Netflix’s Exploding Kittens Is Unsurprising Yet Bonkers Fun

Nowadays, you can turn almost anything (an article, a podcast, or a board game) into a movie or TV show if you have the budget and the right people to make it happen, even a silly card game that found overwhelming support on Kickstarter nearly a decade ago. And why not, when you have Netflix to finance the whole production? Especially if they can bring in accomplished talents like Greg Daniels and Mike Judge (the duo behind the classic King of the Hill animated series) as executive producers alongside the game’s founder Matthew Inman. With such a prestigious team, Exploding Kittens is here to reign chaos on the screen, too, as it follows the capricious cat forms of God and Beelzebub after they cross paths with an ordinary and dysfunctional American family, the Higginses.

God (with the perfectly enunciated Welsh accent of Tom Ellis) has been acting quite irresponsibly lately—accidentally burning down the west end of Heaven and killing all their unicorns—so the board of Heaven decides he needs rehabilitation. They send him down to Earth to answer the Higginses’ prayer to save their family. And though he can keep most of his otherworldly powers, he’ll have to connect with the humans as a talking house cat—or, as he prefers to call himself, Godcat. Meanwhile, in Hell, Satan’s bubbly daughter Beelzebub (Sasheer Zamata) isn’t doing so well at her job either. Her punishments for mankind are “too nice” (laggy internet, horseradish-flavored Pepsi, etc.), so the board of directors chooses to send her up also as a cat (Devilcat)—stealing the idea from their rival—to work on her “evil game.”

Naturally, the Higginses are a bunch of weirdos: the Dad, Marv Higgins (Mark Proksch), is an insufferable nerd, the Mom, Abbie (Suzy Nakamura), is an ex-Navy Seal obsessed with weapons and violence, their daughter Greta (Ally Maki) is a science/medical freak, and their son Travis (Kenny Yates) is a gamer chasing online fame after he went viral as a little kid for the wrong reason. So Godcat certainly has his work cut out for him in trying to make these loons bond and reignite their love for each other while also dealing with his nemesis.

Given this bonkers premise and its potential, you’d expect Exploding Kittens to go wild with all sorts of crazy ideas, sick jokes, and unexpected gags. And to some degree, the series does just that. Similarly to genre favorites like The Simpsons or Family Guy, Inman and Shane Kosakowki’s show runs a lot of random subplots, giving each of these characters something ridiculous to do (individually or in pairs) in almost every episode. It’s a formula that worked well in animated comedies over the years, but that’s exactly why it gets old too soon. 

Once the freshness of the concept wears off after the first few episodes, the lack of a coherent central plot becomes palpable. Don’t get me wrong, the writers pack in plenty of quick-witted jokes with the right amount of pop culture references—needling stars like Timothee Chalamet or Steven Spielberg—alongside some creative and hilarious cat-based jests. Story and character-wise, however, Exploding Kittens doesn’t deliver anything out of the ordinary. It’s watchable and decent enough but never really manages to stand out in a major way.

One reason for that is that the Higginses are only slightly different iterations of the same sort of over-the-top cartoon characters we’ve seen in several other shows. They’re likable in their own goofy ways yet far from lovable and memorable idiots like Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin. No matter how insane they act, they won’t really surprise you, and it’s hard to fall in love with their idiosyncrasies and inherent foolishness because they feel too generic.

On the other hand, the two crazy cats are the bread and butter of the series, and they more or less deliver what you want from them. Since God is basically a manchild with a fancy accent and Beelzebub is an insecure twenty-something chick with a vivacious persona, they make a frenetic duo. The best moments come from their verbal sparring and mad adventures, often involving low-key but witty remarks such as “the closer you get to hell, the worse the Wi-Fi is” and plenty of jokes targeting the dumb and atrocious side of humanity. It also helps that, through their natural rapport, the two begin to develop feelings for each other, which they adamantly deny as much as possible.

Their pairing is what made the series grow on me once I finished all nine episodes (which were provided for review), despite my initial sense that the show is missing something essential to truly impress. But I also realized that where Exploding Kittens really excels is at the little touches, such as Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” playing at a party in Hell, God creating the French language as a stupid prank, or one of Hell’s punishments being “walking into an Imagine Dragons concert.” I wouldn’t say that these bits make up for everywhere else the show falls short, but I definitely appreciated how frequently they put a smile on my face.

Overall, I wish the writers had come up with a more exciting overarching plot and dared to push the boundaries of particular topics further, but I can’t say I had an awful time with these kitties. There’s nothing ground-breaking here, but if you’re specifically into this kind of humor and minimalist animation, Exploding Kittens might be the latest program to give you something to laugh about. And after watching this, I’d surely give a few rounds with the source material a shot—I’m sure it’s pretty fun, too.

Exploding Kittens premieres on Friday, July 12th, on Netflix.

Akos Peterbencze is an entertainment writer based in London. He covers film and TV regularly on Looper, and his work has also been published in Humungus, Slant Magazine, and Certified Forgotten. Akos is a Rustin Cohle aficionado and believes that the first season of True Detective is a masterpiece. You can find him talk about all-things pop culture on Twitter (@akospeterbencze) and Substack (@akospeterbencze).

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