"Rockos Modern Life" Season 1 [DVD box set] Review

show created by Joe Murray

 Over a decade after its air date, season one of Nickelodeon's animated series, Rocko's Modern Life, has finally emerged on DVD. Created and produced by Joe Murray and Games Productions, Rocko… is the predecessor of more recent cult hits Spongebob Squarepants and CatDog with many similar elements in visual and content style, specifically the tongue-in-cheek social commentary and use of skewed “squash and stretch” animation. Although much tamer than similar shows (Rocko... is often characterized as a tamer Ren and Stimpy), each episode is packed with underlying metaphors and disguised double entendres that shy away from being overtly foreground while adding a tinge of dark humour to an otherwise slapstick style. 

        Rocko… centers around a Wallaby living in O-Town, USA with a mess of mentally unstable animal characters who Murray says are developed to form a type of, “social caricature”.   Heffer, the sidekick best friend, initiates comedic situations that Rocko is forced to clean up. The duo is involved in mundane, every day life circumstances laden with unique complications and side swerves  . The episode titled“Skidmarks” involves a harried trip to the DMV where Rocko is forced to endure an overly timid, Woody Allen type clerk. Absurd, often random spurts of absurdity infiltrate each episode. For example, in the episode,“Who Gives A Buck”, Hef the transgender cow proudly proclaims that he had,  “Sold his second stomach for cash!”, with a cut to a Scotsman playing it as a bagpipe while organs spill out.  

        Audiences are able to clearly follow the ascending level of grotesque and slapstick style that made the show a cult hit.    Rocko… grows more and more risqué throughout the season. Highlights are the biting social commentary-- the majority of the town works at ‘Conglom-O Mall’ with the slogan,“We Own You”.    Rocko… provides the nostalgic comfort of a simple yet resonating animated series, short-lived but emblematic in content and style.

 (http://www.nick.com/) Farah Barakat

Review written for Exclaim! Magazine (Link below)

http://exclaim.ca/Reviews/Dvd/rockos_modern_life_season_one