Based on the old Hanna Barbera show "SeaLab 2020", a group of scientists live and work in an underwater research facility. However,this update is far departure from it's older counterpart.It's raunchy and made for laughs,unfortunetly, it only succeeds in being rauchy.

In recent years, Hanna-Barbera characters had been used for adult cartoons. One outstanding example is "Space Ghost:Coast to Coast", a hilarious talk show. "Harvey Birdman: Attorney at law" is fairly decent, but suffers from it's rather bland characterization.

"SeaLab 2021" is bascially the bottom of the barrel.Unlike "Space Ghost" or "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", the characters are merely idiots, that's it. They have nothing funny to say or do at all. Good Characterization and writing what makes a show funny, random or not. And "SeaLab" is absolutely absymal at both. You may giggle once or twice, but it's almost never. Just skip this one and watch "Space Ghost".

Like 'Harvey Birdman', this is at least 'on the surface' (excuse the pun) a parody of old Hanna Barbara cartoons. Or at least a specific one. And let's face it, old Hanna Barbara cartoons are pretty ripe for parodying.

So far as I know this show does not air where I live, and I only picked up on it when a friend included an episode on a tape he sent me from the US. So that 3 stars you see is a somewhat conservative award based on limited exposure (I've similarly downgraded my Harvey Birdman rating until I get to see more of it).

The animation is laughably tacky in the style of early 70's TV animation (in fact I'm not certain that they don't actually use some of the original footage from Sealab 2020. It would help if I could remember it), but the humour is definately 21st century, postmodern and at times painfully funny. In fact I have to admit to having been reduced to helpless laughter just reading the episode synopses. I hope that whoever authored this one at killermovies.com doesn't mind me quoting it. In the episode 'All that Jazz',

"Capt. Murphy gets trapped underneath the BeBop Cola machine. Unfortunately for him, everyone else is at a concert. A year transpires before he is found, and in that time he loses all his teeth and becomes addicted to scorpion venom."

or this one... (slightly edited)

"Capt. Murphy is dissatisfied with the disharmony of the Sealab decor. He hires an extortionate Feng Shui "master" to redecorate everything- but "Master Loo" is a con artist who convinces the crew to buy his awful origami and persuades Murphy to spend $50,000 on a solid gold toilet."

I think that ought to give you some idea if you'll find it amusing.

The humour isn't at all gross from what I've seen - just bizarre and satirical.

Something I read stated that the demographic for this show is supposed to be males aged between 18-49. That's a pretty big demographic. Whereas I can perhaps understand why teenagers might not quite appreciate the retro-satire of this show, I'm far from convinced that's true, and I have no idea why women wouldn't find it funny. Whatever the case, as I fall within its target demographic, I suppose I am doomed to enjoy it.