The wait for the second season of Natasha Allegri’s Bee and PuppyCat has been a long one, marked by delays, leaks, and uncertainty about when — not to mention where — the series might eventually end. Netflix’s new Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space could give fans of the original show a bit of a loop at first. Once it’s worked through the curious bit of narrative deja vu that makes up the first few episodes, Lazy in Space manages to become what any highly anticipated sequel to a much-loved series aspires to be: phenomenal and moving in its own right.
Like the original Bee and PuppyCat web series that debuted on Frederator’s Cartoon Hangover YouTube channel in 2013, Lazy in Space tells the story of Bee (Allyn Rachel), an easygoing twenty-something with a heart as big as her rent is late. . None of the other young adults living in the sleepy, impossibly chilly island town that Bee calls home would consider themselves “having it together.” But Bee can’t help but feel like she’s not living up to her full potential as she struggles to keep a job even as her close friends like aspiring chef Deckard (Kent Osborne) go all out to help her to help keep one.
Bee has been fired from so many gigs from her agency that she barely blinks an eye when she receives her last pink slip in Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space’s first episode. But everything about Bee’s pleasantly mundane life takes a sudden and magical turn after she casually makes a wish for another living being to take care of, and the universe responds by dropping a cute, raunchy creature onto her lap.
Right from the start, Lazy in Space is laced with few details hinting at how whimsical reality is, but it’s only when PuppyCat – a chubby cat-dog hybrid “voiced” by vocaloid OLIVER – descends from a crevice in space. beams and becomes Bee’s pet that the series begins to come into the picture. Other than not knowing how she’s going to pay her bills and feed a mutated animal, Bee doesn’t really know why she can hear PuppyCat’s high-pitched, computerized screeching as speech when no one else can. But when PuppyCat tells his new owner that he’s come up with a way for them to make money quickly and easily, Bee doesn’t think twice before saying yes, partly because they need the money, but mostly because they get the call of a good strange adventure.
As topical as a cartoon about a disgruntled, giggling magic girl and her slick animal companion felt back when Bee and PuppyCat debuted in 2013, the premise resonates even more now, which is probably why Lazy in Space spends so much time on repeating it. While most of Lazy in Space’s story is new, the first three episodes are a simultaneously shortened and expanded version of the original series as much more than a proper continuation of the story.
While a number of Lazy in Space jokes were made for shot remakes of the web series, the show takes time to make them over the course of each of its 30-minute episodes. However, because the episodes of Lazy in Space are so much longer, the show can incorporate a lot more intrigue into its story, foreshadowing its Steven Universe-esque twists with a newfound level of confidence and comfort that works in its favor.
Image: Netflix
Despite the aggressively tired, healthy aesthetic that makes it seem like a kid’s show, Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space often feels like it exists somewhere between more grown-up series like Infinity Train and (surprisingly) Broad City, as it digs into what its heroes and villains tap. Supporting characters such as Cardamon (Alexander James Rodriguez), a little prince who is also Bee’s landlord, and Toast (Terri Hawkes), a wrestler with dreams of greatness, appear initially to provide comedic relief and foreshadow bits of the mystery Lazy is in. Space revolves around . But with each of their arrivals, Lazy in Space becomes so much more explicit about what it’s really like about people like Bee learning how to take care of themselves as passionately as others.
Even if Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space doesn’t strike you as the type of show that can suck you in, the lessons about the importance of prioritizing emotional fulfillment before work are valuable lessons worth spending time on. But they’re just one of the many things you’ll probably love about the cartoon if and when you give it a shot.
Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space is now available on Netflix.