Adult Swim’s Mr. Pickles ran for four seasons and 31 episodes, from September 21, 2014, to November 18, 2019. It was created by Will Carsola and Dave Stewart, and it is a slasher sitcom about a border collie who kills people and a 6-year-old boy who loves him.
Trailer, via Eric Lynch.
The Goodman Family and Old Town
The show is set in Old Town, a small, old-fashioned community. Tommy Goodman is 6, innocent and dimwitted. He spends his days romping around town with Mr. Pickles. Unknown to Tommy, to the rest of the family, and to everyone except Tommy’s grandfather, the dog slips away to kill and mutilate his countless victims.
That is the engine of the series, and it never stalls. Mr. Pickles reassembles and resurrects his victims, who then live in his underground lair and do his bidding. He genuinely cares for Tommy, and he harms anyone who threatens the boy, gets in his way, or annoys him.
The cast is small and does heavy lifting. Stewart voices Mr. Pickles, Floyd and Linda. Kaitlyn Robrock voices Tommy. Brooke Shields voices Beverly Goodman, Jay Johnston voices Stanley Goodman, and Frank Collison voices Henry Gobbleblobber. Carsola voices the Sheriff, Boss and a deer hunter.
A Sheriff, a Grandpa, and a Lair
Old Town is riddled with crime, and the sheriff is dimwitted. Mr. Pickles brings some order to the place, which is the show’s best joke: the satanic dog is the closest thing this town has to law enforcement.
Grandpa is the only person who knows. That single witness keeps the premise tense for four seasons, because the family never catches on and the dog never stops.
Two Dogs, Two Jobs
| Character | Voice | Role in Old Town |
|---|---|---|
| Mr. Pickles | Dave Stewart | Satanic border collie; kills, resurrects victims, protects Tommy |
| Tommy Goodman | Kaitlyn Robrock | 6-year-old boy; unaware of the dog’s nature |
The table is the whole show in two rows. One character does the killing; the other does the loving, and neither knows about the other.
The Finale and the Spin-Off
The first episode of season 4 was a surprise series finale. It replaced the show with a spin-off and sequel series titled Momma Named Me Sheriff.
That is a strange way to end a series, and it is the right one. Mr. Pickles never had a finale built for closure. It had a dog, a boy, and a body count, and it stopped when it stopped.
The show’s TMDB audience score is 8.1/10 from 869 votes, and that number holds up. Mr. Pickles is crude, cheap-looking and repetitive by design, and it works because the joke is never the gore. The joke is the gap between what Tommy sees and what the audience sees, and the show protects that gap for 31 episodes without blinking.
Brooke Shields and Jay Johnston play the parents as ordinary people who have no idea what is in their house. That is the quiet part of the show, and it is what makes the loud part land.
Mr. Pickles is not for everyone. It is a slasher sitcom with a satanic dog, and it earns the label. But it knows exactly what it is, and it does it well for four seasons.
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