Best Episode of the Season: Axe Cop Season 1
jmunney Axe Cop, Best Episodes of the 2013-2014 Season, Best Episodes of the Season, Television Leave a comment
Season Analysis: As Axe Cop's title shot prominently declares, it was co-created by a 5-year-old. Its first season certainly felt like it was, and – thanks hugely to Nick Offerman as the titular hero – it was an ideal realization of a show co-created a 5-year-old.
"The Rabbit Who Broke All the Rules"
An area in which Axe Cop the TV series largely excels is its well-considered mythology, which serves to establish layer upon layer of Axe Cop's motivations. When Axe Cop becomes a foster father to a strange orphan boy, it is revealed that the boy is possessed by the ghost of the first creature that Axe Cop ever killed: the unconventional titular rabbit. Axe Cop's opposition to this hind-leg standing, coconut-eating hare is a little fascistic, almost uncomfortably so. But it works as well as it does because it is such a strong character choice. Axe Cop's black-and-white ethical code may be too simplistic and too intensely applied, but he is committed to it so firmly, and that makes him interesting as a fictional personality. As all-powerful as he may seem, and despite how unassailable his results tend to be, the appropriateness of his methods or lack thereof are worth considering, even though he obviously exists in a fantasy world. Sometimes, dispensing with subtlety proves to be fruitful.