‘Exploding Kittens’ Review: Netflix’s Admirably Weird Animated Cat Comedy Could Use Sharper Jokes

Netflix’s premise Exploding Kittens This is going to sound like the stuff of wacky comic fantasy, unless, of course, you have cats. Speaking as someone who does, I’ve called my boys perfect angels and spawn demons in the same breath; I’ve watched them go from cuddling to fighting to cuddling again in the space of a few minutes. As far as I’m concerned, God and the Devil showing up on Earth as a pair of chaotic felines is just a slight exaggeration of everyday reality.

Unfortunately, aside from the cute concept, there isn’t much other on the animated comedy series that surprises, too. It’s not for lack of trying. Along the lines of Rick and Morty, Futurama OR Big mouthThe series catapults its characters into otherworldly worlds and against bizarre monsters, all while peppered with irreverent jokes and pop culture references. Exploding Kittens It’s at times funny, at times sweet, and rarely annoying. But it never really stands out from the coolest cartoons of the 2010s.

As for how these immortals end up here, we find out early in the nine-part season that it’s because they’re both terrible at their jobs. God (voiced by Tom Ellis, aka Lucifer on the Fox/Netflix series) Lucifer) has been ordered by his council to reconnect with humanity after several centuries of abandonment. Beelzebub (Sasheer Zamata) has been sent to “ascend [her] evil game,” since he’s the gangland equivalent of a nepo child who’s failing at his job. (His late father, on the other hand, was widely considered the greatest Satan ever: “The man who designed the Trader Joe’s parking lot,” one former subordinate recalls in awe.)

As in the comedy of the end times Good omensThe fact that Godcat and Beelzebub have more in common with each other than with the people around them makes them a kind of best friends, even if they occasionally declare war on each other.

None of this has much to do with Matthew Inman’s eponymous card game, which this series is presumably adapting. But Inman and series co-creator Shane Kosakowski are game for anything the combined forces of Heaven and Hell can come up with, the weirder and funnier the better.

Godcat’s main job is to bring the bizarre Higgins family closer together, which he attempts in the half-hour premiere by shrinking the family and pitting them against board game pieces brought to life. Other installments feature former Navy SEAL mom Abby (Suzy Nakamura) staking vampire pugs, or teenage genius Greta (Ally Maki) blowing up a unicorn, or wannabe influencer brother Travis (Kenny Yates) fleeing an alternate timeline ravaged by giant dragon sharks.

In one outing, Godcat and Beelzebub camp out at Sea World to give a stern lecture to the marine mammals, who are actually the doomed souls of villains like Christopher Columbus and the Manson family. Meanwhile, nerdy department store manager Marv (Mark Proksch) somehow manages to get adopted by his boss in an impromptu pseudo-marriage ceremony aboard a Hindenbergian airship. The first plot, come to think of it, makes exactly the same sense as God and the Devil being cats. The second, I couldn’t have predicted a hundred years from now.

If the plots are admirably quirky, however, the jokes that Exploding Kittens Their mines tend to be obvious. The idea that bad kids go to a juvenile hellhole called Heck is clever, for example; Heck circles that include attention-hungry trolls and the Presidential Fitness Challenge, less so. And if you’re wondering whether that test still exists, that’s typical of the show’s stale references. The likes of Imagine Dragons, Ellen DeGeneres, and “Jefflon Bezmusk’s” obsession with phallic spaceships all get hooks that feel like they’ve been dusted off since 2018.

Even the joke structures creak. You can bet that each list will feature two normal things and a third, more frivolous one (“There are a lot of things humans have really fucked up: murder, taxes, John Krasinski acting in action movies”) and that each weirdo will be described as a cross between two incongruous cultural icons (“It looks like Tony Robbins had a kid with Gandalf”).

However, there can be charm in a show that follows reliable beats rather than creating new ones, and Exploding Kittens executes those familiar formulas well enough to get a few laughs. The cast does a lot to sell the humor, but also the heart.

Proksch is the MVP as Marv, recounting the sadder details of his dull life with a lightness that somehow makes them seem darker. Ellis captures the haughty arrogance of a cat who can’t believe is forced to get close to the very beings he is supposed to rule, while Zamata brings a recognizable shyness to the reluctant CEO of Hell. Their various relationships consistently strike a balance between sweetness and sarcasm, without falling into either saccharine or meanness.

If you’re looking for light humor, you could do worse than watching Godcat warm up to the joys of Whac-A-Mole and Bruce Willis, or flirt with Beelzebub over cocktails and Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars.” But if there’s a truly fresh voice to be found buried in all this divine hijinks, it’s yet to emerge.