Quick Review: Moonbeam City

[Steve Timko]

“Moonbeam City” is a Comedy Central cartoon that’s a takeoff on 1980s
detective shows like “Miami Vice” set in a “Grand Theft Auto” style of
city. Considering that Comedy Central is supposed to be an expert in
comedy I was surprised to see the pilot hit with such a resounding
thud. There’s so little humor and what little there is does not land.
It became a chore to finish the half-hour pilot on the Comedy Central
app. And it has four stars with relatively big names.

Rob Lowe plays the main character, a dopey detective who breaks the
rules. Elizabeth Banks is his ball-busting boss. Will Forte plays a
rival detective. And Kate Mara plays the fellow officer who saves Rob
Lowe’s character.

They’re all veteran actors. I wonder if any of them read the script
before committing to it. The situations in the story were not funny
and the jokes are clumsy. Scott Gairdner is listed as the show’s
creator. I was not familiar with him. IMDB says he has worked with
“Conan” and “Funny or Die.” So he has some experience. Maybe cartoons
are a different, difficult genre.

Just for the heck of it, I watched a “South Park” episode after I
struggled through “Moonbeam City.” It was the one where they coopt the
name of the Washington Redskins. Both the situation was funny and joke
after joke landed. I wonder how no one at Comedy Central could see the
flaws in “Moonbeam City.”