides just enough laughs to be worth a viewing.