"Marvel's Hit-Monkey" Season One Talkback (Spoilers)

[RoyalRubble]

No more monkeying around… the new adult animated Hulu Original series
Marvel’s Hit-Monkey is locked, loaded and ready for action.
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Marvel's Hit-Monkey
Series Premiere - November 17, 2021 (on Hulu)

Synopsis: After a Japanese snow monkey’s tribe is slaughtered, he joins forces with the ghost of an American assassin and together, they begin killing their way through the Yakuza underworld.

The series stars Fred Tatasciore, Jason Sudeikis, George Takei, Olivia Munn, Ally Maki and Nobi Nakanishi. Josh Gordon & Will Speck serve as creators, showrunners, and executive producers; the series is co-executive produced by Keith Foglesong, Matt Thompson, and Neal Holman; and produced by Duffy Boudreau, Mollie Brock, and Marcus Rosentrater.

Episode Guide:

01. Pilot

After a high-profile political assassination goes sideways, an injured hitman hides out amongst a tribe of snow monkeys in the mountains of Japan.

02. Bright Lights, Big City

Monkey and Bryce arrive in Tokyo seeking revenge. But will the differences in their style doom the mission before it even begins?

03. Legend of the Drunken Monkey

Monkey and Bryce investigate the evil General Kato. The trail leads to an underground casino, where Monkey embraces the vices of the human world while struggling to continue his mission.

04. The Code

Monkey and Bryce break into a prison to hunt a mysterious villain known as The Accountant and Monkey squares off against the prison's most dangerous inmate.

05. Run Monkey Run

After the Yakuza put a price on Monkey's head, he and Bryce must face off against a who's who of the city's most colorful assassins, and their greatest foe of all: Bryce's ego.

06. The Long Goodbye

Monkey and Bryce's powerful target releases an army of doubles to throw them off his scent as Bryce tries to make peace with his past.

07. Sayonara Monkey

After battling their toughest foe yet, Monkey & Bryce's partnership finally comes apart at the seams.

08. Home Sweet Home

Ditching Bryce, Monkey returns to his old hot-springs and attempts to join a new tribe. Meanwhile, Bryce is forced to relive the events that thrust him down the path of assassin-hood.

09. The End, Part One

A reunited Monkey and Bryce get some much needed help from a pair of unexpected friends. They head to their final target and discover a startling truth.

10. The End, Part Two

As Monkey and Bryce near the end of their journey they struggle against obstacles of their own making.

All 10 episodes debut today on Hulu! This thread is for members to speak about all of the episodes or the majority of them at once. Comments?

Mod Note: We appreciate and encourage discussion, but please keep your posts civil, relevant and insightful. Please do not post any improper or inflammatory material, as we will issue warnings if we believe it necessary. And remember to keep the discussion ON-TOPIC!

Related links:
"Marvel Animation on Hulu" General News & Discussion Thread (Spoilers)
"Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K." Season One Talkback (Spoilers)

 

[bigdaddy313]

So that was….. interesting, not bad.

 

[the greenman]

Gonna take my time watching this. Not a huge fan of dropping the entire series all at once. Anywho, I agree, interesting. Guess we see why they dropped Deadpool & Howard the Duck in favor of this. I guess.

Sent from my LM-Q730 using Tapatalk

 

[M.O.D.O.K.]

Gonna take my time watching this. Not a huge fan of dropping the entire series all at once. Anywho, I agree, interesting. Guess we see why they dropped Deadpool & Howard the Duck in favor of this. I guess.

I don't know about the former, but for the latter, I'm guessing this series and MODOK were much farther in production than the other Hulu shows.

 

[Fone Bone]

Hit-Monkey "Pilot"

That held my interest.

I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't that.

First off, let me state the obvious: M.O.D.O.K. is a complete piece of dreck compared to this. So much so I can't ever picture how The Offenders could have possibly worked as a miniseries. I tolerated M.O.D.O.K. because I assumed that the adult Hulu stuff was all going to be stoner Adult Swim b.s. like it was. My assumption was wrong, as was my tolerance for that truly shady in hindsight series.

I thought Bryce was lovable and jokey, and then it turns out he kills a genuinely good guy, and all of the sudden, he's an utter monster, especially because it doesn't bother him. Let me say I'm going to take what the ghost version of him advises Hit-Monkey with a huge Spam-sized lick of salt.

For all I know this is a medium quality episode, and it gets even better. However, I have only it to judge it by, and as far as Pilots go, it was fantastic. If the series gets even better, I'll be amazed. And if the series gets worse, it will still probably wind up pretty good. *****.

Hit-Monkey "Bright Lights, Big City"

That was crazy.

This reminds me very much of the far-out sci-fi cartoons MTV had in the 1990's, specifically The Head, The Maxx, and Aeon Flux. My impression is that modern audiences are more ready for that kind of bizarre storytelling. All three of those MTV shows I mentioned were technically flops. If Marvel Television hadn't gone under, this could have become a sensation. As it stands, I predict it's gonna get a shocking amount of play for a one-season wonder. There's no way it gets renewed, but I predict every Marvel fan is going to see and love it.

