Tuesday, March 19, 2024
EditorialCamp WWE Review: See It or Skip It?

Camp WWE Review: See It or Skip It?

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The newest addition to the lineup of programming on the WWE Network is perhaps its strangest show yet: Camp WWE.

For those unaware, it’s an animated series developed by Seth Green and his Stoopid Buddies Stoodios company with the premise essentially boiling down to a handful of superstars reimagined as their childhood selves spending time at Camp WWE, run by (of course) Vince McMahon.

The premiere was described as follows:

Season 1 Episode 1: No Place Like Camp

When Mr. McMahon discovers John Cena misses home, he enlists his counselors to help prevent a camp-wide outbreak of homesickness.

You may be on the fence about watching this, so after having checked it out, I figured I’d do my best to give a non-spoiler breakdown of whether you should give it a chance or not waste your time.

Adult Content

This is a wild departure from most of the programming on the network, as it’s not only a legitimately original show rather than something that consists of interviews and footage from old events, it’s also TV-MA and paradoxical in that despite it being a cartoon, it’s catered toward adult audiences.

In the past, all other animated fronts from WWE have been geared for a younger crowd, which limited their storytelling potential. Nothing inherently has to be edgy to be entertaining, as Pixar movies have showcased, but more often than not, things that fall on the G-rated spectrum are rather bland. Just look at Slam City. See why that’s not around anymore?

I was surprised at the amount of sexual content as well as the cursing. Being someone that isn’t bothered by this in the slightest bit, the only reason it was jarring was that I didn’t give them enough credit to go far enough to justify the TV-MA rating. I just assumed ahead of time that it would still end up being super tame, but while they didn’t take things to a Quentin Tarantino level (which would be amazing, by the way) they did much more than I thought WWE would allow.

Guaranteed, there are going to be people who get upset as they didn’t pay attention to the Mature Audiences warning. There’s always that group that wants to kick up a fuss for no reason other than for their voices to be heard, so I expect some backlash from angry parents for sure. Considering how there are multiple warnings and parental controls, WWE’s not at fault for any bitching that goes on as a result of poor parenting.

Animation Style

More than likely, you’ve seen enough previews of this to get a feel of what the style of animation is, so you’ve probably already decided if you’re a fan of it or not. I myself am not an authority on the subject matter, nor do I have any particular affinity for such a medium where I can appreciate the subtleties of each show’s unique art. Instead, I tend to view things at face value, and with Camp WWE, I’m not the biggest fan of the visuals. They’re not terrible, and there are far worse things on Adult Swim and elsewhere, but I tend to prefer less exaggerated animated. It sounds ridiculous to say that I’d like for this cartoon to be less cartoony, but that’s what it boils down to. It’s not a huge detractor, but given the choice for a different style, I would have opted for something else. Personal preferences are the biggest factor, so you might love it even if I don’t, or it might but you considerably more than what my reaction was.

Comedic Value

Just as the animation style is subjective, so, too, are the jokes. There’s a wide range of humor out there and to one person, the most hilarious thing in the world could be The Three Stooges while someone else digs Dr. Strangelove. If I’m suggesting a comedy to somebody, I typically go with Naked Gun, Clerks, and so forth, but you might be more along the lines of Paul Blart: Mall Cop, so it’s impossible to judge.

However, from my perspective, while some jokes fell flat, other jokes landed very well. Vince McMahon’s character is easily my favorite, taking his over-the-top attitude and applying it to several different situations. What got the biggest response from me throughout the whole episode was very early on when Vince was laughing at audio clips of the Hindenburg disaster—a tragedy where 36 people were killed, yet he uses that as a method to calm down and ease the tension. Fantastic.

I’ve been tired of Ric Flair’s schtick with Charlotte on the main WWE shows, but I enjoyed his character on Camp WWE despite this. Sometimes, it’s trying a little too hard, but I can see some potential in it that is currently untapped. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Steve Austin’s character is annoying to me and I don’t quite understand why Rusev was chosen, though I do think his design is funny. R-Truth the conspiracy nut? We’ll see. Big Show the blubbering oaf? Makes sense. Triple H trailing off at the end of every sentence is a golden trait that got me to smile for sure.

The biggest hindrance for the jokes is that we’ve already seen a good portion of them in the advertisements. Are you going to laugh that Flair humps a rock after watching that clip a dozen times? Doubtful. Are you going to find The Undertaker’s character interesting since we haven’t seen anything of that? Different story. Episode 2 will assuredly feature more jokes that weren’t spoiled already, so it should be a step up from this one in many ways.

See It or Skip It?

Bottom line, I suggest watching it unless you’ve already gotten to the point where it irks you. If you’re at least a little curious, you should check it out and make the decision for yourself, as you and I might have different tastes, positive or negative.

Typically, the pilot episode is almost always the worst entry in a TV series. Taking that into account, I’m reminded of my initial reaction to The Edge and Christian Show That Totally Reeks of Awesomeness. The first set of jokes and pretty much the first couple episodes were terrible in my mind, but a few more episodes into the season, they hit a stride and things turned around. The past few weeks, I’ve actually looked forward to watching the show because a good 75% of it would be entertaining to me. The same thing could happen with Camp WWE with steady improvements as time goes on, and I sincerely hope that’s the case, as if things get worse or stay on the same level of quality, I’ll be tuning out for sure.

What did you think of Camp WWE? Are you excited about the series, or did it not live up to the hype for you? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

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