Pacific Heat is Netflix’s first big misstep

This is the worst export from Australia since Silverchair’s debut album. When it comes to an adult animated comedy I didn’t think Netflix could have anything more unfunny than Brickleberry, I was sadly mistaken.

The premise is about four elite police officers taking on various threats (drugs, espionage, terrorism) in Australia’s Gold Coast, I think that would be mainly Brisbane. The main cop is vain, slightly dumb. Two partners are stupid and the other is a competent nag. They’re also assisted by the stereotypical tech wizard and the angry boss. For all practical purposes it’s an Aussie ripoff of Archer. Hell it’s even produced by Murdoch’s Australian version of FX. Pacific fails in two areas. First is the comedy. The writers go with this rapid fire banter filled with continuous jokes resulting in “more is less.” Archer lets the dialog breathe to make the callback jokes more effective. Second is the animation/art, it’s  cheap looking. Again, Archer uses rotoscoping yet its creator built upon what was learned re-animating Sealab 2021 and has tighter lines to keep the look smooth. Pacific is reminiscent of those cheap home kits Beavis and Butt-head made their initial appearances on.

Maybe Pacific Heat is Netflix’s filler for not getting F is For Family‘s second season done in a year. Either way, I would only say this is worth watching if you don’t care about pissing away a few hours of your life. If you want something as funny as Archer, accept no substitutes, watch Archer or try to hunt down reruns of Sealab 2021 and Home Movies.

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