Tyler Labine is back as Pac, aka Kevin Pacalioglu, the medium in “Deadbeat” for season three of the Hulu comedy that makes fun of seeing the dead. The first episode, “El Caboose” features “Napoleon Dynamite” actor Efren Ramirez (Pedro) as the ghost of a drug mule who dies on his “maiden voyage.”
It also introduces Pac and the audience to Clyde (Kal Penn), this season’s replacement for Cat Deeley (who played Camomile in the first two seasons) who will become a real game changer for the down at his luck Kevin.
The series starts with Pac working in a Chinese massage parlor as the clean-up man. After bumping into an old friend, the ghost of Manny (Ramirez) appears and suggests that Pac deliver his shipment for $5k. Kevin goes to the local morgue and removes the five balloons from Manny’s rectum and gets caught shoving them up his own bottom.
The attendant, who catches the naked Pac, starts making out with him and then claims he sexually assaulted her with the dead Manny. Pac is arrested with the balloons still up inside him and he is desperate to get them out.
In the jail cell he meets Clyde (Penn) and the two men appear to be spiritual twins. The morgue attendant gets Pac out. After a disturbing orgy of the dead, while high off one of the balloons, Pac makes the delivery. Unfortunately he is paid with the only balloon with baby powder in it.
Dejected, Pac returns to the massage parlor and finds Clyde waiting for him. His former jail buddy wants Kevin to room with him.
“Deadbeat” may be a road travelled by Labine before, while the premise may be a bit different from the 2007 series Reaper it does still deal with the supernatural, it is world’s funnier, even without Ray Wise‘s devil.
Having missed the first two seasons, which is on Hulu for binge watching (a definite plus being a real Cat Deeley fan), some backstory may be enjoyable but is not really necessary. The writing on this irreverent, rude and quite naughty series is tight enough you do not need it.
In the first three episodes, each funnier and ruder as they go along, much is explained about both Pac and Clyde. These will be looked at in depth later, but for now suffice to say binge watching the first two seasons is not a requirement.
“Deadbeat” feels like a cross between “Ghost Whisperer” and “The Frighteners” and the pairing of Penn and Labine is comic platinum. One could easily watch the entire season in one long go, but to be honest, laughing that much could result in personal injury. Perhaps a weekly dose of this amusing genius is safer for the viewer.
Michael S. Chandler directs the season opener and the show is co-created by Cody Heller and Brett Konner (“Wilfred,” “The Inbetweeners”) and showrunner Dan Lagana also produces, as does Labine.
“Deadbeat” season three is now on Hulu, it has all 13 episodes available, and this has to be one of the funniest comedies on the streaming site. Penn and Labine are the perfect match. Stoners who could well share the same mind, except that Penn’s character is something of a genius and Tyler’s Pac can only talk to the dead.
In the first episode alone, the series deals with drug smuggling, anus’, necrophilia and “ejaculation” jokes. If the viewer is easily offended perhaps they should give “Deadbeat” a miss. If, however, one enjoys a more risque comedy, this will more than satisfy.
On a final note, how fitting it it that the series’ third season aired on 420 Day.
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