‘The Tick’ Will Adopt A Darker Tone Than Planned For Its Amazon Revival

As has been previously reported, Amazon is bring The Tick back to television (or, sort of television) with Peter Serafinowicz as the titular lead (tickular lead?). Now, new details have surfaced about the project that suggest it won’t be quite as lighthearted as the original series. At least, it will be as dark as you can make a satirical superhero TV show that centers around a man named after a bloodsucking insect. Character creator Ben Edlund, returning to write on the new show, put it this way:

We’ve got this show about superheroes [where] we get to have fun with the idea of superheroes by starting with kind of a comedic parody of [an] event-oriented-like universe. It will be darker and more grounded. And it’s going to have a real story, a real hero’s myth. We’re the ones that get to have fun with it and that’s kind of the situation where right now that’s an open field in this area of entertainment.

The good news is that adding darker concepts and storylines doesn’t completely take away from the humor and silliness of the character. The new show is premiering (if it ever gets that far) in a completely different landscape than the Fox series did over a decade ago. There’s only so much dark backstory you can add to The Tick before it becomes a depressing meditation on mental illness and loneliness or something along those lines. Plus, casting Serafinowicz doesn’t completely make sense if the show wasn’t planning on increasing the nuance and emotional stakes compared to the prior series.

Plus, if there are higher stakes and a darker universe to form the show around, that only increases its chances of making it past the measly nine episodes that the Fox series managed.

(via /Film)

×