Exploding Kittens (TV series)

Did You Know?

• The series had a first look preview at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 14, 2023.
• Originally planned for a late 2023 release, the series was delayed to 2024.

Production

In April 2022, Netflix ordered an animated series with King of the Hill creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels as executive producers, alongside Peter Chernin. Additional game mechanics and cards tied to the show were planned for the mobile game. Tom Ellis, Sasheer Zamata, Abraham Lim, Lucy Liu, Ally Maki, Betsy Sodaro, Tom Kenny, David Gborie, and Mark Proksch were initially cast; Suzy Nakamura and Kenny Yates joined in May 2024, while Liu and Lim dropped out during development.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 72% approval rating with an average rating of 5.0/10 based on 16 critic reviews; the critics consensus calls it "a battle between heaven and hell translated into daffy slapstick" that "won't blow viewers' minds but serves up some fun animated mayhem." Metacritic gives a score of 54 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews" based on 9 critics. Lucy Mangan of The Guardian awarded one star, calling it "carelessly made, infuriating and unfunny" with a poor storyline. Isobel Lewis of The A.V. Club gave a C−, noting jokes that "lead to a small smile but rarely makes anyone laugh out loud" and describing the writing as "tame" and lacking bravery. Chase Hutchinson of IGN rated it 4/10, stating that premises are "stretched well beyond their breaking point" and jokes land with "tiresome thuds." Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times called it "corny as... hell, but it's genuine corn." Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter found the plot "admirably zany" but the comedy "tend[ing] to be obvious," concluding that "if you're looking for light humor, you could do worse."