TV Review: UGLY AMERICANS – Season 2 – “Wet Hot Demonic Summer”

By CARL CORTEZ / Contributing Editor

Posted: July 1st, 2011 / 10:13 AM

Stars: Matt Oberg, Devin Clark, Pete Holmes, Julie Klausner, Natasha Leggero, Kurt Metzger, Larry Murphy, Mike O’Gorman, Randy Pearlstein, Michael-Leon Wooley
Writer: Daniel Powell
Animation Directors: Aaron Augenblick, Devin Clark
Network: Comedy Central, airs Thursday nights
Original Telecast: June 30, 2011

When UGLY AMERICANS arrived last year, I was intrigued by the premise which mixed humans, demons and monsters in an alternate reality version of New York, but I still wasn’t ready to give it a chance.

Boy was I missing something.

Now that it’s made it to season 2, I’m hooked. It’s clear creator Devin Clark has crafted one of the funnier new animated series that don’t rely on potty mouthed kids or normal families in strange situations (most of the Fox network animated line-up).

The premise for UGLY AMERICANS is simple: Mark Lilly (Matt Oberg) works for the Department of Integration. He has a roommate who’s a zombie and girlfriend and fellow co-worked Callie (Natasha Leggero), whose the daughter of Satan. His office mate is an alcoholic wizard named Leonard Powers (Randy Pearlstein). Warped hilarity ensues.

In “Wet Hot Demonic Summer,” Leonard is summoned to bring his apprentice to a secret wizarding compound, but he abandoned his apprentice (who looks a lot like Harry Potter) when he was little. Now he has to retrieve him and let him fulfill his destiny – to take over so Leonard can retire.

Meanwhile, Callie and fellow demon Twayne (Michael-Leon Wooley) have orders from Hell’s corporate headquarters to infiltrate the wizarding. The ruse requires Mark to create a summer camp from scratch and the episode ends up an excuse to play around with famous summer camp movie tropes.

There are many different pop cultural references in this episode – in fact it’s filled to the brim which is one of the show’s charms. It’s also great to watch how matter-of-fact some of the more outlandish situations are played – adding only more the film’s dark humor.

UGLY AMERICANS is fast paced the characters have really grown into something quite different. Plus the animation style is unlike any other animated series out there.

I’m sure some of the jokes in this episode will fly over people’s heads, but I’m glad UGLY AMERICANS isn’t afraid to take chances and get a little obscure to please die-hard genre fans.

There’s a lot of potential with UGLY AMERICANS and if it can keep up the quality throughout Season 2, Comedy Central may very well have found a worthy companion to its two gold standard animated series – SOUTH PARK and FUTURAMA.

AGREE? DISAGREE? Let your voice be heard – COMMENT BELOW!

Click on link: AX’s Exclusive interview with UGLY AMERICANS creator Devin Clark

Click on link: AX’s UGLY AMERICANS – Season 2 review – “Callie and Her Sister”

Click on link: AX’s Exclusive Interview with FUTURAMA’s David X. Cohen – Part 1

Click on link for: SOUTH PARK – “You’re Getting Old” review

CLICK HERE for AX’s Blu-ray review of SOUTH PARK: THE COMPLETE FOURTEENTH SEASON