This is so funky and unusual. And it's played straight! How great is that? Hang your head in shame, Patton Oswalt. For real. *****.

Hit-Monkey "Legend Of The Drunken Monkey"

Whenever Bryce says "Trust me," is when he's invariably wrong.

Bryce describing casinos as if the happiest place on Earth had a baby with the saddest sounds about right.

This show is bananas (Groan!). ****.

Hit-Monkey "The Code"

So I guess the Code works for the Monkey, I guess.

I didn't like this episode as much as the previous ones because I didn't like the stuff in the prison. But the ending to the episode was pretty great. ***1/2.

Hit-Monkey "Run Monkey Run"

That Monkey is pretty cool. Bryce being impressed with his moves is the right reaction.

Kingpin is mentioned here.

I like Hit-Monkey threatening the tailor when he tried to remove Bryce's picture.

Another good episode. ****.

Hit-Monkey "The Long Goodbye"

Things are starting to come together.

Learning Bryce has a daughter and that he used to be in love with a man are interesting bits of history to find out about, but they probably won't go anywhere with only four episodes left.

That woman at the end is clearly a psychopath.

This show has yet to deliver a bad episode. ****.

Hit-Monkey "Sayonara Monkey"

Things are getting serious. And the show has never been better.

Lady Bullseye is truly the first foe worthy of Hit-Monkey.

The split with Bryce was a long time coming. I like how the show had Monkey putting together his blame just based on the casual admission that he killed the wrong guy.

Great stuff. *****.

Hit-Monkey "Home Sweet Home"

Two things:

This has the best animation of any Marvel Television cartoon.

This is the only other Marvel Television show I like besides Cloak And Dagger. Fitting that it's the last one.

Finding Bryce's body in the snow was a perfect ending. The owl was the one comical element in the episode at the very beginning, but he takes on a very dark subtext at the end, which is why Monkey pulls a gun on him. If he had shot him, I wouldn't have cried.

The thing with the ape village was so openly tragic I DID almost cry. What a crappy situation. I feel so bad for Hit-Monkey. After the things he's seen and done you really can't go home again. It was very much in the vein of the Planet of the Apes reboot.

A little surprised so much of Bryce's backstory was filled in, and far more of it than I predicted. Was Eli the man he was in love with he never told? He might have been. It speaks well of the show that they set up his daughter and that last episode, and paid them both off now instead of saving it for a future season that will never come.

Probably my favorite episode. *****.

Hit-Monkey "The End: Part One"

Did not see the Uncle being the Big Bad coming, but it makes total sense when his opponent puts it like that. I am very glad his niece and the lady cop didn't let them in on their Hit-Monkey cabal.

Speaking of which, that slow-mo power walk was super badass.

We saw Silver Samurai cameo earlier in the season but he makes a full-on appearance here. The X-Men are truly back at Marvel.

This show is so great. *****.

Hit-Monkey "The End: Part Two"

It's interesting. The last episode of the series is the only one I don't like. I hated Akiko's ending, and the rest of the episode felt incredibly unfinished and unsatisfying too. I'm not saying a potential season 2 couldn't have redeemed things. But I think it's probably for the best that they ended it here. Akiko becoming the new Lady Bullseye strikes me as a shark jump moment, and I'd rather the series end when I only disliked one episode instead of me being invariably frustrated week after week.

Not impressed. I expected and wanted more. **1/2.

 

[M.O.D.O.K.]

I recently watched Hit-Monkey, and it's honestly more fun than I was expecting, especially considering the premise.

I liked the pair of Monkey and Bryce, but the latter kind of got on my nerves at times. He got some good development later on, but I think it would've been cooler if he made less appearances. The animation kind of varied in places, sometimes looking stiff and jittery, while other times being very smooth. The visuals are very stylish, though, and it's still an improvement over a lot of other Marvel Animation projects over the last decade. I thought they also did a good job picking the other Marvel characters we see. I know Lady Bullseye replaced the OG Bullseye over an embargo, but she honestly fits this show better. Silver Samurai as an antagonistic hero was also fun.

I'm also glad it wasn't just a wacky comedy like MODOK and actually had some drama and sincerity. I'm honestly questioning how it would've fit with the other shows, aside from a throw-away reference to the plot of MODOK.

One aspect I didn't like was the how Americanized Japan felt at times. I thought Bryce himself was already a way to bridge the Tokyo setting to Americans, but settings like the prison didn't really feel authentic. I guess that's why the season ended with Monkey and Bryce moving to New York City, in addition to going to a more traditional Marvel setting. I wonder if Kingpin's tiny cameo was a tease of a role in season 2.

Biggest issue I've had was Akiko's turn to the dark side. While you could argue the show did hint there was some darkness with her (her approving of vigilantism and murder, that one Punisher comic she read), she knew her uncle was a villain that tried to kill Haruka in desperation. Monkey did originally choose to spare him before then. And her becoming the new Lady Bullseye? When she seemed like a civilian with no fighting skills or anything? Okay sure.

Questionable plots aside, I did like this show. I highly doubt Marvel will want to make more, but it was fun while it lasted.