Tuca & Bertie

Tuca & Bertie takes some time to find its rhythm, but once it does, it soars. Guest stars like Nicole Byer (who is a repertory company unto herself), Laverne Cox, Isabella Rossellini, Reggie Watts, and Awkwafina (as the Time’s Up-chanting breast) make an indelible impression, but Haddish and Wong’s performance are just as singular and key to the show’s success as Hanawalt’s surreal flourishes.

I ended up liking it so much, I felt compelled to spread the gospel. All you Broad City and BoJack fans out there? Fly, don’t walk.

Tuca and Bertie is similarly messy, weird, and loving [as Broad City]—and has the advantage of living in a world without rules. It’s a little terrifying—but full of possibility, too.

Especially in its early episodes, Tuca & Bertie feels like the manic lovechild of BoJack and Broad City. ... An ambitious mainstreaming of feminist art. Haddish embodies an archetype we’ve seen her as several times now (as well as a character whose tragic history is not dissimilar to the actress’s early years), but Tuca & Bertie allows her to fill in those outlines in fascinating new ways. Wong’s comedic persona is of a wild child too (if a reformed one), which makes the dramatic shadings of her performance a revelation.

Their introvert-extrovert dynamic is the most familiar aspect of the show, and early on “Tuca & Bertie” seems to want to cheerlead more than challenge its leads. But the characterization deepens as the 10-episode season moves on. ... What really distinguishes the show, though, is Hanawalt’s surreal vision, the anarchic fluidity of the landscape, the series’s whimsically bending laws of both nature and physics.

It's not Bojack Horseman. It's a lighter, looser, more fanciful series, one in touch with a far wider emotional palette, one in which joy and emotional release are actually possible. ... But in short order, Tuca & Bertie has become another Netflix animated gem for adults, one that can be placed in a conversation with Bojack, Big Mouth and F Is for Family.

A rare treat of a show. ... Hanawalt finally gets to play in a sandbox entirely of her own making, and the results are as weird as they are wonderful. ... They’re animated birds that are nonetheless recognizably human, and it’s a joy to watch them mess up and around as so few women ever get to do onscreen.

In comedy terms it’s more rolling chuckle than laugh-out-loud, and there are sometimes slightly jarring shifts in animation to lo-fi claymation or even sock-puppet styles. Those aside, this is a chirpily realised world that stays true to its experimentalism – and its pleasures are consistent, if deliciously twisted, and very surreal indeed.

Tuca & Bertie is a short watch, just 10 25-minute episodes, but its warmth lingers long after the pair fly off-screen.

More than anything, Tuca & Bertie is just funny. It finds humor in just about everything: in the serious subjects, in the gross things about women that are rarely talked about, in growing into your 30s, in the monotony of long-term relationships, in fun new crushes, and, most importantly, in female friendship.

It’s lighter, wackier, and more aggressively surreal, and mostly lacks the morose, introspective elements that invite comparisons of BoJack to Mad Men and other live-action dramas built around self-destructive screwups.

The first episode comes on a little strong, as the viewer tries to follow the jokes and appreciate the frenetically wild visuals whizzing past (a high-rise building with naked, jiggling breasts?). Further episodes settle down and focus on some themes. ... Nothing gets too heavy, however, as “Tuca & Bertie” remains solidly and successfully committed to its larky nature.

The start of Tuca & Bertie often left me confused, even as I enjoyed looking at it. But I stuck with it and soon found myself simply happy to be spending time in the company of these dysfunctional but endearing pals, and eager to see more when it comes.

Beyond the generally surreal nature of it all, Tuca & Bertie doesn't really do anything to stand apart from that flock beyond the promotability of its celebrity voices.