Mike Tyson Mysteries
Photo Credit : Adult Swim
At first glance, the Mike Tyson Mystery series. Like, wait… A Scooby Doo-style cartoon, animated by Warner Brothers and featuring Mike Tyson as a fictional version of himself? No. Fucking. Way. What coked-up Cartoon Network executive approved this? But it’s on, so for the purposes of novelty, you check the show out. In a lot of ways, describing the show won’t really do it justice; so I’ll describe it the way Mike Tyson’s character would: Oh wow, it’s really Mike’s voice. Oh, shit, Norm Mcdonald is a pigeon, that’s funny shit, man. Holy shit, Mike’s A-team /Mystery Machine van has one of the bubble windows on the side and it's got the same face tattoo that Mike does. Man, this shit is pretty funny, man.
Some things we need to address.
The show is more than a novelty. It’s right up there with any cartoon that an adult would enjoy. It’s not a Rick and Morty or South Park tier show, but a tier right below it. A show you forget to tune in for but love marathoning when you’re hungover and you don’t want to leave the couch.
There are a ton of fantastic Mike Tyson facts peppered throughout the show. As an example Norm Mcdonald as a pigeon. Seems random, are they taking the family guy route and giving him an anthropomorphic animal friend? Or is pigeon the Scooby to this Scooby-Doo Mike Tyson Mystery Machine? In realty, he is a pigeon because Mike Tysons first friends as a kid were pigeons. He’s for sure the character on the show Mike seems to connect with most, but that’s my opinion. This opinion is colored strongly by my viewing of both the Tyson documentary and his one man show. A local bully killed Mike's pigeon in front of him (when he was 9 if I remember correctly) and Mike beat the hell out of him for it. Mike credits this as the moment he found out he could fight.
What coked up executive at Cartoon Network got a meeting with Mike after watching his one man show? How does this exist, anyone with the exuberance to sell this show in a pitch meeting, would never have the self awareness to put it in the hands of the right people and just walk away. Which is what the show does so well. You can tell that this show gets very limited notes on what they can, do, or say.
Which leads me to my theory, that no one actually runs this show. Someone sold it in the middle of a bender, forgot about it, and the day it was supposed to start production all the writers and animators just started working with no direction. Like a reverse office space, but in this scenario, instead of Milton never being told he was fired, a whole crew of Miltons are hired and given a budget and space but no one tells Lumberg. Take note Hollywood, we're onto something with this formula! No one bugging them for TPS reports, no notes from outraged parents about a constantly masturbating pigeon, just good ol’ fashion creativity, and a whole room full of people “Who could burn this building to the ground.”
Finally and most importantly. The show is DARK, and it follows a pattern. That’s not always a bad thing. There’s something about formulas that make our brains happy. Have you ever gotten lost in a marathon of CSI from the mid 2000’s? Oh sweet sweet delicious serialized television. I’m personally a CSI Miami guy, which seems like an unimportant detail, however I’m “reviewing” this show, so it's fair to inform you of where my tastes lie (Takes off sunglasses dramatically “Looks like we’ve got ourselves … a critic “).
Back to the pattern. CSI has the very, very basic you see the murder, then we spend the episode trying to solve it. So satisfying. Mike and his mystery team follow something similar. Introduce one of the characters having something personal going on, then introduce mystery, then at the last moment pivot into the darkest possible outcome, never solving anything.
Where CSI falls short occasionally in their use of pattern is that occasionally on CSI you know who the murderer is right away. Then the only real payoff is spending the next hour watching the show and about 18 minutes of tampon and Rogaine commercials to finally triumphantly announce “ I knew it!” from the couch. This is where Mike and co shine, you rarely if ever predict the darkness that’s going to come out of nowhere. This dark turn is the payoff, by the way, let go of ever solving a mystery. You will enjoy the show much more. Also if you do somehow guess what’s going to happen , you only have 12 minutes to wait before you get to announce your smartness from the couch. That’s 4 potential gold stars and hour , to CSI’s possible 1.
So now you know a little bit about Mike and his team, we’ve gone into rich detail about the characters and how their emotional connections shine through the show. We’ve discussed the social commentary embedded into this dark and sometimes slap sticky material…. What? We didn't do any of that? You’re wondering how you read an article about a show that didn’t really talk about a show? That does sound like a mystery. Who are you going to call for help?
Sources: https://www.insider.com/mike-tyson-punched-garbage-man-for-throwing-away-his-pigeon-2020-4#he-once-had-100-pigeons-in-his-garage-and-1000-in-new-york-city-having-a-hobby-you-have-a-tendency-to-collect-too-many-however-he-says-he-understands-them-its-trial-and-error-ive-been-around-them-since-i-was-9-theyre-my-first-love-ever-7
