Fifth Season of Aqua Teen Picks Up the Slack

1_1600After the Aqua Teen Hunger Force feature film bombed at the box office in 2007, many ardent fans felt like the show was headed in a downward spiral. A few months later, a video game based on the franchise hit the shelves and was given even worse reviews, prompting those same fans to wonder what the next disaster for the series was going to be.

Those conspiracy theorists will have to wait a little longer for the show to produce another failure however, as a new DVD, which compiles the entire fifth season, is a return to the roots of the series and is exactly what the ailing franchise needs. Featuring cameos from porn star Tera Patrick [who ironically spends most of the time with a corndog in her mouth] and former New York Giants center Bart Oates, the fifth season of Aqua Teen is as raucous as it has ever been and will easily quench the laughter of the show’s hardcore fans. Almost every villain is also back for the DVD, while a few new characters are introduced that will catch your attention along the way.

For those that are unfamiliar with the show, unlike the average animated sitcom, which clocks in at about 22 minutes, Aqua Teen Hunger is usually anywhere from 12-15 minutes long. The production value isn’t quite up to the level of “The Simpsons” and the writing isn’t exactly the caliber of “American Dad,” but it is nonetheless a wild and entertaining show that plays off of human nature, stereotypes and pop culture for most of its laughs. Following the day to day lives of Fry Lock, Meat Wad, Master Shake and their neighbor Carl, the quartet find themselves in all types of wild situations that will either leave you speechless or gasping for air.

The dilemmas in the fifth season of the show are no different, as Shake is forced to tackle fatherhood head on, while Meat Wad gets a job at a local car wash, run by enormous brains trying to take over the world. Carl is also forced to surrender one of his more sensitive body parts to a Chinese restaurant owner after unknowingly signing a binding contract after eating there. While the story arc’s themselves aren’t exactly enthralling and may seem a bit too far fetched and disjointed for some, it’s the dialogue and improvised lines by the talented voice actors that really bring the show alive. Dana Snyder and Carey Means, who voice Shake and Fry Lock, are at their comedic best on this DVD and have several one-liners that you’ll be repeating for weeks after watching.

What also makes the fifth season and the show in general so much fun is that anyone can just jump right into it and laugh. All you have to do is understand a few quick things. Carl is your prototypical over-40, politically incorrect single man from New Jersey, Shake is the comic relief, Fry Lock is the voice of reason and Meat Wad is the clumsy youngster. Once you understand everyone’s role on the show, everything falls together and the show becomes extremely enjoyable.

With that being said, anyone who has never watched the show before will find season five a great place to start viewing, while hardcore fans of the series will forget about how bad the groups last few forays into the public spotlight were. Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s star may have been dim for a while, but this DVD definitely captures the brightness that has entranced millions of fans for the past half decade.

mm
About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*