I enjoyed Gardner's previous effort "Wanderlust," mostly because it had a fine sense of timing (i.e., editing) and the benefit of exotic locales. Had it been a cartoon, say, or done on soundstages, it certainly wouldn't have held any appeal.
"Saul of the Mole Men" holds almost no appeal for me. It's a pastiche of several tried-and-ruined Adult Swim gags, including campy parody of ancient children's shows, overdrawn pauses, boring puerility, self-consciously poor sets (it's the live-action equivalent to the ridiculously deconstructive "12 Oz. Mouse"), and the comically fearful murder of a friendly alien species.
In short, Adult Swim really needs to stop fetishizing the children's programming with which its employees/creators grew up. If you can imagine a show even more heavy-handed and reliant on its production to overcome the weak jokes than "Moral Orel," this is it. The only positive I could find was the second-long appearance of Dana Snyder. This is a one-note show that doesn't deserve the chance to improve to mediocrity, but Adult Swim's got just the people to do it.
"Saul of the Mole Men" holds almost no appeal for me. It's a pastiche of several tried-and-ruined Adult Swim gags, including campy parody of ancient children's shows, overdrawn pauses, boring puerility, self-consciously poor sets (it's the live-action equivalent to the ridiculously deconstructive "12 Oz. Mouse"), and the comically fearful murder of a friendly alien species.
In short, Adult Swim really needs to stop fetishizing the children's programming with which its employees/creators grew up. If you can imagine a show even more heavy-handed and reliant on its production to overcome the weak jokes than "Moral Orel," this is it. The only positive I could find was the second-long appearance of Dana Snyder. This is a one-note show that doesn't deserve the chance to improve to mediocrity, but Adult Swim's got just the people to do it.