By Robert Scucci
| Published
When I looked up the genre code for adult animation on Netflix (11881, you’re welcome) and saw Agent Elvis, I knew that I had to check it out because it’s such a ridiculous premise to get behind. When I found out that Matthew McConaughey portrays the king of rock n’ roll himself, and is accompanied by a cocaine addicted chimpanzee voiced by Tom Kenny (yeah.. Spongebob), I knew I had to binge through the series over the weekend, and I’m glad I did.
But here’s the thing that you need to know about an animated sitcom following the exploits of Elvis Presley moonlighting as a secret agent with his primate partner in protecting the world from certain doom: it gets old pretty quickly.
Don’t get me wrong, Agent Elvis is objectively hilarious and has an absolutely stacked cast, but by the time you reach the sixth episode you’re really only sticking around for their chemistry– not the storytelling.
The Rock N’ Roll Rundown
As the title suggests, Agent Elvis is about the top-secret double life that Elvis Presley lived as a spy. Accompanied by his ride-or-die stuntman, Bobby Ray (Johnny Knoxville), and always discouraged by his guardian and mother figure, Bertie (Niecy Nash), Elvis and his pet chimp, Scatter (Tom Kenny), kick ass and take names, but only before disastrously blowing their operation sky-high and having second thoughts about trying the save the world.
When Elvis crosses CeCe Ryder (Kaitlin Olson), an agent working for The Commander (Don Cheadle), he’s sent on a wild goose chase uncovering popular conspiracy theories of the time, and chasing down notorious criminals like Charles Manson (Fred Armisen) while learning about the moon-landing hoax that’s orchestrated by Richard Nixon (Gary Cole) and Stanley Kubrick (Dee Bradley Baker).
Equal Parts Hilarious And Frustrating
Like I said, Agent Elvis is totally ridiculous, and you’ll want to burn through its entire first and only season for the cast chemistry and action-packed animation sequences alone. Boasting a retro animation style that’s so vibrant and fast paced, there’s no shortage of entertainment as Elvis Presley shoots first and asks questions later, Scatter trips hard on whatever drugs he can get his hands on before going on a primal rampage, and CeCe drops into the scene in her leather jumpsuit ready to pounce on whoever’s compromising the mission in question.
However, as you get halfway through the run, the only reason you’ll stick around is because of how well acted and animated Agent Elvis is. I found myself getting bored with the whole “what if Elvis was a secret agent… that’s so random!” aspect of the series, but I’m glad I saw things through because a quality one-liner in this context is always worth its weight in gold. In other words, if Agent Elvis was cast differently, I probably would have given up and moved onto something else, but it’s worth seeing through and finishing what you started.
By the same token, I totally understand why Agent Elvis wasn’t picked up for a second season, because there’s only so much ground a series with this kind of premise could explore.
Streaming Agent Elvis On Netflix
Thanks to its dark sense of humor, keen eye for animated violence, and stylish cinematography, Agent Elvis is an interesting one-off venture in which every single scene is jam-packed with an immense amount of talent, but its one-note premise leaves a lot to be desired. If I had any say in it, Agent Elvis would have made for an excellent featurette with a tighter runtime, but the version we got wears out its welcome because the series starts out with a bang, and can only escalate so far before it loses the plot. But still, watching the series back to back with Bubba Hotep isn’t necessarily a bad idea either.
Agent Elvis is a Netflix Original, and can be streamed on the platform with an active subscription.
