What have we got here? What have we got?
From Uncle Grandpa storyboard artist and Channel 101 veteran Myke Chilian comes Tig 'n Seek, a Cartoon Network animated series streaming on HBO Max.
Set in Wee Gee City, the show follows the adventures of eager young sleuth Tiggy von Tigglewinks (voiced by Chilian) and his Gadgeteer Genius cat Gweeseek as they solve cases and retrieve lost items at their day jobs at the Department of Lost and Found. There, the duo frequently interacts with their canine boss named... well, Boss (Rich Fulcher), as well as their fellow employees Nuritza (Wanda Sykes) and This Guy (Jemaine Clement).
Tig 'n Seek contains examples of:
- A Boy and His X: The show is about a boy and his super genius cat. Tiggy absolutely adores Gweseek, and Gweeseek is always by Tiggy’s side.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Gweeseek is a blue cat.
- Apathetic Pet: Tiggy's cat Gweeseek is supposed to be a genius, yet spends most of her time doing typical cat stuff — batting things off ledges, lying on sunbeams, that sort of thing. She mostly ignores Tiggy's commands and often does things that impede their missions. Once an Episode, however, Gweeseek will build a device out of random junk to help Tiggy. Whether she's Obfuscating Stupidity or genuinely apathetic towards Tiggy unless he's in real danger is left unclear.
- Bitchin Sheeps Clothing: Skippy, who is a very manipulative little girl, especially to Tiggy. And she gets away with it too.
- Butt-Monkey: Prangle Penguin just can't catch a break. Tiggy too, occasionally.
- Let's not forget Chester, who is basically this show's equivalent to Gil Gunderson.
- Cartoon Creature: This Guy is a muscular human-like creature with a head that looks like a blue Principal Brown without glasses.
- Centipede's Dilemma: In "Five Rules for Finding", Tiggy freaks out because he realizes he doesn't have a method for finding things. After following the five rules in the painting of Chief and failing to find Boss' tie, he gives up on ever finding anything ever again... while finding This Guy's lost tube of paint without even thinking about it. That's when he realizes that his usual way of finding works just fine, and manages to find the missing tie.
- Creepy Basement: In "Lost in the Lost and Found", Tiggy has to go into the cellar to find a tuba. The lightbulb broke, so it's pitch dark, and what's worse, Tiggy believes there's a "cellar feller" there who turns his victims into "goopy goo." He tries to convince himself that there's nothing to be afraid of... until he encounters the cellar feller! Who turns out to be This Guy with his head stuck in a tuba, and the goopy goo was kiwi jelly.
- Dogs Are Dumb: Boss is an anthropomorphic dog who isn't very bright.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The original Tiggle Winks pilot
is much more zany and surreal in tone, akin to Chilian's previous work on Uncle Grandpa, as opposed to the relaxed Work Com vibe of the final series. Aside from Nuritiza and This Guy, who only appeared as cameos, Tiggy was also a Manchild as opposed to being a young kid, whilst Gweeseek was anthromorphic and more of a genius cat than the Apathetic Pet she eventually became, and Boss was smarter than he was in the series. The Department of Lost and Found is totally different, and has several employees compared to the Minimalist Cast of the show. - Eye Patch Of Power: Nuritza sports one on her left eye.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Gweeseek, who has the ability to build elaborate contraptions in the blink of an eye.
- Intellectual Animal: Gweeseek is able to build machines from scratch; otherwise, she acts just like a normal cat.
- Karma Houdini: Skippy doesn't receive any retribution for her actions at the end of her episodes.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: The main cast consists of a human child, an Intellectual Animal cat, a fully anthropomorphized dog and rabbit, and... whatever This Guy is.
- Little Guy, Big Buddy: In "Baby and the Dog", Tiggy has to get a ball from a baby, but every time he takes it, the baby cries, attracting a large dog to chase Tiggy. Interestingly, the dog doesn't even belong to the baby; at the end, the father says "Whose dog is this?"
- Man Versus Machine: In "The Search Engine", Boss gets a robot to help Tiggy find things. Tiggy thinks the robot is going to replace him (despite him complaining that he needs to take a rest earlier) and argues with it as if it was planning to sabotage their mission.
- Motor Mouth: Tiggy is one talkative kid.
- Ms Fix It: Nuritza is always in the middle of some renovation project, although it is never made clear whether she's actually fixing anything or just demolishing and rebuilding things on a whim.
- My Instincts Are Showing: When not inventing (which is ninety percent of the time), Gweeseek just does what a cat naturally does. Sometimes this is to the detriment of her and Tiggy's work, like when she takes a hot dog without paying, or eats the millipede they were hired to find.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Tiggy's colleagues: Boss is a Kindhearted Simpleton who apparently can't bring himself to fire Tiggy (despite doing so before), Nuritza is the mean-spirited one who often scams people, and This Guy is more serious than Boss but a generally friendly guy. Sometimes, This Guy and Boss can interchange, as Boss has his episodes of being stubborn, and This Guy stays friendly for the most part.
- Pointy-Haired Boss: Boss, though he wasn't so much in the pilot.
- Poke the Poodle: Tig's attempts at being bad in "Tiggy Two Shoes". He answers a phone and takes a message, but in an angry voice; he writes "Tig was here" on the wall, but in text so tiny you have to use a magnifying glass; and shreds a box of papers that This Guy was going to shred anyway.
- Under Strange Management: The Department of Lost and Found is run by a simple minded antropomorphic dog who inherited it from his father. His main employee is an 8-year-old kid who looks for missing things, and his assistant is a cat who alternates between Gadgeteer Genius and Apathetic Pet. The rest of the staff consists of a rabbit with an eyepatch who is remodeling things seemingly at random and a mild-mannered fuzzy-headed monster who seems to be the Only Sane Man.
- Vocal Dissonance: 8-year-old Tiggy has a deep voice more akin to that of a young adult.
- Wet Cement Gag: In "Tiggy Two Shoes", Tig, Nuritza and Gweeseek all get stuck on cement that Nuritza was setting on the floor.
