Agent Elvis

As an Elvis fan, I knew about Agent Elvis for some time, watched the whole first season the day it came out and really enjoyed it overall. It is definitely not for everyone, though. It's a pretty insane show reminiscent of Tarantino movies with lots of violence and raunchy humor. I'm not really sure what the target audience for this type of adult animated series surrounding a fictionalized Elvis Presley really is, and the fact that it was even made is surely surprising. Kudos to Netflix and the makers for being bold!

I appreciate that there is original Elvis music in virtually all episodes! The series covers a timeframe from shortly before the '68 Comeback special to the day of the Aloha from Hawaii concert. It's cool to see and hear all the references-major and minor-to the Elvis world. I think many of the references will only be noticed or understood by Elvis fans but they are in most cases not relevant to the plot. There are other pop-cultural references as well, for instance to Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now, Stanley Kubrick and 2001, The Doors and Jim Morrison, George Clinton, and Little Richard, to name a few. The plot surrounding Elvis "Agent King" Presley and an obscure organization named TCB mostly parodies Mission Impossible/James Bond type spy movies, with a bit of Manchurian Candidate vibes mixed in, and adds over-the-top violence. "Austin Powers meets Quentin Tarantino" describes Agent Elvis quite well I would say.

The animation of Agent Elvis looks great and modern, and in the lead role we have the appealing voice of Matthew McConaughey, who talks in his signature Southern drawl but does not imitate Elvis' voice. Then there is Johnny Knoxville as Elvis' sidekick Bobby Ray and Don Cheadle as the agent boss man. Even show co-creator Priscilla Presley has a couple of cameo scenes throughout the series. The voice actor standout for me, though, is Kaitlin Olson as Elvis' agent colleague CeCe Ryder. She has some of the funniest lines and delivers them sharply.

What I especially like about the show is how cleverly and fluently it incorporates contemporary historical events and figures into the plot. Events such as the Altamont festival, the Moon landing or the meeting between Elvis and Nixon are depicted as well as figures such as a completely insane version of Howard Hughes (who is a major supporting character in the whole series), Robert Goulet as Elvis' nemesis or good-time Charlie Manson. By the way, besides his singing voice, there are some photographs of the real-life Elvis in this show as well. After watching all 10 episodes, I can say that I would like to see a second season of Agent Elvis. We will see if it turns out to be successful enough.

At worst, Archer and Men In Black did it better (and first).

At best, it is a fun revisionist-history spy-comedy serial.

It does break new ground from its other comps by dialing up the cartoon nudity, cartoon sex, cartoon violence, cartoon pee, and cartoon zoophilia to 11. Part of those in that list don't feel earned; like the crude humor and side character deaths feel out of place and force just for the sake of being crude.

The voice acting is great, and the animation style is fun.

At the end of it all, I did sorta wish there was more than just 10 episodes, so I think it is worth a watch, and at least a second season.

Elvis dreamt of being the hero of a comic book. He had the jumpsuit, the cape, glitter and a whole collection of police badges, even a federal narcotics badge gifted from President Nixon.

While some fans won't appreciate the Tarantino-style language and violence, Elvis would have loved it.

With his trusty sidekick Scatter (yes, Scatter was real), and Billy Ray becoming a pastiche of the Memphis Mafia, Elvis gets to take out drug dealers, Charles Manson and infiltrate the White House (yes, that's sort-of true as well, he did turn up there and got to meet Nixon) It's raucous and inconsistent but often laugh-out-loud funny and the sprinkling of Elvis songs (thanks for using Change of Habit) add to the fun.

Am not surprised by how well people come up with crazy ideas for commodity these days in spite of the fact that the guy was an actual legend, it wasn't disturbing by the way but coming from the point that it all wasn't bad and they got the permission from maybe a family member or something is all the more interesting when attached to something, I get the idea wasn't a washed up one to begin with but the in the normal Grand scheme of things this was in it's own way prematurely disturbing am not holding it against anyone nor studio of production for what they did just an opinion from a reviewer but for worths worth i did take a little liking to it just a little so thats that.

Huge fan of early Archer so I really really wanted this to work but after watching whole series I just came away with meh. Mathew Machonahay as Elvis worked better then I would have thought. There was no reason to cuss as much as they all do. The violence seems a bit to much in parts. But it also seems like characters are trying to be unlikable. The commander and Cece seem like there their just to be unlikable. The storylines on interesting since this whole thing is set in 1968 the year I was born so it seems only Boomers and Gen X would get the majority of the references. Which Im fine with as Archer had that 60's spy motif to their series. But I wonder how big an audience it has. I just didn't find the humor I was looking for you don't need big out loud guffaws just the snide little in jokes of archer but this seems to almost try to hard. I think I need to forget about it for several weeks then watch it again see what I think then.