Kite Man: Hell Yeah! (TV Program)

Like “Harley,” the series is set among Gotham’s villains and goons, with a similarly lewd and rowdy vibe.“Harley Quinn” is one of the best comedies going these days, quick and filthy and ambitious. (It’s all on Max.) Perhaps predictably, it has earned itself a spinoff; perhaps unpredictably, that spinoff is pegged to one of its lesser characters. “Kite Man: Hell Yeah!,” premiering Thursday on Max, keeps the nervy lewdness and contemporary pop-psychology of “Harley” but redirects its energy to Kite Man (voiced by Matt Oberg).“Kite Man” operates as an ensemble show and might be more accurately titled “Kite Man and Golden Glider,” since Kite Man’s girlfriend has just as big a slice of the narrative pie. On “Harley,” the will-they-won’t-they of Harley and Poison Ivy drives a lot of the first few seasons. Here, Kite Man and Golden Glider (Stephanie Hsu) are together and thriving, in their warped and sometimes dopey ways, from the get go, and their conflicts stem largely from their decision to buy a decrepit bar. Well, that and the super villainy: The setting here, as with “Harley,” is among Gotham’s villains, goons, thugs and scoundrels and their various appetites for destruction.The show gets off to a bumpy start because Kite Man is mostly just an airhead with daddy issues, which the show says overtly and often. The real momentum of the season follows Golden Glider and her mommy issues — hers is the richer story because she is more biting and self aware. I do wish the show dropped all its episodes at once because it makes for such a zesty binge and because I wasn’t quite sold right out of the gate.Even bad guys have their bad guys, and on “Kite Man,” our pals are up against the ever-expanding Villigans corporation. “Villigans isn’t a chain restaurant/global e-commerce/privatized prison system; we’re really a data business,” boasts its leader (Judith Light) as she rattles off personal details and manipulates the gang.If the plot of “Kite Man” doesn’t always quite soar, the dialogue is a ton of fun. “I guess one slippery slope couldn’t hurt,” says a teetotaler looking at a cocktail menu. A new character, Dubelz (Michael Imperioli), a mobster with two heads (sort of …), advises Kite Man that Golden Glider is out of his league. “You’re dating a meatball bigger than your mouth,” he huffs. And all the silliness and non sequiturs mean dramatic lines land even harder. “My parents were doing their favorite thing in their favorite place: fighting in a bar,” Golden Glider laments.The best part of the show — and the best part of “Harley Quinn” — is Bane (James Adomian), and he gets more screen time as the season goes on. His shimmering insecurity and fealty to social rules make him a consistent fish out of water, too rigid for both the evildoers and the regular joes of the world. He gets roped into balloon-animal duty at a child’s birthday party and hands them a mangled snarl. “It is despair!” he announces, proudly.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More