It’s been years since the big blue guy stomped through a miniature city in the opening credits, but honestly, the Amazon series The Tick is still one of the weirdest things to ever happen to streaming television. Most superhero shows try so hard to be "gritty" or "grounded." You know the type. Everyone’s wearing tactical leather and crying in the rain. But Ben Edlund’s 2016-2019 iteration for Amazon Prime Video went the other way. It was bright. It was absurdist. It featured a talking dog that wrote memoirs.
The show was a miracle of tone.
It managed to be a parody of superhero tropes while simultaneously being a genuinely moving story about mental health and finding your place in a world that makes zero sense. If you missed it during its initial run—or if you’re just wondering why people on Reddit still post "Spoon!" every time a new Marvel trailer drops—there's a lot to unpack about why this specific version of The Tick mattered so much.
The Arthur Problem and Why This Version Worked
Most versions of The Tick focus entirely on the title character. He’s a big, blue, invulnerable amnesiac with the "nigh-omnipotence" of a god and the attention span of a golden retriever. Peter Serafinowicz played him with this incredible, booming, mid-Atlantic theatricality that felt like he was constantly narrating his own life for an audience of millions.
But the Amazon series The Tick wasn't really his show. It was Arthur’s.
Griffin Newman played Arthur Everest as a man vibrating with anxiety. In the pilot, we see his trauma. He watched his father get crushed by the flagship of a supervillain named The Terror (played by a terrifyingly funny Jackie Earle Haley). Everyone thinks Arthur is crazy. They think he’s imagining things. When The Tick shows up, Arthur doesn't see a hero; he sees a hallucination.
This grounded the absurdity. It gave us a "straight man" who actually had skin in the game. When Arthur puts on that moth suit—which looks more like a high-tech sleeping bag with wings—you feel his terror. It’s a subversion of the "hero's journey" because Arthur doesn't want the journey. He just wants his meds and a quiet life.
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A Villain Who Was Actually... Scary?
Jackie Earle Haley as The Terror was a stroke of genius. Usually, in comedies, the villain is a bumbling idiot. Not here. The Terror was a legitimate psychopath who just happened to be obsessed with branding and the sound of his own voice.
He didn't want to just "take over the world." He wanted to be the main character of history.
The show explored the weird bureaucracy of evil. We saw the "AEGIS" (the show's version of SHIELD) and how they handled the paperwork of superheroism. There’s a specific nuance to the way the show handles characters like Miss Lint, played by Yara Martinez. She’s a villain with a static electricity problem whose hair is always a mess because of her powers. It’s those small, tactile details that made the Amazon series The Tick feel lived-in. It wasn't just a green-screen mess.
Why Did It Get Cancelled?
The question haunts the fandom. After two seasons, Amazon pulled the plug in 2019. It wasn't because of the reviews—critics actually loved it. On Rotten Tomatoes, both seasons sit comfortably in the 90% range.
Money is the usual culprit.
Superhuman shows aren't cheap. Between the CGI for the Tick’s antennae (which were animatronic and expressive) and the various power effects, the per-episode cost was high. At the same time, Amazon was shifting its strategy. They were looking for the next Game of Thrones, which eventually led them to The Boys and The Rings of Power.
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The Boys is essentially the cynical, dark cousin of The Tick. While The Tick asks, "What if being a hero makes you a better person?", The Boys asks, "What if heroes were corporate-sponsored sociopaths?" It seems the market in 2019 was more hungry for the latter.
The Visual Evolution of the Blue Suit
We have to talk about the suit.
In the first pilot, the suit was... controversial. It was textured, dark blue, and looked a bit like a lumpy muscle-suit made of recycled tires. Fans hated it. It didn't look like The Tick. It looked like a guy in a costume trying to look "cool."
Credit to the production team: they listened.
By the time the full first season rolled out, the suit was redesigned. It became a flatter, brighter blue with a more comic-book aesthetic. It looked "fake" in exactly the right way. It looked like the manifestation of a cartoon character in a real-world setting. This change signaled that the showrunners understood the source material. The Tick isn't supposed to fit in. He’s supposed to be an anomaly.
How to Watch and What to Look For
If you’re diving in now, you need to watch it in order. Unlike the 90s cartoon or the short-lived Patrick Warburton live-action series from 2001, the Amazon series The Tick is serialized. It’s one long movie split into half-hour chunks.
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Pay attention to:
- Dot Everest (Valorie Curry): Arthur’s sister is the unsung hero of the series. Her arc from a protective nurse to someone involved in the "super" world is one of the best-written female character arcs in modern superhero TV.
- Overkill: A parody of characters like The Punisher. He has a talking boat named Dangerboat. The relationship between a grizzled vigilante and his sentient, emotionally needy boat is peak television.
- The Philosophy: Listen to the Tick’s monologues. They sound like nonsense, but they usually contain a profound truth about destiny or friendship.
The show exists in a weird vacuum. It’s not part of a "cinematic universe." There are no crossovers. It’s just a weird, self-contained story about a guy in a moth suit and his giant blue friend.
Making the Most of the Tick’s Legacy
The Amazon series The Tick didn't get a proper ending, but the two seasons we have are nearly perfect examples of "genre-bending." It’s a comedy that makes you cry and an action show that makes you think about the nature of reality.
If you want to experience the full breadth of this universe, don't stop at the Amazon show. Go back to the 1986 independent comic by Ben Edlund. It’s much darker and more surreal. Then watch the 1994 animated series for the pure Saturday-morning-cartoon energy.
The "Next Steps" for a fan are pretty clear. Start with the Amazon pilot. If the humor clicks within the first ten minutes, you're in for a ride. If you've already seen it, go find the "The Tick: The Complete Edlund" omnibus. It shows you exactly where the DNA for the Amazon series came from. There is something deeply comforting about a hero whose only real superpower is being too optimistic to realize he’s in a tragedy. In a world of "dark" reboots, maybe we all just need a little more of that big blue energy.