Starcop

**Starcop** is a sci-fi crime comedy-drama series that serves as an indirect successor to Manifest Extraterrestrial.

## Synopsis

Universe City: a sprawling asteroid-set megalopolis of self-help gurus, young actresses, and declining movie stars, formerly the peak of intergalactic colonies, now fighting tooth and nail to stay relevant in an age of financial dilemma and shoddy reality shows. Amidst the confusion, three extremely distinct crooks plan their individual schemes to survive and make a profit: the budding street crook Skelter, presently looking for solid shots and serious cash; resigned bank robber and scammer One-Eyed Willy whose retirement isn't half as bright as he dreamed it would be; and Green Phantom, an aggressive serial killer driven by his belief that the next prominent opportunity and an affordable way to get loaded will come soon. Out of options, the team gambles it all in several brave and deadly robberies that could get them enough bank to sustain their financial stability to their last breath. Along the way, the trio finds themselves involved in the craziest elements of the criminal underworld, the politics of Universe City, the entertainment business, and the general fight to persist in a terrible town where they can't trust one another.

## Plot

One-Eyed Willy, Green Phantom, and Fireball participate in a failed heist in Universe City, resulting in all three faking their deaths. Nine years later, Willy is living under witness protection with his family. Across town, gangster Skelter is working for a corrupt alien vehicle seller and meets Willy while trying to fraudulently retake his son's car; the two later befriend each other. When Willy finds his wife having intercourse with another man, Skelter and Willy pursue the man to a palace, which Willy demolishes in rage. The owner of the mansion reveals herself as the paramour of Squilliam, an alien drug lord who demands payment to avoid further violence. Willy must return to a criminal lifestyle to get cash, enlisting Skelter and Phantom as accessories.

## Characters

* Green Phantom: Green Phantom is a relentless, self-important, unpredictable, and psychopathic member of the Wormhole Gang who is quick to kill with little remorse. However, Phantom is honest about most things he does and rarely lies, which he often points out when others do so. Voiced by Leonardo DiCaprio.
* One-Eyed Willy: One-Eyed Willy is a somewhat confused alien, even bewildered by his own personality. Willy spends an extraordinary amount of time thinking and reminiscing. Nevertheless, it also forces Willy to feel incredibly melancholy and puzzled as he ponders why things don't go as he planned they would. Willy is obsessed with materialism, which is why he constantly robs asteroid banks. Voiced by Hugh Jackman.
* Skelter: Skelter is determined and very excited about committing crimes that he has yet to do. Skelter is also cool, intelligent, responsible, and hopeful. Skelter is one of the youngest members of the Wormhole Gang and is often mentored by One-Eyed Willy.
* The Godfather: The Godfather is the leader of the Wormhole Gang and a Headcrab-like creature. The Godfather must kill his hosts before using their bodies, which he has to do quite frequently as a result of the corpses gradually decaying. Despite his vengeful nature, the Godfather has genius-level intellect, masterful expertise in technology and computing, and a distinctive eye for detail, which is what makes him an excellent director of the various heists the gang has pulled off throughout his life. The Godfather is also a keen gamer and a fan of Penance Payer: Spec Ops 14.
* Helter: Helter is Skelter's friend who is "a good kind of insane" and also quite playful, in contrast to Skelter. Helter is extremely proud of his Gorebic descent and uses this to describe himself and is the basis of many of his one-liners. While Helter highly resembles Skelter, their body shapes are different; Helter is shorter (although still above average) and sturdy, while Helter is towering and slender.
* Orange Man Bad: Orange Man Bad is an investigator of the Federal Office of Secret Service and a great ally of Willy. Orange Man Bad arranged Willy's witness protection and also keeps a secret relationship with Greeny
* Arms: Arms is a very achieved yet profoundly depraved agent of the FOSS. Exploiting his place as Orange Man Bad's higher-up, Arms uses Willy, Skelter, and Greeny to aid him in weakening the Bureau of International Affairs. Arms is the secondary villain of Starcop.
* C.B.T.: C.B.T. is a trillionaire business magnate with a post in several trades across Universe City, including the Incommodum Guard. Introduced by Arms, Willy, Skelter, and Greeny act on his orders but immediately question him. C.B.T. is the main villain of Starcop.
* Skull Kid: Skull Kid is the protagonist of Starcop: Season 2. Skull Kid is a spiderman and fought in the Ettercap Conflicts, likely for the Arachnid Republic, although it isn't confirmed which side he battled for. Charmed to Andromeda City after his cousin Sansi guarantees him a perfect life, Skull Kid soon regrets his immigration. Skull Kid is a grave, patient, self-reflective person and has a deep mind and power ethical direction compared to the leads of the previous season.
* Green Guy
* C.P.
* Pete Piranha

