"Hit-Monkey" Cloven Hoof review
Updated: Jan 27, 2022
Exactly what you'd expect. Just fully whacky monkey mayhem. Perfect.
Promising for the Marvel Universe, the two recent series (Hit-Monkey and M.O.D.O.K) show that they're happy to go for the whackier side of things. It's well animated and coloured. Very comic booky and perfect for this type of thing, animation really is the best format for things like this, not everything needs to be live action.
It's well written and voice acted for what it is, Jason Sudeikis is great as Bryce who feels like he was taken straight from an "Archer" episode. Episodes are zippy and fast paced, they never get boring with the perfect run time and every minute is used to the fullest, they're all fun and none of them overstay their welcome.
The plot is fine, it's a monkey hit man. That's it. The classic hit man story but with a monkey. It's John Wick but with a Monkey. What do you want me to say? That's literally it. But that's perfect. If it was anything more it might lose what makes it so great.
It feels a lot like Marvel's response to the Harley Quinn animated show, it looks the same, it has very similar action, and tonally they're near identical but that's no bad thing. The Harley Quinn was a great take on the character and this is a great intro to one of the more obscure Marvel characters. If the premise isn't for you then there's nothing to turn you round on it. It's a monkey hit man. A Hit-monkey. If that isn't for you, don't bother. But that isn't a criticism necessarily, not everything has to be for everyone.
My only main criticism is that it feels like there's no room to go from here, sure there could be a second series but where do you go after the novelty of Hit-Monkey as a concept wears off. It is promising for potential future series like a new take on Howard the Duck, maybe Throg, something like that would be a great change to the norm or maybe they could just revive Donald Glover's deadpool show.
It isn't the perfect show, it maybe doesn't need ten episodes and it probably won't go much beyond two seasons. But, this show is pure fun, and that's all it needs to be, not everything needs to be an art piece, not everything has to be an award winning drama. Sometimes fun is all something needs to be and that's a lesson that many writers and fans need to learn.
Hit Monkey scores a very respectable 7/10. It probably could have been a shorter series to prolong it across two seasons but that's not to say it drags on. It looks great, it's just fun, and that is great. Probably not an award contender but if I had an award for best series about a monkey assassin Hit-Monkey would take it.
