This week in [adult swim]: Jan 29, 2011

Hope you all enjoyed the premiere of Mongo Wrestling Alliance last week– I know I did!  Anyone else REALLY enjoying Harry Dean Stanton‘s work in this? Looks like we’re in for even more Sunday at midnight ET/PT.  If I were you, I’d just set myself a recurring DVR timer for this one.  Or set up live watching parties with your friends of  new Robot Chicken at 11:45, and Mongo Wrestling Alliance right after.

Thursday [adult swim] has a brand new premiere: Eagleheart.  It’s another one of their forays into live action, this time coming from executive producer Conan O’Brien and his Conaco productions (the show Delocated, which I’ve quite enjoyed, should be remembered that it came from Jon Glaser, one of the folks in Conan’s stable, and a recurring character he played on Late Night).

Chris Elliot is Federal Marshall Chris Monsanto in adult swim's EagleheartChris Elliot plays the clueless and over-the-top federal marshall Chris Monsanto, and within the first five minutes you’ll see how he got his trademark western get-up (and don’t blink too fast or you’ll miss an awesome Bryan Cranston cameo as his partner).  He’s joined by two other partners, Brett (Brett Gelman, The Other Guys) and Susie (Maria Thayer, the hot redhead newlywed in Forgetting Sarah Marshall), and what would a cop show be without a Chief? (Michael Gladis, Kinsey on Mad Men).

I’ve seen the first two episodes and enjoyed them a great deal. In this Thursday’s premiere (midnight), “Get Worse Soon,” Monsanto chases down his greatest foe, who has killed dozens of his successive partners. But then, upon seemingly defeating his greatest nemesis, he finds his life is missing something, so he throws himself into the rehabilitation of his now hospital-bed-bound nemesis.

I found myself laughing incredibly hard for the first five minutes.  When this show is on, it is on. Unfortunately, then you have to have plot and exposition, and all that can tend to get in the way of the funny. However, just like Childrens Hospital, Eagleheart takes itself so seriously that it makes even exposition enjoyable as a send-up of the genre of cops shows. But the show is at its best when it is most violent and ridiculous, so I hope we’ll see more of that in the future.

I give this episode a solid 3 stars, and you should all tune in, as well as for next week’s episode, which I’ll review more thoroughly next week.

Speaking of tuning in, we’ve been getting teased with promos saying Feb 2nd would be “Sweeps Week for Ants!!!” This has been a mystery as to exactly what it was, until now. But, as part of their DVR theater block (3am), this week at 3:15am, they will present three ant-themed shows: Space Ghost – Fire Ant (Feb 3, 3:15am), The Brak Show – We Ski in Peace (Feb 4, 3:15am), and Frisky Dingo – Cody Gains a Namesake (Feb 5, 3:15am).

So especially late Wednesday night/Thursday morning, make sure you get Fire Ant, which is one of my five most favorite episodes of Space Ghost ever.  It also features Conan O’Brien, which ties this week up into a nice package of coincidence.

As always, full schedules are here, and enjoy another week of excellent adult swim programming.