All hail the King, and his blood-spattered blue suede shoes, in a berserk “adult” animated series unlikely to follow Baz Luhrmann’s reverential Elvis film biopic onto the awards circuit. That’s hardly the intent of Netflix’s 10-episode folly, Agent Elvis.
With Matthew McConaughey lending his velvety drawl to the music legend’s garish reinvention as a shoot-first secret operative, Agent Elvis spoofs the espionage genre with gory split-screen ultraviolence befitting a graphic novel and crude humor typified by his psychotic trigger-happy chimp sidekick, Scatter. It’s Archer with a Beavis and Butt-Head sensibility, which will either endear this to you instantly or send you back to your turntable (or digital equivalent) to remember the good old Viva Las Vegas days.
(Credit: COURTESY OF NETFLIX)
Lest you think his survivors might not get the feeble joke, his ex Priscilla is a cocreator, voicing a ’60s sex-kitten version of his soulmate, and in one episode tripping with her husband on LSD provided by Timothy Leary, voiced by Chris Elliott. (Come to think of it, a hit of acid might make this show more palatable.) Other real-life parodies include Howard Hughes (Jason Mantzoukas) as a mad scientist, President Richard Nixon (Gary Cole) as a racist who tests Elvis’ patriotism — naturally, there’s a bloody shootout in the White House bowling alley — and a cameo by Paul McCartney (Simon Pegg) during said LSD trip.
“Elvis saves the world. It’s got a nice ring to it,” muses the swaggering superstar with his sculpted hair and razor-sharp sideburns. He’s recruited into The Central Bureau (TCB), a nebulous agency run by the enigmatic Commander (Don Cheadle), who assigns the slinky, snarky, cat-suited agent CeCe Ryder (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s Kaitlin Olson) to supervise and trade barbs with Elvis. (“I’m just a huge fan — of your movies – they’re hilarious — I mean, not the comedies, obviously — there’s a compliment in there somewhere,” she blurts while shadowing him on the set of his biggest turkey, Change of Habit.)
Col. Tom Parker is nowhere to be seen, leaving Elvis with a rather puny entourage of the aforementioned NASA-dropout chimp, a hokey human hanger-on named Bobby Ray (Johnny Knoxville), and no-nonsense surrogate mom Bertie (Niecy Nash). They all could use sharper, funnier material to support their leading man, whose PTSD flashbacks are somehow connected to a sonic weapon that could turn his fans into homicidal maniacs. No such danger here.
Presley’s legion of devotees may well dig the idea of their idol as an off-kilter James Bond, while those with a taste for nostalgia will enjoy (as I did) watching him trade insults with his nemesis: crooner Robert Goulet.
Agent Elvis, Series Premiere, Friday, March 17, Netflix
