Ricky Gervais has described animated series Alley Cats – his latest project as creator, writer, director and star – as “a cross between a sitcom and a Pixar movie. But with swearing.”
If that’s the case, you have to worry about what Pixar movies he’s been watching, as the studio’s output shares little DNA with this unpleasant six-parter. It’s easier to see where the sitcom inspiration figures – Alley Cats is basically a feline spin on Gervais mega-successful Netflix hit After Life. Gervais stars as a misanthropic curmudgeon with a deeply buried heart of gold, surrounded by familiar faces (well, voices) from After Life: Tom Basden, Diane Morgan, Kerry Godliman, Jo Hartley, David Earl, Andrew Brooke and Tony Way all appear.
Alley Cats has very little to offer any potential audience members outside of the Gervais faithful or people who find the c-word inherently funny. Unusually for animation, Gervais and his ensemble recorded the dialogue – discursive ad libs and all – before a single frame was drawn and the show was built around the voices. Maybe that goes some way to explaining the lacklustre visual style which isn’t quite rough enough to have a distinctive edge but still falls well short of what you might classify as good. A Van Halen-soundtracked moment in the finale offers a little flair, suggesting Alley Cats could’ve looked much better than it does. Instead, it’s largely just unappealing characters sitting around engaged in boorish conversation.
Gervais’ Gus is the nominal leader of a bunch a feral strays – and one well-to-do cat Ponce, voiced by Basden – whose conversations are largely geared around shock value. Topics including AIDS, autoerotic asphyxiation and inter-species intercourse are invoked alongside relentless swearing as lazy shortcuts to button-pushing.
The closest thing the mercifully brief series gets to actual storylines involves a cute lost kitten (Hartley) and Gus’s potential love interest Lara (Godliman), both of whom are around to prove that the ginger moggy is actually rather loveable and sweet… if you can get past the relentless bile he spews. Very occasionally some of the banter will raise a snicker in its absurdity but it’s mostly just wearing, even though the short episodes never run longer than 20 minutes.
There are also attempts to crowbar in a bit of profundity with some philosophising about the meaning of life. But the emotional moments don’t have enough room to bloom and wind up feeling unearned. In fact, much of the trite messaging around the kitten character feels like it’s aimed at a much younger audience but the swears, violence and constant sex gags rule out family viewing.
Gervais is a self-professed animal lover who has stated that he made this show because “I want everyone to love cats as much as I do”. By that metric, Alley Cats is a failure. And besides a few observations about cats being lazy and selfish, there’s nothing here that will ring enjoyably true for cat owners. This indulgent project feels destined for the litter tray.
‘Alley Cats’ is out now on Netflix
