The Rick and Morty universe is expanding with another major spinoff effort with Adult Swim this Summer, but President Curtis is proving that it can stand on its own through a fun first season of episodes. Rick and Morty is one of the most popular franchises to ever release with Adult Swim, and will ultimately be the longest running original animated series when it’s all said and done. But with so big of a multiverse surrounding it all, it was really only a matter of time before the franchise would branch out with a new spinoff.
Rick and Morty hasn’t had the best luck with spinoffs thus far as seen with the misfire of its official anime outing, Rick and Morty: The Anime, but President Curtis is stepping off on a much better foot with its debut. Directly connected to Rick and Morty while focusing more on the Keith David voiced United States President, President Curtis has plenty of interesting elements of its own right that are explored in some fun ways through its debut season. But it’s still figuring itself out a bit.
Rating: 4 out of 5
President Curtis stars the titular President Curtis (Keith David) and is set in the same timeline as the main Rick and Morty series. But rather than being a rival to Rick who appears every couple of seasons, this time the series focuses in on Curtis’ first term as the United States President as he deals with the public’s view of him while also fighting some very real monster threats like vampires, werewolves and more. Joining him in this escapades are his lead bodyguard, the half-leprechaun who hates lying, Special Agent O’Doyle (Jim Rash), and newly hired Chief of Staff, a woman who’s brain has been replaced by machinery, Banks (Stephanie Beatriz).
President Curtis does quite a bit to immediately set itself apart from what fans might see in Rick and Morty. Though the characters and designs still share many similarities to the main series, it’s doing quite a lot to stand on its own. The first thing that stands out is the shift in tone. Rather than the multiversal expansions seen in Rick and Morty, President Curtis has more of a traditional TV sitcom feeling in tone with a relaxed opening theme (juxtaposed with hilariously wild action). More importantly, the show feels like it’s taking on its stories with a less cynical edge that you might have been grown tired of seeing in Rick and Morty‘s later seasons.
While Curtis might be a character who has resources at his disposal that might seem like they mirror Rick’s infinite technology, he thankfully doesn’t resemble Rick’s own disinterested look at the world around him. He’s very active in each and every story as he’s constantly battling monsters that threaten his constituents. He might not always fully have his attention on every situation, but it’s never really that he doesn’t care. And that injects so much energy into these episodes that help to stand out further from the main series. Keith David is clearly having a lot of fun with what he’s been given to say in this expanded role.
That fun, cowboy like attitude we’ve seen him have in the main series is expanded further into how President Curtis sets up its episodes. Each episode either tasks him with dealing with some kind of monster from American mythology, or diving into some kind of Presidential conspiracy using history as a springboard. All the while, there are a few character moments and reveals that help to keep a serialized story moving forward. Characters directly references events from previous episodes, and that’s one welcome change that helps it further set out from its main counterpart. Serialization wasn’t a big deal when Rick and Morty first started out.
President Curtis does take a few episodes to find its footing, however. While the latter half of the season is moving at a full clip with fun dives into its main trio of characters, the first half of the season does have a few hiccups when it comes to figuring out how the three of them are going to bounce off of one another. The extended White House staff does provide some breaks for the trio with some fun moments here and there, but there’s noticeably a bit of a warm up period for the series as it figures itself out.
This odes unfortunately put a lot of weight on Curtis’ shoulders as he has to carry the bulk of the early episodes. In those early periods where the series is trying to figure out how to expand on his character and what layers to add to make him more compelling, it does add a noticeable strain on whether or not Curtis works as the star of his own show. David’s voice performance is impeccable all throughout, but his character isn’t allowed to change too much early on in order to establish a baseline for the rest of the series. Once it all clicks later on, however, the difference is noticeable.
O’Doyle and Banks fully come into their own the more we learn about them and their dynamic with Curtis, and Jim Rash in particular is allowed to dive into a different kind of character than fans are used to seeing as he’s the more grizzled action hero type who’s action first, questions later. Banks is typically a voice of reason, but becomes far more compelling later once she starts to reveal the darker energies underneath her character too. The development for the trio is worth the trip, but you might need to remind yourself of that a few episodes in.
President Curtis shows a lot of promise for its future with Adult Swim, and its future as part of the wider Rick and Morty franchise. The first season of this spinoff does quite a lot to distance itself from the main series, and by the end of its ten episode run it carves out its own place as a fun show you’ll want to keep watching. It’s getting things started in the right direction as there are fun characters who evolve over its episodes, and lots of hilarious jokes throughout that will catch you by surprise.
There’s a ton of potential in President Curtis as its clear that it’s built with the kind of longevity that Rick and Morty currently enjoys. But it’s doing much better than its counterpart in this early stage as it already is starting to develop its characters intriguing ways with serialized events that could pay off with something else in a future episode at a later date. There’s just quite a lot of promise here, and hopefully it gets the chance to continue with more so it can truly catch a wave.
President Curtis premieres Sunday, July 26th at 11:30PM ET with Adult Swim, and new episodes will be streaming with HBO Max the next day. What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
