Putting season 3 of Big Mouth on pause because there’s a new series with Andrew Rannells that’s just premiered. While I’m still trying to decide what I think about Invincible, it’s definitely something different, in terms of its genre as well as in relation to Rannells’s past work.
Teenager Mark has grown up in the shadow of his famous, powerful dad, the superhero Omni-Man, and he’s dreamed of the day when he finally comes into his power. As Mark finally starts to develop his abilities, he’s eager to use them to fight crime like his dad (not to mention stand up to a bully at his school,) while his parents urge him not to get ahead of himself and learn how to use them correctly.
This is a bonafide gritty superhero drama, which isn’t unheard of in the world of the genre (hello, Dark Knight films, hello, Defenders franchise,) but it’s still more typical to find shows/films with a fair amount of humor and a level of family-friendliness. While I wouldn’t call this grimdark on the whole, it certainly has a more dramatic bent and certain action scenes are incredibly brutal. Not that that’s entirely out of the ordinary, either – I’ve previously professed my love for the balls-to-the-wall ultraviolence of the Kick-Ass movies – but again, the more serious tone makes it land harder. We’re talking punching-holes-through-people violence like something out of an extremely-grungy wuxia B-movie, only with more viscera and brain splatter. Children should not be watching Invincible.
All that said, I do like the more grown-up take on the implications of superpowers in a family. There’s good drama to be found in Mark’s complicated relationship with his dad and the ways that his new powers are already showing the potential to change him beyond just the superstrength, superspeed, and ability to fly. There’s a great scene between him and his non-powered mom where she takes him to task for holding his powers over her head, knowing that she can’t physically make him obey her. Things are still getting set up on the crime-fighting vigilante side of things, but there are some major twists and turns here that indicate big things to come.
I’m a little mixed on the animation, which has an old-fashioned sensibility. I like the style just fine, the actual design of the characters, but their movements are kind of stilted/minimal, and that makes it harder for the actors’ voiceover performances to really come across in a dynamic way. It’s like I can hear the the emotion in the characters’ voices, but that emotion is getting caught in the bottleneck of the animation. (A little like the CGI Lion King, in which the photo-realism of the CGI sacrificed a lot of the expressiveness in the characters’ faces.)
As such, while there are plenty of great actors voicing on this show, I don’t feel they’re all used to the best effect. The leads fare the best, with Steven Yeun turning in a strong performance and playing well off of J.K. Simmons and Sandra Oh as his parents. The show also features, variously, Zazie Beetz, Jon Hamm, Lennie James, Mark Hamill, Mahershala Ali, Sonequa Martin-Green, and Mae Whitman, and I remember the trailer teased plenty of other famous voices to come. These performances are a little more hit-or-miss than the main ones, with some actors breaking through the animation style and others feeling a bit more hamstrung by it.
So far, Rannells’s character is probably middle-of-the-road for me – Rannells’s voice is plenty expressive, but it’s not fully coming across when combined with the animation. The awesomely-named William Clockwell is Mark’s best friend, a time-honored quintessential role for me in superhero properties. I see shades of Ned from the MCU Spider-Man movies in that William and Mark are both nerdy kids, equally enthusiastic about comic books/video games and the real-life superheroes that populate their world. I can also see hints that we might get something like the Foggy dynamic from Daredevil; while, at this point, I can picture William getting excited to find out Mark is a superhero, I can also see him worrying about Mark’s safety and the possibility of him going “dark” with his powers. It remains to be seen what function he’ll take on as the series moves forward.
I like that William is a gay geek. When he casually comments on Omni-Man’s “hotness” and freaks Mark out, he good-naturedly goes, “Okay, okay – straight stuff,” and changes the subject (not realizing, of course, that Mark’s real source of discomfort is the fact that William is crushing on his dad.) Even though more LGBTQ representation has been appearing in superhero shows in recent years (the movies still need to catch up,) I feel like gay nerds are still an untapped character type in general, and we definitely need more characters like this in genres that are nerdy anyway. Gay/straight male friendships also don’t get nearly enough attention in media, either, so I’m glad to see that Mark and William are such close buds.
First impressions:
Recommend?
In General – Quite possibly. It’s still early days, but even if I didn’t connect to the first episode of Invincible quite as much as I’d have liked to, there’s plenty of potential here and I’m intrigued about what’s to come.
Andrew Rannells – Too early to say. Like I said, the muted animation style is dampening the usual strong sense of personality that Rannells brings to his performances. I like William so far, but I’m still waiting for him to really take off.
Warnings
Graphic violence, drinking, sensuality, and thematic elements.
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