Netflix’s new adult animated series, “Captain Fall” (Season 1), is created by the duo of Jon Iver Helgaker and Jonas Torgensen. They are the creators of the brilliant Norwegian comedy show “Norsemen”. Now, along with Joel Trussell, they have ventured into animation with “Captain Fall,” and you will understand why when you go past the first episode. “Captain Fall” is in equal measures absurd and hilarious. Its deadpan humor is brought by gratuitous violence, unbridled sexual romp, and thoroughly morbid scenarios. The stories and episodic plot points would have been too dire to yield any humor in a live-action format. However, with animation, we can find humor in the most morbid and the most boorish.
Captain Fall (Season 1) Recap:
The Prelude
The Special Unit of the police force raids a ship that they had information of being involved in smuggling. The Unit and their chief are satisfied with the arrest of the ship’s captain. However, one of the agents, Steel (Christopher Meloni), feels there is more to the smuggling operation than it looks. And arresting the captain should just be the beginning. A feeling that is not at all reciprocated by his colleagues. Steel’s hunch, however, is correct as we see the ‘Captain’ of the ship is nothing more than a scapegoat. A patsy whom the main culprits kill in jail a couple of days later.
Jonathan Fall Gets the Job
Jonathan Fall (Jason Ritter) is at the bottom of his class. He is branded as a ‘loser’ by his peers and his family. His parents would not even allow him to attend a family gathering. Their love and affection are fully reserved for their eldest son, Tanner (Adam Devine). Tanner is the Captain of a big cruise. Jonathan, on the other hand, could only manage to be the operator of a toy ship in an amusement park.
Jonathan’s simplicity and ineptitude make him the perfect candidate to be the next Captain of the smuggling ring’s ship. The two leads of the crime ring, Liza (Lesley-Ann Brandt) and Pedro (Alejandro Edda), ensure that Jonathan becomes their next captain, to the shock of Jonathan’s family and his recruitment agency. Thus starts the journey of Captain Fall, literally the fall guy for the criminal syndicate.
The Crimes
The crimes of the syndicate are as varied as it comes. With each episode, we see the variety of morbid and deplorable criminal missions that Elza and Pedro lead their crew to operate. The only person who has no clue about the crimes is Jonathan. The syndicate has a mastermind who goes by the name Mr. Tyrant (Anthony Carrigan). The name is obviously a not-so-subtle clue about the nature of the man, who embodies every criminal mastermind you have seen in every action thriller. James Bond could be an example, which the show hilariously addresses.
Tyrant’s criminal activities seem to be primarily oriented toward human trafficking. Whether it is to supply native tribes from an untouched part of Amazon to a “Human Zoo” organizer or to supply brides for a Sheikh’s harem, the band seems to operate with ease when it comes to smuggling human beings. However, there are plenty of other crimes that Tyrant’s organization commits. They supply radioactive elements to ensure a Russian oligarch can increase the sea level, dooming one-third of the planet. They act as a liaison between an African warlord and a Chinese mafia gang. They mutilate tigers and gorillas for various illegal and morbid artifacts.
All these happen right under Jonathan’s nose, with occasional, inadvertent help from him. Whenever Jonathan reaches for anything that could expose the criminal activities, Elza ensures Jonathan does not actually see anything. Sometimes she uses force, sometimes she uses the facade of loving him. Either way, Jonathan does not have any idea that the ship under his command is being used for anything other than a recreational luxury cruise.
Agent Steel’s Efforts
In one hilarious episode, it was revealed that the criminal syndicate is also responsible for a potent Viagra-like libido-increasing medicine. Except it is illegal and causes their users to die with a huge erection. Agent Steel, despite his colleague’s reluctance, seemingly tracks down the supplier. He uses the tiger paw logo to track this. However, his joy is short-lived as this proves to be a false lead.
His raid of the ‘criminal organization’ turns out to be a zoo. And the raid results in wild animals getting out of the zoo. With Chimpanzees and Tigers rampaging the city, tearing people’s faces off, and killing them, Agent Steel loses everything close to him. His job, his wife, and all the respect he has garnered.
Captain Fall (Season 1) Ending Explained:
How Did Agent Steel Find the Cruise?
The reclusive Agent Steel is one day taken to a singles speed dating event by his womanizer friend. Now divorced, Steel reluctantly goes there. Although he does not find any date there, not showing enough effort for that, he does find a link to the ‘tiger paw’ case. He sees the logo in a flier for a singles cruise. The cruise in the flier, as you would guess correctly, is Mr. Tyrant’s ship. Steel recognizes Elza and Pedro as they were there during Steel’s team’s arrest of the previous Captain.
Steel always had a doubt that the crew was also involved. Seeing the flier, he becomes convinced that the ship is involved once again in another criminal activity. This time it was supplying the killer sexual medicine. He also sees the photo of Captain Jonathan Fall, flanked by Elza and Pedro, in the flier. He immediately concludes that Fall is the head of the snake. So, he decides to infiltrate the Cruise during the day of the singles night (which was covered to find Sheikh’s next bride).
Will Captain Fall Survive?
When Agent Steel infiltrates the cruise, he finds evidence of some of the criminal activities of the syndicate. He takes pictures of the dead tigers and gorillas. Dressed as Sherlock Holmes, he evades the chloroform and passerby crew members’ attention to witness the transaction between Elza’s gang and the Shiekh.
He also finds evidence on Captain Fall, with photos and signatures that could trace every crime of the syndicate to Captain Fall only. Steel falls into the obvious trap. He thinks Jonathan is the mastermind, as Mr. Tyrant always wanted. That is why they kept all signatures and photos of all the crimes tagged with Jonathan. When Steel tries to escape, he is noticed by none other than Fall. Jonathan, as simple as he is, presumes Steel is one of the singles of the Cruise.
When Steel accuses him of all his crimes, Fall does not understand anything and vehemently denies it all. Meanwhile, Elza notices Steel on the ship deck in one of the cameras and rushes to the spot with everyone. But Steel escapes before they can come. Steel warns Fall that he will do everything in his power to ensure Fall ends up behind bars.
Will There Be a Captain Fall Season 2?
The season ends in a cliffhanger of Steel warning Fall and jumping into the sea. He would probably manage to escape the clutches of Elza and others. But, it seems he might strike some cord in the naive and gullible Captain Fall, who never doubted anything. Fall considered Elza his girlfriend and all the other crew as his family. It does seem that even Elza and Pedro have started to like Fall a little bit. Elza’s visit to Jonathan’s parents’ house showed some hints that Elza might not be as cold and quick to kill Jonathan as she is with others. Especially when Jonathan tells her that he considers Elza and all his shipmates to be his real family.
It is clear that the show needs another part. As per reports, Netflix has sanctioned 20 episodes for the series. If that is the case, we have only been halfway through it all. We could expect the next half to be released soon.
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