Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Marvel’s Hit-Monkey’ On Hulu, Where A Snow Monkey Becomes An Assassin With The Help Of A Dead Hit Man

Marvel’s Hit-Monkey is one of the last shows developed by Marvel Television before it got folded into Marvel Studios, and like the other animated series that debuted on Hulu, M.O.D.O.K., it doesn’t take itself 100% seriously. But it certainly is more serious than its cousin series is. But just how serious or funny it should be is the question we had while watching it.

MARVEL’S HIT-MONKEY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A man is ushered into the back of a waiting car by his bodyguards, who all proceed to get decapitated and/or shot by a mysterious assassin. The assassin jumps on the car, and we see the silhouette of a monkey in a suit.

The Gist: Two months earlier, in Tokyo, an accomplished hit man named Bryce (Jason Sudeikis) rolls into town to do an important job. He’s a chatty sort, talking to people about his troubled childhood and his “honesty policy” even though no one cares to listen. After he picks up his materials and a kids’ backpack full of half his fee, he gets shitfaced at his hotel.

The next day, at a rally for a progressive candidate for prime minister, Shinji Yokohama (George Takei), a veteran politician who is the candidate’s campaign manager, is wondering about the more aggressive parts of the speech. Shinji’s young niece Akiko (Olivia Munn) says those were her ideas, and it seems Ken, the candidate, backs that up. But their dreams of a new wave of Japanese politics die with Ken, as a hungover Bryce does his job, using a series of robotic rifles to assassinate the candidate from a nearby skyscraper.

He’s double-crossed at the extraction point, an hour south of the city; he manages to blast and shoot his way out of that mess, but gets shot himself. He wanders into the snowy woods and passes out. A family of snow monkeys drag him to their thermal pools and nurse him back to health. One monkey (Fred Tatasciore), however, objects to Bryce’s presence, thinking he’ll only bring evil. For his trouble, the chief sends him away.

But when a group of military officers come for Bryce, they not only shoot him, but the family of monkeys who come to his defense. The exiled monkey, eyeing the weapons the soldiers are using, picks up two automatic weapons and lets loose, killing every one of the assassins. Bryce, who somehow is barely hanging on, tells Hit-Monkey that they’re now connected. “You’re gonna find the assholes who did this to us and do that to them. You hear me?”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? How many shows are there that have a monkey assassin as its main character? We will admit that the animation reminds us of a nicer version of the ’80s version of G.I. Joe or Transformers. It’s not quite as crude-looking as those shows, because there are some anime elements added in. Let’s just say that it looks somewhere between those shows and Archer.

Our Take: Hit-Monkey is one of those shows that either hits you right or just goes over your head. The first episode summarizes Hit-Monkey’s origin story pretty well, and solidifies his relationship with Bryce. What we’re wondering about is just what tone this show, created by Will Speck and Josh Gordon, is trying to achieve.

Perhaps the timing of the show is affecting this thought, but, as much as we like Sudeikis, his character Bryce is essentially “Ted Lasso as a hitman.” He’s chatty — perhaps too much — and overshares. He’s weirdly emotional for a guy doing a very unemotional job. At least in the first episode, the Venn diagram between Bryce and Ted is damn near a circle.

But Hit-Monkey himself is dead serious, and it seems like a lot of the show is going to be scenes of him, guided by the spirit of Bryce, going after all the people who killed his family. Now, will the idea of a killer monkey be a little funny? Absolutely. Also, the monkey is likely going to run into issues because, well, because he’s a snow monkey who is out for revenge.

By the end of the first episode, though, we’re just not sure where the show is going to land on the tonal line. Takei and Munn’s characters could go either way. And, given that we don’t know a ton about Bryce, we may learn things about him that bring out Sudeikis’ considerable dramatic acting ability.

We don’t need Hit-Monkey to be all serious or all funny. But it’s really hard to get a handle on what it wants to be, much less where it’s headed.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Hit-Monkey, gun slung over his shoulder and Bryce’s sunglasses on his face, is waiting at a train station to go into Tokyo and start cracking skulls. He turns around and sees the green glow of Bryce’s ghost. “Told ya this was gonna get weird,” Bryce tells him.

Sleeper Star: When Takei is in a series, he’ll always get the sleeper award. He’s proven over the past 15 or so years that he’s a fantastic actor, and he looks like he’s got an interesting role as the world-weary Shinji.

Most Pilot-y Line: Other than a tiny font for the monkeys’ subtitles, nothing we could see.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Marvel’s Hit-Monkey looks like it’ll give fans of the comic character a good story, and Sudeikis puts in a good performance as Bryce. But if you’re a fan of Sudeikis’ Emmy-winning current series, it may give you a few too many Ted Lasso flashbacks.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Marvel's Hit-Monkey On Hulu