‘Kite Man’? Hell Yeah! — An Outstanding New Sitcom Is Also a Superhero Spinoff
Lately, in between reviews of swanky limited series and dramas desperate to be “Game of Thrones,” I’ve been using my non-work-related TV time re-watching “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” What a comfort. What a joy. What an escape. The weary modern world is filled with I.P.-driven franchise extensions and comedies that aren’t really comedies, whereas Moore’s iconic ’70s sitcom gets laughs every other sentence from its simple setting in snowy Minnesota. Credit to the phenomenal cast (somehow Ted Knight and Ed Asner’s five Emmy wins in six years weren’t enough), the smartly designed, blessedly humble studio apartment (her new digs in Season 6 are more offensive than the episode where Murray professes his love for Mary), and good jokes elevated by a precise understanding of their punchlines. I can’t tell you how often I’ve burst out laughing because of a clever twist on the expected kicker, or just from how thoroughly each actor commits to their bits. (Knight’s impeccable deliveries should be required viewing for anyone working in front of a live studio audience.)
Part of what keeps me coming back to TV made a half-century ago is, of course, personal preference. I watch a lot of comedies in my free time, often with large ensembles made up of families (“Bob’s Burgers”), friends (“Friends”), and “friends” (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”). But part of the reason is because I don’t get to watch a lot of those shows during my normal work hours. There just aren’t as many sitcoms anymore — true sitcoms, not comedies that masquerade as murder-mysteries or soap operas, or comedies that are really just funny action shows, or whatever is meant to be derived from the omnipresent nothing-descriptor “dramedies.” Some of those are good, on their own terms, but they’re not comforting in their recurring characters, reliable in their routines, or consistent with their sense of humor. Most of the stuff I watch for work — and thus most of the TV being made today — is trying to be the next big thing, the next awards darling, the next “Game of Thrones.”
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So imagine my surprise to discover “Kite Man: Hell Yeah!” — an awkwardly titled spinoff to an (excellent) I.P. extension built around a character who’s barely memorable in the original show — isn’t trying to be anything one might assume from its credentials. Sure, there’s a cameo or two from “Harley Quinn,” and plenty of DC villains make their way into the 10-episode first season. But Dean Lorey, Patrick Schumacker, and Justin Halpern’s new series prioritizes its barely known stars, creatively colorful surroundings, and steadfastly sharp jokes. Happy to have its own little corner of the greater Gotham universe, “Kite Man” is a sitcom — a very good sitcom — with just enough serialization to satisfy today’s plot-obsessed audiences but more than enough warmth and joy for anyone who just wants to laugh along with their TV buds each week.
While unexpected from the outset, “Kite Man: Hell Yeah!” isn’t exactly shy about its genre inspirations once things get going. In the first episode, Kite Man (voiced by Matt Oberg) and Golden Glider (Stephanie Hsu) go on a few missions and beat up a few baddies, but their story is building to something far more ordinary than the chaos all around them. They decide to buy a dive bar. Career criminals who’ve never made it out of the minor leagues, the loving couple wants a place that’s just theirs — where they can take solace from the outside world’s disappointments and regroup in the loving embrace (or relative safety) of their fellow flunkeys. (A sign behind the bar reads, “No Contract Killings.”)
“The big supervillains are all sitting pretty in their lairs,” says Moe (or Joe), a two-headed henchman voiced by Michael Imperioli. “But this place is for the dregs, the goons, the henches — a place for the rest of us.”
“You may have [a lot of] stuff,” Kite Man tells the uber-rich Lex Luther, “but what you don’t have is friends. You’ll never be able to walk into a place like this, lie down on the floor, and know that everyone around you loves you and cares about you.”
Clearly, the poster’s title font isn’t the show’s only homage to “Cheers” — you can almost hear the theme song start up after Kite Man’s little speech — and from there, many of the antics revolve around Noonan’s flowing taps. Luther hides the season’s Macguffin in the bar’s freezer, unceremoniously buried under non-perishable jalape?o poppers. Malice (Natasia Demetriou) is hired as a server. Bane (James Adomian) volunteers to be the bouncer (at least, for a while). Episodes revolve around an incorruptible health inspector, a chain bar that opens across the street, and an Irish wake (a la “The Wire,” which is admittedly not a sitcom, but I don’t think Sam Malone ever hoisted a dead body onto the bar’s pool table).
