M.O.D.O.K.: My Overwhelming Disappointment at Oswalt’s Kreation

OK, so the acronym doesn’t work perfectly. But it works better than this show. Below will be an almost spoiler-free review of Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K., the 10-episode Marvel series that dropped at the end of May on the streaming platform Hulu. I say almost spoiler-free, because I will describe a small character detail that is worth mentioning.

M.O.D.O.K. is a comedy series based on the longstanding Marvel Comics villain, the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. M.O.D.O.K. started as an opponent for Captain America in 1967, but quickly became a foil for most members of the Avengers at various times. He was a scientist at Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) who allowed himself to be experimented on in order to vastly increase his intelligence. That gave him the enormous head and spindly legs that made it necessary for him to invent and use the levitating chair that is also his headpiece.

In the Hulu series, co-written by Patton Oswalt (who voices M.O.D.O.K.) and Jordan Blum, a writer and producer on Community and American Dad, we find out that M.O.D.O.K. is a family man. He is married to up-and-coming YouTube star Jodie (Aimee Garcia), has a teenage daughter Melissa who takes after her dad with her own giant head and floating chair (Melissa Fumero), and a tween son Lou who takes after his Latina mother with wavy black hair and dark skin (Ben Schwartz). As the head of A.I.M., M.O.D.O.K. is a lousy businessman, and he ends up being bought out by Grumbl, a Google clone led by Austin Van Der Sleet. So the egomaniacal leader of his own techno-villain organization now has a boss he must answer to.

Yes, M.O.D.O.K. is a Mature-rated domestic family comedy meets a workplace comedy — Modern Family meets The Office, without the fake documentary overlay but with way more bloody cartoon violence. It is spectacularly animated with stop motion animation by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, the team behind Robot Chicken. With Marvel/Disney money behind it, Stoopid Buddy has stepped up its animation game from “friends playing with their own action figures” to top-tier stop motion work.

Also on the list of good things about the show, the voice cast is stellar. Secondary or tertiary character voices include Jon Hamm, Brian Posehn, Alan Tudyk, Bill Hadar, Nathan Fillion and even Whoopi Goldberg. And sadly that pretty much wraps up what is good about M.O.D.O.K.

What isn’t good includes the writing, the jokes, and the general overall tone and concept. Almost everyone in this show is a horrible, stupid person, with M.O.D.O.K. as the worst of the lot. Now that can work as a comedy, and does so well for It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. But the reason it works in that show is that the characters are allowed to experience the consequences of their stupidity and horrible behavior without trying to make them sympathetic or redeem them. M.O.D.O.K. tries to have its cake and eat it too — characters every bit as terrible as in It’s Always Sunny, but with moments that seem as though the writers want us to sympathize with them and who may be on the way to growing and learning. But don’t. So nearly every redemptive moment is sabotaged by the humor that follows it and the complete lack of character growth, in a show that sets you up to expect such growth.

There might be a comedy like that with working humor and enjoyable characters, but I can’t think of one, and even the brilliant comedy mind of Patton Oswalt isn’t able to make that premise work. The funniest moments in nearly every episode were the off-hand Marvel jokes and references, which makes the way the show failed to capitalize on its many opportunities to do that just more disappointing. That kind of humor is the essence of Robot Chicken, and M.O.D.O.K. could have done well to emulate its production studio’s successful formula.

One surprising moment (here’s that minor spoiler) in the show was the reveal that A.I.M. scientist Gary — M.O.D.O.K.’s closest ally in the company — is gay and happily married to a truck driver-like big burly guy named Mike. This is delivered in the most casual manner with absolutely no sense of it being a shocking or even surprising revelation — exactly as would be the case if we met any other spouse of a straight couple. Well done, M.O.D.O.K. At least you got something right.

Nearly 5 hours with these awful characters for a handful of funny Marvel in-jokes and references isn’t a good way to spend your time. I give Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. a 3 out of 10. The biggest disappointment from Marvel under Kevin Feige so far, by miles.

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