Clark Kent Has a Hangover (and a Dream)

Ever wonder what might happen if Clark Kent had a real identity crisis, started work on a novel (aka, started drinking) and moved to the tragically hip Silverlake district in Los Angeles?  Well, Adam and Aaron Nee have made a webseries that explores this Elseworlds-esque situation at Funny or Die called Clark Kent Has a Dream.

Adam Nee plays Superman and Clark Kent, who is basically moving from drink to drink, and, well, maybe just is tired of being a superhero. He loses his job, moves in with Jimmy Olsen, the other heroes begin to think he's a joke — it's like he's turning 30 or something.  Sure, there's not a lot that happens in the four six minute episodes that are posted so far, there are a fair share of awkward pauses and quiet mutterings after the punchline that kind of make up the majority of the "me-too" slacker comedy web videos out there, but there are some legitimately entertaining scenes that make the web series worth checking out while you are eating lunch. Or drinking. Drinking would help.

The old standbys are there, of course. You've got Adam Nee playing Jimmy Olsen, who clearly has a crush on Lois Lane, played by Julie Mond, who is, I guess the Superman Returns version of Lois Lane, because she has a kid. There's a fun scene where she's on a date with Bruce Wayne and, uhm, Robin at a strip club and Jimmy is trying to take care of her kid while Clark tries to figure out…well…you can see the angle that the show is coming from.

My favorite part of the show are the cameos from the other superheroes. Batman and Robin foil a plan by the curly haired Lex Luthor (hey, no one's gonna shave their head for free, I think it's kind of great that this Lex is the exact opposite of bald), whose main effort to control the world consists of taking over the nation's TV stations. Matthew Gray Gubler's Green Lantern is actually kind of spot on, and, for whatever reason, reminds me of Green Lantern in All Star Batman, like, if you squint a bit with your mind. But…I admit, I might be overthinking this a bit. 

By the fourth episode, I get the feeling the Nee brothers kind of figured out what they wanted to do with the show and the editing and jokes are a bit better.  It's all very haphazard and silly, and I admit, it's kind of annoying that Superman has a beard, but I doubt you'll see better use of those "pre-muscled" superhero outfits anytime soon.  The actors are clearly having a good time, but, honestly – they're all pretty good, especially Gubler and Mond.  With tighter scripts, better editing and jokes that have actual punchlines as opposed to the meandering non sequiturs (though I do like those, I just prefer them balanced out a bit with something else), this show could, as they say down here, "turn into something."

But then Warner Bros would shut them down and that would be that. So, catch it while you can — and start at the beginning.
 

Clark Kent Has A Dream (episode 1) from the brothers NEE on Vimeo.