Layered on top are ongoing storylines about Kite Man’s daddy issues, Golden Glider’s mommy issues, and becoming bigger, badder villains, but rarely do those arcs feel any more pressing than whatever immediate, minor crisis has the bar in a tizzy.
Such an inviting balance — one in which you’re allowed to enjoy what’s happening from moment to moment instead of impatiently pressing to know what happens next — isn’t struck simply by the chosen stories. Many of the characters are comfortable with who they are and what they’re doing, which breeds contentment in the viewers, too. Kite Man and Golden Glider may want to run a successful bar and grow their reps among Gotham’s bad guy community, but they’re also blissfully happy in their relationship. Instead of a “will they/won’t they” push and pull (like Harley and Poison Ivy’s soaring arc in the original series), each lead trusts the other, heaping love and support on them throughout the season, and their trust is passed on to the audience. We can rest assured this couple is a rock on which “Kite Man” is built — that, at the end of the day, they’ll be OK — which makes it that much easier to relax and have fun during their various shenanigans.
And oh what shenanigans there are. Without unfurling a lengthy, itemized list of the season’s delightful comedic flourishes, let me just highlight a perpetual engine of glee: Bane. Ported over from “Harley Quinn,” which turned the hulking beast-man who broke the Bat into an emotionally frail, lovelorn victim of Bruce Wayne’s more senior bullies, Bane enters “Kite Man” fully transformed into a teddy bear. He abandons the esteemed Legion of Doom for the lower-class crew at Noonan’s because they “treat me with respect… usually.” That “usually” does a lot of work, since Bane works for tips as a bouncer. He babysits while wearing a rainbow-colored clown wig and making balloon animals. He gets a time travel episode triggered by a magic toilet.
With his nasally, crackling cadence, the animated Bane’s voice is a hair higher-pitched than Tom Hardy’s, but it’s a) clear enough to land a punchline, and b) close enough to evoke memories of the super-serious “Dark Knight Rises” villain who now says silly shit like, “You know I don’t mind helping you guys move, but please tell me you’re not going to put the Thomas Blakemore piece next to the Franken Schnitzel Snot.” Bane, as he is for “Harley Quinn,” remains a scene-stealing supporting character; a classic sitcom star who would win five or six Emmys if the TV Academy treated animated shows with the same reverence as their live-action counterparts. (The award would have to be shared between Adomian, the writers, and the animators, the latter of whom do an incredible job fitting in funny little gesticulations and movements, like when Bane has to shimmy like a 2-D arcade game character through rapidly closing doors.)
Of course, he’s not the first hand-drawn half-hour icon, since animated shows adopting a sitcom format isn’t exactly a new idea. From “The Simpsons” to “Bob’s Burgers,” “Grimsburg” to “Exploding Kittens,” animation has been used to brighten up a wide range of sitcoms for decades. But when filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro and Phil Lord say animation is a medium, not a genre, this is exactly what they’re talking about. The catch-all phrase “adult animation” has long been a bucket big enough to fit everything from naughty cartoons to war epics and existential dramas. With “Kite Man,” we’re just seeing a slightly trendier expansion: a spinoff of a superhero series (“Harley Quinn”) which aims to extend the intellectual property (Batman) of a major brand (DC Entertainment) by fleshing out supporting characters (and we’re back to Kite Man). It may be surprising to see the latest iteration of billion-dollar I.P. molded into a genre the eulogy for which gets rewritten every year, but it’s no surprise that the latest outstanding sitcom is animated.
Hollywood isn’t greenlighting another “Mary Tyler Moore Show” in 2024, and, to be clear, “Kite Man” is not that. (For one thing, I don’t think Lou Grant ever landed a gag by ‘sploding someone.) But just like the next big thing likely won’t be a carbon copy of the last big thing, audiences have to try out new series just to see if they scratch whatever itch they’ve got. You never know where your next favorite show will come from, and with a little help from unexpected sources, maybe, just maybe, the sitcom — and those of us who love them — are gonna make it after all.
Grade: B+
“Kite Man: Hell Yeah!” releases new episodes Thursdays on Max. The Season 1 finale premieres September 12.
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