## Parents Guide

### **Sex & Nudity**

Moderate

* We see nude men, but rarely in a sexual context. No vaginal nudity is depicted at any point.
* A sex scene shows a male alien's butt while he's having sex with a woman but the latter is fully clothed.
* We see strippers perform erotic dances; there's no nudity outside of a scene depicting a topless lap dance but the strippers are always seen scantily clad.
* A naked man tries to rape a woman but fails (the woman is brought to safety).
* Semen stains are seen on an anime body pillow and a stuffed toy.
* Dozens of sex jokes are present in the series.
* A young woman is about to star in a pornographic film but is taken out of it (no nudity or sex is seen).
* There are humorous sex scenes with audible moaning but the characters are fully clothed.

### **Violence & Gore**

Severe

* Some of the violence is graphic but most of it isn’t as bad as movies like *Deadpool*. There is violence and fighting in every episode of the show, although most acts of violence are played for comedy and exaggerated.
* People are shot to death by sci-fi weapons (i.e. laser blasters, freeze rays, sniper rifles, missiles), including civilians. While the weapons generally fire laser beams instead of bullets, bloodshed is still depicted. There is very little dismemberment or gore in the series, although it is extremely graphic when it shows up.
* There is an interrogation scene where a man is tortured by having teeth removed, getting waterboarded, electrocuted, and having a pipe wrench smashed against his genitals; this scene is lengthy and intense.
* Large amounts of blood splatter are seen after people get hit by spaceships and other vehicles.
* One scene shows a man getting shot in the head by a freeze ray, causing bloody pulp and brain matter to come out.
* In another scene, a woman gets sucked in the jet engine of a spaceship, ripping her to millions of meaty bits and an enormous amount of blood. This scene is very graphic, gory, and disturbing.
* There's a very bloody and painful scene where Green Phantom forces another criminal to the ground and stomps on his chest with a spiked boot many times, crushing it to a bleeding paste. Blood pools all over the ground and there is tissue, flesh, and bone visible in the man's mutilated torso as Phantom makes furious threats towards him. The criminal's girlfriend mourns his decease and Phantom removes a piece of the man's heart from his boot later on.
* Children are never killed, outside of an in-universe photo of a gory car accident. One character frequently kills innocents, however.
* An alien is shown getting burned to death and screaming in anguish.

### **Profanity**

Severe

* "F\*ck" and it’s derivatives are said over 1,000 times over the course of the two seasons. Dozens of other profanities, such as "shit", "bitch", "ass", “dick", "prick", "piss", "hell", "damn", "c\*ck", "Jesus Christ", and "pussy" are used several times throughout. "C\*nt" (only said six times) and "n\*\*ger/n\*\*ga" are also used as well.
* Keep in mind that the full series is over fourteen hours long, which makes the profanity less frequent than movies like *Sausage Party*.
* Raw sewage and waste are splattered on a worker's body in one scene.
* Caricatures of racial and ethnic groups are depicted at certain points.
* Insults like oaf, moron, brainless, idiotic, bitch, butt, jerk-off, and "girl scout" are also thrown around but these are the least of your concerns in this show.

### **Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking**

Severe

* Marijuana and tobacco are smoked throughout the show.
* Characters drink to excess and display associated behaviors. Characters drive and fly spaceships while drunk.
* The main cast participates in drug deals and trafficking. A few scenes show characters snorting cocaine and doing other illegal drugs (i.e. peyote).

### **Frightening/Intense Scenes**

Severe

* It's worth noting that while the show is severe in regards to content, it's pretty tame when compared to a lot of other shows, although it's still fairly adult.
* The show focuses more on black comedy and satire than intense moments, and the tone is generally extremely comical and wacky.
* Some of the robberies and firefights get intense. It's not clear if everyone in the Wormhole Gang will survive to the end of the show.
* The aforementioned interrogation scene is incredibly violent and disturbing.

