Krapopolis

Despite being produced by “Rick and Morty’s” Dan Harmon, “Krapopolis” mostly feels like a title in search of a series, built as it around a mythical Greek kingdom where men, gods and monsters all rub elbows, without conjuring many laughs.

While Krapopolis could be funnier, there’s more than enough character and story, as well as good voice performances, to keep us watching. Fox had to have seen something to give the show three seasons… right?

Through the three episodes sent to critics, it looks bland and the stories it’s telling are bland and, most oddly of all, the thematic underpinnings of the series are bland.

Krapopolis is primarily a showcase for the comedic talents of Hannah Waddingham and her show-stealing goddess, Deliria. Otherwise, Dan Harmon’s latest animated series functions as a mildly amusing sitcom about ancient Greece that’s ultimately too formulaic and outlandishly violent. Harmon is a sitcom master, but Krapopolis plays more like a first draft.

Colorful palettes reminiscent of “Rick and Morty” and character design not far removed from other Fox animated titles are pleasant, if unremarkable. Jokes are delivered at a rapid clip with a low-to-medium hit rate. The humor itself is winkingly out-of-date.

I found it amusing, interesting, generally clever.

There’s promise in both the flexibility of the “Krapopolis” setup, which allows for a Springfield-like bench of supporting players, and the core cast assembled to carry it.

The writing on “Krapopolis” isn’t as sharp as some other Harmon properties, but it’s consistently entertaining. If there aren’t massive laughs, there’s a steady flow of chuckles, and sometimes, that’s all someone needs after a long Sunday.

The comedy comes fast and furious in early episodes, rarely taking a breather, and the comedic hit-to-miss ration favors the hits.

I'm not sure that Krapopolis will appeal to fans of Harmon's previous shows. While the series features some of his trademark thematic musings about humanity and kindness and what it means to be connected to other people, Krapopolis isn't nearly as fresh or sharp as Harmon's previous outings.

The Flintstones with gore and raunch, plus a spot-the-mythological-reference game, Krapopolis is a pretty one-joke series: Look at what a random debacle ancient civilization was.

Based on the three episodes made available to critics, Krapopolis doesn’t seem worth all this fuss. It lacks the wit, imagination, and emotional savvy of Harmon’s other series. And other than some inspired line readings by the voice cast, the show lives down to a lament by its main character, who at one point gets a muted reaction to a joke, and says, “I agree: it’s not laugh-out-loud funny.”