TV Review: Hulu’s M.O.D.O.K Humors The Family Ties of Villainy
Before there was Plankton, there was M.O.D.O.K… yup… I said it. The original man with cockroach limbs and an unquenchable taste to destroy his surroundings was NOT Plankton but Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K, and he is getting his HULU premiere. Hilarious and oddly heartwarming, this M.O.D.O.K is not the comic villain you will remember.
With Patton Oswalt in dual roles, as creator and Modok’s voice, the show feels like an Adult Swim program. It is funny, slightly raunchy, and 100% existential, which seems to be a very “villain” quality in recent comics. Before, it was the hero that looked up at the stars and wondered their purpose or “why” they do what `they do. Yet, recently, it is as if villains, especially Marvel’s, are the ones trying to figure why the universe works a certain way and deciding, if they can’t make a new path, they’ll just destroy everyone else’s. In this perplexity, we find our villain, Modok, whom, on one hand, is determined to end the world, but also loves eating family-sized lasagnas with his hands, admires and is frustrated with how his daughter is basically the female version of him, would love if his son traded in magic shows for sports games, and is trying to win back his guru-wife whose fighting her own battle not to get “gooped” by her publisher. These all feel like “home-based” issues because, technically, M.O.D.O.K is a home-based show.
Sure, his name means Mental/Mobile/Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing, but that doesn’t mean he’s not open to collagen injections or getting scammed by a time-traveling young version of himself bent on revenge. Moreover, who wouldn’t want a robot that could lead an Apocalypse but make a fierce, fruit smoothie? See the juxtapositions! Modok is incredibly human and vulnerable, which, in some ways, explains why he wants to control and cease humanity. He is a crux between someone desperate to maintain and hold a familial love and someone who would end anyone that has it before or more than him. Why? Because not everybody sees what makes them vulnerable as a strength, especially in others. Hence, you can aim to obstruct the very obstruction that you wish you could indulge, which in Modok’s case is love.
Frankly, I love M.O.D.O.K’s family, and a lot of the show’s absurdist, dark humor stems from how distracted Modok gets from his goal to conquer and become emperor of the world because he has to attend things like, his wife’s birthday party or kid’s talent show. He is tremendously petty, which contrasts the sweet level-headedness of his wife Jodie (Aimee Garcia), the brazenly cool nerdiness of his son Lou (Ben Schwartz), and the fierce, more organized villainy of his teenaged daughter Melissa (Melissa Fumero). For a man-robot that is the head of A.I.M, Advanced Idea Mechanics and a branch of Hydra, he can feel aimless and overly-sensitive. Thus, the real humor of this comedy is how a good family can anchor you to be a better bad guy. Check Out on M.O.D.O.K on HULU.
