Men In Black's Forgotten '90s Animated Series Is Way Better Than The Sequels

Comedy sequels are notoriously difficult to execute, but sequels that blend comedy with other genres aren't much easier. Maybe that's why the "Men in Black" movie franchise has never quite worked overall. You can only crack so many jokes involving eccentric public figures and celebrities being extra-terrestrials in disguise before folks begin rolling their eyes (Steven Spielberg aside). 

It doesn't help that the first "Men in Black" film set the bar as high as it did. Loosely based on the comic book series "The Men in Black," director Barry Sonnenfeld's 1997 sci-fi action comedy flick, which was executive produced by Spielberg (like I said ...), remains a precisely structured crowd-pleaser. But beyond its quotable zingers and relentlessly catchy Danny Elfman theme song, it's a crowd-pleaser that combines an all-time great physical performance by Vincent D'Onofrio as Edgar, the other-worldly Bug, with some remarkably profound observations about human nature. Its sequels on the other hand, range from adequate to 2019's "Men in Black: International," a movie whose behind-the-scenes problems led to a whole lot of finger-pointing in the trades after it flopped.

In fact, the best thing to come out of this property since the original film might be the less-discussed "Men in Black: The Series," a cartoon show that ran for four seasons from 1997-2001. Premiering three months after the first movie hit theaters, the "Men in Black" animated TV series adaptation actually expands upon the story and lore of Sonnenfeld's 1997 feature, unlike its sequels. At the same time, it serves up appropriately zany, self-contained weekly adventures that its young target audience can enjoy without having to worry about tuning in for every single episode (plus some wry humor for any adults watching, too). Then again, that's not so surprising, given the creatives who worked on the show.

"Men in Black: The Series" creators Duane Capizzi, Jeff Kline, and Richard Raynis might not be household names, but their collective body of work includes the Daytime Emmy-winning "Transformers: Prime" and the millennial/Gen Z favorite celebrity cartoon series "Jackie Chan Adventures." They also spent years working for Adelaide Productions, a Sony division with a legitimately strong track record when it came to producing cartoon series based on the company's biggest live-action franchises in the 1990s and 2000s. It even made a comeback with the mostly well-liked animated anthology miniseries "The Boys Presents: Diabolical" in 2022.

This brings us back to "Men in Black: The Series." One of Adelaide's earlier successes, the show seemingly takes place in an alternate timeline where Tommy Lee Jones' gruff Agent K didn't retire after recruiting Will Smith's rebellious Agent J in the first "Men in Black" film. However, it eventually adds a clever wrinkle to that premise with the episode "The Star System Syndrome," which gets amusingly meta about the show's relationship to the "Men in Black" movies.

That's not the only way the series stands out. Besides exploring K's pre-MIB personality with episodes like "The Neuralyzer Syndrome," it doesn't merely abandon the whole Bug empire storyline and even invites Vincent D'Onofrio back to voice other members of the Bug species (like Edgar's twin, Edwin). Plus, it avoids doing characters such as MIB Chief Zed and especially Laurel Weaver/Agent L dirty by unceremoniously writing them out (or killing them off) the way the films do. All in all, it's a much more inspired spin on the "Men in Black" universe than the movie sequels. Stream "Men in Black: The Series" for free on Tubi, and see for yourself.