All Hail Titan Maximum

It seemed like a terrible idea: a parody of Japanese giant robot shows from the creative geniuses team behind Robot Chicken. Not that Robot Chicken is a bad show, but it gets tiresome after too long and the possibility of seeing two stop motion pop-culture fixated shows run on Adult Swim seemed a bit much. Then I actually watched Titan Maximum.

Without a doubt, the most surprising element of the show is its reliance on character gags and the serialized nature of its plot. For the uninitiated, a quick plot overview: the dysfunctional goons piloting enormous military robot Titan Maximum are forced to deal with the implications of their former (and smartest) teammate, Gibbs, deciding universal domination is more fun than being a good guy. Like any good giant robot show, each episode eventually devolves into two robots punching the shit out of each other, but bad guy being out of reach.

Much of the humor comes from the fact that the show is eager to do away with the archetypal noble heroes of the Japanese mecha and replace them with a crew of bickering famewhores and self-righteous jagoffs. It's a brilliant conceit for an American audience used to its celebrities self-destructing in spectacular ways. And make no mistake, even when we've advanced to the point of colonizing the solar system, all of our selfish impulses to be celebrities will still be around. Maybe even more so, considering the ego it must take to pilot a giant robot with a laser sword. I mean, really, isn't obvious that this would happen if humanity built a giant robot? And yes, that includes the ska music.



Titan Maximum isn't without it's flaws, including an over-reliance on dick jokes, it's strange fixation on punishing about the only competent member of the team; Jodi Yanarella; throwing her into bed with Gibbs and then broadcasting it to the solar system and the fact that the team members seem to hate each other to the point where it seems impossible to believe they could get anything done.

With two episodes left in its inaugural season though, the show has shown an enormous amount of promise, and if given the chance can probably flesh out the characters a bit more and get off it's crutch of dick jokes. Seriously, dick jokes are funny, but I think I counted one in almost every scene of the newest episode.