FOXSYLVANIA

Animated anthropomorphic cats really seem to be coming into their own lately, and they’re speaking their often off-color minds! First we had Kevin about a dispossessed pet cat, then we had a cat or two in the wildly-sexualized animals of Mating Season, we’ve got kung-fu cats fighting on the internet, and now we’ve got coming to Netflix August 7th Alley Cats as a series of six 15-minute shorts about the lives of a group of British feral cats, complete with accents…

Ricky Gervais plays the character of Gus, described as a rude, fat, and opinionated cat who is kinda the leader of the group. The artwork (which is good) portrays the distinctive attitudes and personalities of the felines…

The cat clan muses over a variety of things, ranging from humans to how they would like to die to the biggest thing that they could take down if they worked together. There are cat tropes presented, like fear of pickles. But when a kitten wishes that they had never been born, leader Gus makes it clear to him that it’s good to be a cat! They show this by creating chaos on the streets in this quirky, raunchy, dark comedy that is again not for children!

Now I really like Ricky Gervais, who is a British comedian and passionate global animal rights advocate. He has generously supported and campaigned for animal rights organizations, anti-animal cruelty groups, and conservation causes. He has opposed trophy hunting, and strongly condemned fox hunting, describing it as cruel, barbaric, and senseless. He is a vegan who leans left politically, while criticizing woke culture and identity politics. I find him quite relatable…

So if you are beyond childhood, have access to Netflix, and are a fan of anthropomorphic animals (especially felines), you may want to check out Alley Cats, coming your way August 7th…

(Me and my crew, in my sweet fantasies…)

Addendum: Having now seen all six available episodes of Alley Cats, I regard it as a mixed bag having its moments. The series has been panned for crude vulgarity, with some reviews calling it mirthless and unfunny. The series also pivots unevenly between shock humor and emotional sentimentality, as when the episodes deal with themes of grief, aging, and atheism. I also found that I had to listen to the episodes rather closely in light of the British accents and idioms presented, and the turns of phrases…

I’ve seen far worse vulgarity on the small screen recently, most specifically on such shows as Mating Season. The sentimental moments provide a leavening influence, however, as when Gus visits his dying mother, or defends a cat’s existent to Kitten. Without issuing a spoiler, the ragtag group of cats presents the notion that a family can be defined in terms of the group with which you associate, rather than the house in which you reside.

I think that there’s more that can be done with this adult series, and hope that it continues…but opinions are sharply divided on the show…