REVIEW: ‘Agent Elvis’ Is Interesting And Bizarre

Agent Elvis might be one of the most “how does this even exist” new shows you can find. It’s a Sony Pictures Animation series that asks, “What if Elvis was a secret agent,” but also asks, “And what if Priscilla Presley herself was a co-producer of the show?” It’s crude and violent, and it’s not nearly as funny or interesting as it deserves to be.

I like Matthew McConaughey as Elivs well enough. He does the King justice, with a close enough impression to feel right without feeling like it’s trying too hard to be an exact replication. He plays the character with a sense of self-awareness over how into himself he is without it ever feeling annoying. The script always manages to justify Elvis’s self-obsession or righteousness. But bluster and a funny concept aren’t enough to make this series feel worth sticking through. It starts to slog basically as quickly as it begins.

With a ten-episode order and sequential storytelling, it takes a while to get into the actual plot of things. Every episode is a mission of the week for the most part, but there’s an overarching plot that just feels like it starts in the middle of Elvis’ tale (because it does, the show starts post-return from military service) and, at the same time, takes several episodes to actually get going. Once it finally does, it still doesn’t feel like enough of the through-plot is happening. Elvis is recruited into a secret agency, but there’s no sense of mission or direction for this plot for most of the show. It just feels like a half-baked vehicle for shenanigans. It does start to pick up in the back half though, proving that had the attempted sense of mystery around the plot just cut and the point gotten straight to, it might not feel as abrasive.

The other characters around Elvis are also just fine. You mainly have Cece (Kaitlin Olson), a smart-talking but always-trounced-by-Elvis agent, who is his main point of contact, and Bobby Ray (Johnny Knoxville), Elvis’ right-hand everyman who is constantly taking flack and beatings for and from Elvis in fairly humorous ways. There’s also Elvis’ chimp Scatter, a very horny, drug-addicted cross between bodyguard and headhunter. The humor of the show is drawn almost exclusively from sex or violence. Some of it lands fine, and some lands with thuds. It’s not offensive, and tons of cameos of both voice and character varieties make sure every episode is distinct. It’s reminiscent of Forrest Gump, but it doesn’t feel too egregious, since at least Elvis is an actual person who lived famously at the time Agent Elvis takes place.

The one bad offense though is Don Cheadle’s Commander. From the beginning of the show through the end, his character is making terrible, offensive jokes implying that he’s attracted to men and that this makes him somehow more deviant. It’s well past time that homosexuality, or bisexuality in this case, stop being shaped as an indicator of being bad.

The part I just cannot get over is that Pricilla Presley herself was involved in creating the show, even voicing herself a few times. Between the ongoing legal battle she’s in the middle of regarding Elvis’ estate and their well-documented divorce, it feels bizarre to know she is specifically behind part of this legendary person’s functionalization. It’s not a judgment of her personally, and there’s no way to know what kind of input she had in which ways. It’s just an uncanny itch that followed throughout the show as certain parts of Elvis’ character are played up heavily, like his patriotism and disdain for hippies, while others like his promiscuity receive no airtime. Every story is told from a particular vantage point. This is just the notable vantage point Agent Elvis is told from.

Production-wise, Agent Elvis is very evidently an adult animation, feeling visually similar in some ways to a certain other long-running adult animation program about spies, sex, and drugs. But throughout the show, there are some moments where the animation takes some creative turns, usually through big shifts in color or focus as well as some complete visual asides. These moments are some of the animation’s best and happen across most episodes. The show mixes in real-life photographs or Elvis singing in a way that feels tongue-in-cheek but also befitting every moment it occurs.

Agent Elvis deserves a better overarching plot and more interesting characters. It’s a completely wacky idea that takes halfway to get caught up with itself and resolving even just one of those two issues may have lessened the problems’ collective impacts on my experience.

Agent Elvis is streaming now on Netflix.