Alexander's Blog

Sharing knowledge with the global IT community since November 1, 2004

Mr Pickles - Season 3 -

If you found the first two seasons juvenile or repulsive, stay far away. Season 3 will change your mind only to the extent that drowning changes your opinion of water. But if you are a connoisseur of animated chaos, of shows that have no interest in your comfort or your morals, then pour a glass of raw milk, lock the doors, and bow down to your new Collie overlord. Mr. Pickles is back, and he has brought his sewing kit.

Season 3 immediately distinguishes itself by doubling down on its two most potent weapons: visceral gore and the voice of the late, great Grandpa. Frank Welker’s animal growls remain terrifyingly effective as Mr. Pickles, but the show’s true narrative engine has become Grandpa’s ongoing, futile crusade to expose the canine Antichrist. Season 3 gives Grandpa more screen time and more elaborate conspiracy walls, transforming him from a drunk, paranoid nuisance into a tragic prophet. One episode features a twenty-second montage of Grandpa taping newspaper clippings about “Satanic Pet” to a refrigerator, culminating in him tearfully attempting to exorcise a squirrel. It’s absurd. It’s brilliant. Mr Pickles - Season 3

For the uninitiated, Mr. Pickles is a deceptively simple premise: a lovable, six-year-old boy named Tommy has a faithful Border Collie. That dog, Mr. Pickles, is also a sadistic, occult-obsessed, vaguely demonic entity who commits unspeakable acts of violence against anyone who threatens Tommy’s idyllic, God-fearing town of Old Town. Season 3, however, proves this is no longer just the “dog does bad things” show. It has evolved into a surrealist commentary on small-town hypocrisy, the banality of evil, and the limits of televised taste. If you found the first two seasons juvenile

Of course, Mr. Pickles is not for everyone. Season 3 pushes the boundary of what is legally allowed to be broadcast. There is a sequence involving a retirement home, a tub of lard, and a harmonica that will haunt my nightmares for a decade. The show’s crude, almost deliberately ugly character design (all giant chins and beady eyes) remains a barrier for those accustomed to the clean lines of Rick and Morty . But that ugliness is the point. This is a show that believes beauty is a lie and that the true nature of reality is a sticky, chaotic mess of fur, blood, and chewing tobacco. the dim-witted lawman

Where the show truly excels in its third season is its treatment of the townsfolk of Old Town. In earlier seasons, the humans were largely oblivious victims. Now, they are complicit. One standout episode reveals that Sheriff, the dim-witted lawman, has actively witnessed Pickles’ atrocities for years but has refused to act because the dog once helped him find his misplaced dentures. The town’s preacher, meanwhile, begins the season by denouncing Pickles as a “familiar spirit,” only to end it by bartering his congregation’s bake sale proceeds for the dog’s protection against a rival Mennonite community.