One of the best things about all these legacy sequels/shows that are everywhere these days is that if they’re done right, they can give you an alternate look at something you’ve taken for granted for years. Whether it alters a particular bit of lore that changes everything you thought you knew, or it adds a bit of extra personality to a character that’s been mostly one-note, if a rug pull is done right, it adds a whole new dimension to a property you’ve been watching your entire life.
Take the Gremlins for example – we all know the Gremlins, right? Mischievous, spiteful little psychopaths who like causing trouble that often leads to disaster, death and chaos; but what if I told you that if you raised a Gremlin’s IQ you might find that the grubby little imp was plagued with all the existential questions and anxieties that we are? It’s time for possibly the most audacious Gremlins episode yet that delivers something I never even knew I wanted: a Gremlin super villain origin story.
While Elle, Sam and Chinatown native Chang wonder why exactly Chinatown is utterly deserted, flashbacks from eleven months ago clue us into what happened with the clutch of Gremlins who escaped onto a ship last season and headed off to America. We find that the rather inpatient nature of the Gremlins led to them trying to disembark before the sun had gone down, leaving the highly advanced Noggin the sole survivor. However, his insistence that he be treated the same as humans due to his intellect and the fact that he’s picked for himself a more human name, Algernon, puts him in trouble with local gangsters after he tries to eat at a fancy restaurant. However, he is taken in by mob boss, Boss Chang (young Chang’s father), who not only is fascinated by this eloquent creature, but sees great promise in him, even if his feral, Gremlin nature rises to the surface in times of great stress.
As the months pass, Boss Chang teaches Algernon humility and to love Chinatown and all it stands for and when his illness finally catches up to him, he announces Algernon as his successor to the shock of everyone. However, after instantly being betrayed by his underlings, Algernon is set to be executed by drowning – which as we all know is and absolutely hideous idea. Before you know it, Algernon has multipled into a Gremlin army, had his attackers killed and renounced his human name, declaring himself as Boss Noggin, head of the Triads of Chinatown!
It’s this Chinatown that our heroes have wandered into and while Chang vows to avenge his father, unaware that he and Noggin were friends, a Gremlin attack sees Gizmo and his two new brothers, Lucky and Bobo, spirited away where Noggin has an after-midnight snack lined up ready for them.
Meanwhile, Elle’s search for her long lost mother actually pays off when she finds her at the Grand Bay Palace – but will this reunion last when you have Gremlins controlling organised crime?
Whenever the Gremlins animated series cooks on all cylinders, it manges to easily transcend the notion that it’s nothing more than a simple, cartoon spinoff and with its third episode, The Wild Batch manages it again by giving us the most unexpected story you could ever imagine. Not only does the episode alter our perceptions of what the Gremlins are truly capable of, but Noggin’s quest for humanity and subsequent tumble into organised crime seems to be a natural progression of the concept of the Brain Gremlin who first showed up in Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Constantly and memorably discussing the notion of civilisation while his frenzied brethren rampaged around him, enyone who wondered what the creature could have achieved if his Tony Randall-voiced ideas weren’t halted by sunlight midway through a song and dance number. Cue Geoge Takei’s Noggin, who takes these ideals and concepts and takes them to an extreme conclusion as the hyperverbal Gremlin takes centre stage.
If you were to tell me years ago that an episode of children’s television would give me a thirty minute episode that takes cinema’s most spiteful monster and give him a heroes journey than not only riffs on The Godfather, Once Upon A Time In America and the rise of the Chinese underworld in the west, I would have understandably checked your breath for traces of alcohol, but presented with “Never Use Double Negatives” I feel that’s its a crime that such a thing took so long to occur. However, while a lesser bout of writing would have offered up an episode that was merely fun, what we get is a surprisingly touching tale that sees Noggin fall horribly from grace when he was on the verge of achieving that which he and the Brain Gremlin were striving for all along – acceptance.
In fact, Noggin (sorry, Algernon) is so far along in renouncing his Gremlin heritage, he even mentions he has an aversion to procreating – but every now of then, that old Gremlin spite comes through, only to be calmed by an understanding Boss Chang. It’s a remarkably nuanced tale for a show that wears “zany” on its sleeve so proudly, but there’s a real sense of tragedy when Noggin is betrayed by jealous criminals who hoped they would be chosen as Boss Chang’s successor and when he emerges from the ocean with an instant army of fellow Gremlins, you are genuinely intimidates as he had his enemies torn to bits (in a PG way, of course).
While this does mean that some of the other plots feel slightly half-baked (Elle finds her missing mother with a minimum of fuss considering she’s been missing for years), others blend into the flashbacks rather well. Chang’s belief that his father was murdered by Noggin for his throne creates some instant drama for a character that was only introduced an episode ago and Noggin’s backstory only makes his eagerness to reunite with Gizmo all the more intriguing. In fact, the final scenes that sees Noggin tempting Lucky and Bobo with strategically timed food hint at a larger plan at work – although I totally called it that Gizmo’s brothers wouldn’t stay in Mogwai form for long – but I legitimately can’t wait to see what Noggin wants with little Giz, especially when both seem to be having personality issue that mirror each other. While Noggin has tried and failed to get the acceptance he wanted as a civilised being, Gizmo is rapidly losing his composure, becoming ever more bestial and Gremlin-like with every episode – pretty poetic for a kids show, eh?
On top of all of this, we also get a good old Gremlin attack that is showing that the show still isn’t above pushing the envelope on violence and threatening behavior as Sam manages to escape by essentially burning his green attackers alive after they emerge out of the night to tap on the glass like that freaky Vampire kid from Salem’s Lot. Once again, Gremlins manages to transcend its kids show roots to take a time worn franchise into bold new places.
I mean think about it. Isn’t organised crime being run by the most disorganised creatures of all time not the funniest thing you’ve ever heard of?
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