Mad is unlike any other show to ever exist. A perfect mix of experimental animation styles, strange humor, and pop culture, which makes it a real shame that the first episode failed to live up to the expectations my memory created for the show overall. The opening skit, the Avaturd, was way too long, jumpy, and overall unfunny. It lacked the slapstick humor I remember Mad for and felt like it was trying to be way too serious for what it is, a parody of Avatar filled with poop jokes and motion-tracking pngs. As for the mid-episode skits, none of them were particularly notable: an astronaut finding an alien, Lady Gaga hiding in a soda machine, and the classic Spy vs Spy. The best skit by far was Zombi, a parody of Bambi following the mother's reanimated corpse. As a kid, I remember being horrified by the scene, and it's lived rent-free in my head on and off for years. It's the perfect combination of horror and humor. Additionally, the animation on the stop-motion pumpkin skit is incredible, however, the skit itself is nothing to write home about. As for the closing skit, CSiCarly shares many of the same issues as the first. It's way too jumpy, the jokes feel awkward and forced, such as when the main detective says "Shooting it, I think it's dead," and, because the opening skit went on for far too long, it feels far too rushed, almost as if it's another mid-episode skit. While the episode does a decent job of establishing many of the principles of the series as a whole, it falls short of living up to the standards the show goes on to set for itself. As a price of media independent of the series as a whole, it's poorly timed, sloppily written, and generally unfunny.
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