Review: 'Dr. Havoc's Diary'

The list of entertaining stop-action shows is pretty short. There's "Gumby" for the kids and the various incarnations of "Thunderbirds." And then the quality drops down quite a bit after that to some weird YouTube shows created by bored Russian teens. But luckily for viewers, there's another addition to the list, the new Fullscreen series "Dr. Havoc's Diary."

The show is written, directed and produced by Mark Cope and Carlo Moss and it features the diary entries of the sad-sack self-described mid-level villain "Dr. Havoc." Havoc wants to be the world's most successful villain, but his ambitions are continuously thwarted by his arch-nemesis (and good guy spy) Brock Mason, Havoc's ball-busting wife and a daughter who manages to be both ditzy and dismissive. Each episode of the show retells some horrible day in Havoc's life, ranging from the loss of an expensive super weapon to the appearance of three pre-teen superheroes in his secret lair.

The stop-action footage is basic but well-done and while none of the mouths move, the characters do shuffle around in a somewhat realistic fashion. But the video is only there as an entry to the dialogue, where the show really shines. "Dr. Havoc's Diary" is very funny, whether it's talking about "Dick Talks" or why you shouldn't bring your underage daughter to a meeting with an arms dealer. Often the humor in shorts like this one has that self-ironic non-punchline approach that might be smart but isn't all that funny. "Dr. Havoc's Diary" has a lot of laugh-lines and it's one of the rare new shows I'll make sure to watch in the future. Tonally, it oddly has the same feel as the "Dr. Doofenshmirtz" segments of "Phineas & Ferb," which is very high praise indeed. Although with all the F-bombs being dropped in the average episode, I wouldn't recommend letting your kids watch it.

Six episodes of "Dr. Havoc's Diary" premiere on the SVOD platform Fullscreen on August 18th, with new episodes dropping each Thursday. This show is a good reason why you should consider subscribing to Fullscreen and I can't wait to see all 30 episodes of season one.