I think one of the most difficult things in the world to do would be to find an animation fan who is indifferent to Ralph Bakshi. Even people who love him hate some of his films. Maybe an even tougher thing would be finding someone else that Bakshi was indifferent to. In interviews, when he doesn't actually have the interviewer in a headlock, he reveals a passionate love or loathing towards nearly everybody he's ever worked with or heard of - including Peter Jackson, who he insists copied scenes from his version of LOTR (which incredibly, may be true.)

Bakshi dropped out of animation for about 5 years after the acclaimed new 'Mighty Mouse' series, returned to punch out the producer of 'Cool World' and brawl with Kim Bassinger (even Bakshi hates that film). Then in 1997, after another 5 years persuing other interests, someone thought it would be a good idea to have him do an adult cartoon TV series for HBO. Bakshi walked out after season 1 when the producers wanted to bring in new writers (obviously nobody told Bakshi that it's supposed to be the studio who knocks back series, not the creator). So whoever thought they could handle Bakshi might be wondering if that was a great decision.

But what did this brief return to TV - his first in 10 years - leave us with? Actually, probably the best thing Bakshi has made since the 70's.

Now before we get carried away, have a look at what he's done since the 70's, because with the exception of 'Mighty Mouse', most of it isn't stellar. You wouldn't salivate, for example, if I told you this was an improvement over ' Cool World'.

Nevertheless 'Spicy City' is stylistically a fusion of cyperpunk, film noir, and Bakshi's old pre-LOTR 70's style. It's kind of like 'Bladerunner' meets 'Heavy Traffic'. The trouble is there seems to be a kind of seediness for its own sake which was absent from his classic 70's stuff, and the quality is uneven. Some episodes are much better than others ('Hands' is definitely the pick of the bunch, and probably warrants a 3.5 by itself). The inevitable Bakshi babe, this time a sultry, dark-haired nightclub owner called Raven, who introduces the episodes, seems corny and pointless.

But if, like me, you progressively lost interest in Ralph after 'Wizards' (except for 'Hey Good Lookin, which was actually made in the 70's and released years later), there is enough of the old edginess, urban wit and interesting characters to make ths worth chasing up if you can find it (in Australia it was released as two VHS volumes).

I would never write Bakshi off. Just when you've forgotten about him he's likely to pop up again with something, throw a studio exec through a plate glass window and go back to painting again. This series was a teaser. It wasn't great, but it proved he wasn't washed up after all.

NB: info I can find on the web only credits his son, Preston, with writing one episode, but I'm pretty sure his name popped up in the credits for several episodes, possibly as part of the crew.