Mulligan review: It's the end of the world as we know it, and this Netflix show ain't fine

Let’s put it this way: Artificial intelligence may not have written Mulligan, but for a project that counts Tina Fey, Robert Carlock, and Sam Means among its executive producers, Netflix’s latest animated series may be an unwitting example of what could happen when programming executives assemble an all-star cast and then give them a handful of scripts that feel like they were fed through ChatGPT. Over the course of 10 half-hour episodes, which drop on May 12, the satirical show turns a potentially intriguing, post-apocalyptic premise into a mildly entertaining story about a gaggle of forgettable denizens attempting to rebuild America after surviving a failed alien invasion.

Created by Carlock and Means, the series, beginning just moments before said alien invasion, introduces its key survivors—both human and otherwise—in quick succession. There’s juvenile everyman Matty Mulligan (Nat Faxon) whose only qualification for the presidency is shooting down the spacecraft that takes down all the aliens; former beauty queen Lucy Suwan (Chrissy Teigen), who becomes Matty’s de facto First Lady; ultra-conservative pompous politician Cartwright LaMarr (a scene-stealing Dana Carvey), who finagles his way into the vice presidency; military super-scientist and single mother Dr. Farrah Braun (Fey), who keeps demanding to be taken seriously; awkward historian Simon Prioleau (Sam Richardson); and lone alien survivor Axatrax (Phil LaMarr), who comes from a planet called Cardi-B. Recurring guest stars include Daniel Radcliffe as a self-anointed British king, Kevin Michael Richardson as a military robot created by Dr. Braun, and Ayo Edebiri as an aimless teenager pretending to be a Marine general. (Got all of that? Great.)

After establishing this high-concept premise and ragtag band of misfits, the writers take their time to build the Mulligan world—or at least to reveal the uncomfortable truths of our current world that they would like to spoof. A census storyline reveals that while women may outnumber men two-to-one after the invasion, women are still frequently pitted against each other in any society. Another storyline imagines a world in which money has lost all value and kisses are the main currency, but one of the main characters still decides to host a pointless celebrity benefit concert to make themselves feel better about an unavoidable and growing stench, which is no doubt an allusion to the current climate crisis.