If you’re still mourning the loss of HBO’s Our Flag Means Death, the new AppleTV+ comedy series The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin might go a little ways toward filling that void in your life. Much like Our Flag Means Death, the series takes a humorous look at the life of a historical figure – in this case, the romanticized highway man Dick Turpin – although Dick Turpin is nowhere near as queer as those pirates were.
Starring Noel Fielding as the titular highway man – along with a host of Britain’s best comedians popping in and out of the action – the series re-imagines Turpin as a man who fell into the highway man trade, joining a gang, but on the whole, being rather soft-hearted about the whole thing. At one point, he surveys his victims, asking if anything could have improved their experience or if there was something that could have made it a bit more intimidating. This Dick Turpin is strangely successful in his robberies despite he and his motley crew being, on the whole, pretty hapless, but he also doesn’t want to be a villain. He just wants to complete his robberies, get some fame and fortune, and try his best to avoid hurting anyone in the process. Of course, Turpin runs afoul of those in power – represented here by Hugh Bonneville’s Jonathan Wild, a real-life thug who captured highway men while maintaining his own criminal enterprise – and there’s a cat and mouse struggle between Turpin and Wild (even if Turpin doesn’t seem to realize he’s in Wild’s crosshairs – like I said, he’s rather hapless outside of his penchant for successfully robbing stagecoaches).
So, is the series worth your time? It’s a perfectly fine, if not all that impressive, comedy. While not all the jokes land (and there are a wide array of jokes throughout a given episode – from low-hanging fruit to more complex, interesting bits), Fielding is particularly strong as the rather vapid Turpin. You can’t help but root for him, even as he and his crew bumble through their work as up-and-coming thieves. However, the series does start to get a bit repetitious as it goes on. Yes, there’s the continuing thread of whether or not Wild will make good on his desire to catch Turpin and Co., but aside from seeing which comedian is going to be popping in this time around, the episodes aren’t all that complex or compelling – or, for the most part, laugh out loud funny.
If you’re in the market for a comedy series that is full of empty calories – as in, you can watch it without really needing to invest all that much mental energy into the show – this is the perfect option for you, with a short, six-episode season and a roughly 30-minute run time. But if you’re looking for your comedy to be a bit more robust, then you might want to look elsewhere, as this series won’t satisfy your appetite.
The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin premieres on March 1 on AppleTV+. All six episodes were provided for review.
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