San Diego Terrorists: Break's Over
It seems like most comedy nerds are on board with Childrens Hospital, the Adult Swim series that started as a pointed spoof of shows like Grey's Anatomy and pretty quickly evolved into brilliantly senseless silliness. But I feel as though its semi-spinoff NTSF: SD: SUV:: has had a harder time getting on comedy fans' radars, perhaps because no one in its cast wears John Wayne Gacy clown makeup that really pops on a billboard. That may be why the imminent return of NTSFetc. seems to be sneaking onto the schedule like The Venture Brothers before it, and the quiet marketing is doing a real disservice to the brave men and women that lay down their lives for San Diegans every day.
True fans of Childrens Hospital (hi) know that the show started life as a web series. When it migrated to Adult Swim, the network initially filled CH time slots with the shorter web-length episodes; sandwiched between them would be promos for NTSF: SD: SUV::, which didn't actually exist but really felt like it should. And then, in 2011, it finally did!
The show revolves around the exploits of the titular crime-fighting crew. Trent (Paul Scheer) is a mop-topped bad boy who plays by his own rules; Alphonse (Brandon Johnson) brings to his work the unique perspective of the African-Alaskan-American; Piper (June Diane Raphael) is tough on the job but will she ever sort out her personal life???; and Kove (Kate Mulgrew) presides over the proceedings like a stern but loving weirdo with an eyepatch and is also Trent's ex-wife. And with Rebecca Romijn having decamped to TNT's King & Maxwell, lab tech Sam (Martin Starr) and robot S.A.M. (Peter Serafinowicz) will apparently replace Romijn's Jessie with Daisy, played by Doctor Who alumna Karen Gillan, so I guess if NTSF producers ever worried that they might not be invited to panel at Comic-Con again, they can be confident that they've secured their place there for decades to come.
Like CH, NTSF spoofs a genre that really deserves it: in this case, crime procedurals like 24, C.S.I., NCIS, sometimes a little Alias. But it's never a 1:1 parody; for instance, a CERN episode sent Trent to a parallel universe -- something I'm pretty sure has never happened on Bones. Honorable mention goes to Rob Riggle, who plays The President Of The Navy, a man who...has some issues.
The show is ridiculous, fun, and short, all of which are equally significant factors in my being able to recommend it pretty unreservedly. Above all, I want to make sure there's a fourth season so that it can take on The Following and Hannibal, and so should you!