The Surreal Life Aquatic

Since it’s premiere in 2001, Cartoon Network's Adult Swim animation block has rescued a handful of failed animated shows from pop culture oblivion and generated its own share of wildly popular original shows that have been turning into wildly popular DVD sets. And this time, it’s the fourth and final season of “Sealab: 2021”—a re-cobbling of the short-lived, 1970s cartoon “Sealab: 2020”—in which the inhabitants of an underwater environmental station from the original program have all gone insane. Conventional television writing wisdom pretty much says that a show like this could never have made it for four seasons, but everything goes out the window when you eliminate continuity, restrictions and any semblance of reality.

Created by 7030 Productions, each 15-minute episode blends some new animation with original stock footage, giving it that cheap, homemade feel that Adult Swim is known for—apparently, adults don’t really care about quality. But what they lack in budget and production values, they make up for in characterization and scripts. “If you need help—pointers, whatever—just hit Muktuk or me up on our cellie,” a random Eskimo says helpfully to Quinn, a Sealab crew member, during an assisted whale suicide protest. “Or you can text us, y’know we have over 400 emoticons for ‘snow,’” he adds.

Marco meets a long lost child he once conceived with a shark, pretty boy Derek “Stormy” Waters sneaks out during a disaster, leaving the rest of the crew to be burned alive (yes, burned) and “White” Debbie—not to be confused with “Black” Debbie—plays voice of reason when her male companions ignore the ocean suddenly running dry. The cast bicker, screw and fight their way through each episode; some are sated, one-upped, injured, maimed, even killed from time to time, but nothing ever sticks. Apparently, adults also like violent humor, fearless sexism and ham-fisted racial remarks as well.

Despite all of its undersea escapades, “Sealab” doesn’t have much going on under the surface, but if the show isn’t taking itself very seriously, than you shouldn't either. When it’s as ridiculous as this, sometimes it’s OK to spend a little time in the shallow end.