Season 1 |
Episode Guide
Episode 1 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 2 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 3 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 4 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 5 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 6 -| Review Score – 1.5/5
Episode 7 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 8 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 9 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 10 -| Review Score – 2.5/5
When a disruptive show/movie comes in all guns blazing and reinvents a genre, people stand up and take note. Not just any people; creative people. Studio heads and producers scamper to get the right talent in order to try their hands at it. With the first-mover advantage gone, they try to be the next quickest. Some are even successful not being one or two, but just being their quirky best. The creators of Farzar squarely fall in the latter category.
Unfortunately, their quirky best falls way short and sort of stays within its own sweetened universe, not quite familiar with the outside world. The result of their ingenuity – which would have worked maybe ten odd years ago – is this mess of a show with lazy, grimy jokes and an intentionally dented storyline to offer “fugazi” to unsuspecting viewers. You must stay away from this terrible show if you want to preserve your brain cells and keep eating your food right.
Adult animated shows have become all the rage lately. Growing universal acceptance is one reason but the ergonomics of producing and then reaping the commercial benefits is wholly another. BoJack Horseman and Rick & Morty are perhaps the most elusive beneficiaries of this trend.
The creators (Roger Black and Waco O’guin) of Farzar are themselves quite successful with this brand of comedy before and picked on the idea before it became trendy. Brickleberry was a huge success with audiences across spectrums. Somehow, the tardy humor just hit the right notes with them. They struck gold and experimented further with Paradise PD, which gained a relatively milder response. Usually, the third time’s the charm but unfortunately, Farzar is (and has) no charm.
The show is set in space on the planet of the same name, where its czar Renzo rules the human city, protected by a dome. Bazarack is his arch nemesis and the only thing the aliens have close to an opposition leader. Attempts at waging war fall off as extra-terrestrial buffoonery takes center stage.
Renzo’s “failson” Fichael raises hopes of taking his father’s tainted legacy forward by creating his own but his stupidity knows no bounds. He is this complete idiot who cannot tell the difference between day and night but is kind-hearted. Renzo gives him a S.H.A.T squad to complete his side quests and the big target of defeating Bazarack. The episodes mostly revolve around distinct shenanigans that the characters partake in. It ranges from a survival game in a Jurassic Park-like facility, to quelling a robot revolution. There is no overarching plot story, except the alien vs. man tangent that is hardly touched upon in the middle but becomes quite active towards the end to entice a second season.
The good thing about Farzar is that it is absolutely shameless and self-aware of what it wants to do. There is no change in tone or tenor in any of the episodes. The quality – albeit, bad – remains constant throughout. Black and O’Guin remain true to their style – albeit bizarre and brazen. The treatment meted out in to story is not as special as the individual jokes, some of them running continuously for the same characters.
Flammy’s dementia is a frequent subject of jokes; so are her sexual “prowess” and urges. Fichael is himself such a caricature that everything he does amounts to a joke. Bazarack’s effeminate and drama-queen tantrums are ever-present. He is even used to breaking the fourth wall, albeit poorly. But he was one character whom I genuinely liked to see on screen.
The two creators have a clear vision of what they want to do. The fact that the vision itself is so muddled and pointless, they can’t really help the point. It seems that they keep putting in efforts to make Farzar so bad that it becomes good, like that Tommy Wiseau movie. It is a thing in pop culture today that people like and follow. Some even crave it. But again, there aren’t a lot of redeeming points about this Netflix original.
The streaming giants have again gone woefully wrong in commissioning content they thought would be a decent niche offering. Instead, Farzar is an attack on your intellect and your threshold for BS. If you’re short on it, I hardly doubt you’d be able to get through even the first episode. Farzar would probably be a once-in-the-moon shot out to the fans of the creators’ previous works. The uninitiated must sit this one out. Even for the ones who love Black and O’Guin, this is a low point.
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Verdict - 5/10
5/10