### **Classifcation**

* Australia: MA15+ for strong themes, drug use, violence, sex, and coarse language
* China: Banned
* Russia: 18+
* Serbia: 12
* Sweden: 15
* United Kingdom: 15 (most episodes)
* United Kingdom: 18 (The Phantom Strider)
* United Kingdom: 18 for very strong language and hard drug use (Season 1)
* United States: TV-MA LSV

## Tropes

* Acceptable Targets: The show is a gigantic satire of late 2010s culture, notably using Stereotypes for both comedy and social commentary, so the show's Take That moments shouldn't get taken at face value.
	+ Shocking almost nobody, the Starcops themselves are a parody of American police, portrayed as excessively cruel, perpetrators of Fantastic Racism, and unapologetically evil.
	+ The Millenials and, to some extent, Gen Z (people in their 20s and 30s in the late 2010s) get depicted as spoiled, moronic, hypocritical, slothful Manchildren who are excessively entitled. In fact, Abel Clops represents the least favorable traits of the young Millennials and older members of Gen Z, specifically those that people highlighted in the 2010s.
	+ Political fanatics are obviously going to serve as the target of several jokes. Invoked with the background characters who often call each other "Conservatard douchebags" and "fucking Libtards" in order to make Greeny Phantom killing them seem less wicked than it would otherwise.
	+ Anti-white hate, since it's personified by Schell and Bohn-Krystal.
* All Bikers Are Hells Angels: The Star Bikers, to some degree.
* Alternative Character Interpretation: Invoked; the Starcops are easy to see as malicious oppressors while the Wormhole Gang and Star Bikers are interpretable as virtuous renegades instead of anti-heroes.
	+ The Starcop is also readable as a team of xenophobic, anti-extraterrestrial racists since humans exclusively make up their ranks, while the show's criminals are all aliens. Helped by the show coming out only a year after the George Floyd protests.
* Always Chaotic Evil: Downplayed; while the aliens who play a role are morally questionable at best, extraterrestrial citizens are abundant in the background.
* Ambiguous Disorder:
	+ There is something weird about One-Eyed Willy. Willy often uses excessive force when dealing with ordinary responsibilities, is downright psychopathic in family matters, and suffers from a Lack of Empathy. Willy's shrink gives him various diagnoses over the course of the series, going from A Nice Guy with a bad life at home to a sociopath AND a psychopath (and a sexual deviant).
	+ Skelter. Despite being the Only Sane Man (rather, the Only Not-Evil Man), he's incapable of forming attachments to people; Helter is his only friend when the series begins and Skelter shows disdain for him almost all the time (Skelter is only friends with Helter so that the former isn't alone) and he only starts a relationship with Freyja to satisfy his carnal desires. Skelter obviously has an enormous Lack of Empathy but he is self-controlled and formal, unlike true psychopaths. As such, Skelter's mental illness or lack thereof is left to interpretation.
	+ Green Phantom clearly has dementia, but it isn't specified where his condition comes from:
		- Given his delusions and uncanny behavior, Phantom has explicit signs of schizophrenia, an extreme psychiatric disorder identified by a diminished connection with reality.
		- Phantom's anxiety, impulses, mood swings, drug addiction, and emotional dependence on Willy, coupled with his enormous phobia of abandonment imply that he suffers from emotionally unstable personality disorder AND intermittent explosive disorder.
		- Interestingly, Phantom has signs of psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder (The Sociopath), but the problem is that he's deranged and lacks moral agency.
* Elites Are More Glamorous: The Starcop Commandos have helmets similar to the Spartans from *Halo* but with intimidating crimson visors. This is as opposed to the basic units, who wear leather aviator helmets with breathing masks.
* Everything is an iPod in the Future: Most of the spaceships, but the Starcop ones are the most prominent.
* Pimp Duds: Many of the alien criminals wear these. The Godfather is probably the most unfitting one.
* Prison Ship
* Sealed Evil in a Can: Several Starcop ships have stasis pods, almost always with a prisoner inside.
* Space Base: The Starcop police stations, among other locations.
* Space Police: What else could the Starcop be?
* What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids? It's both unusual and revolting how many parents think it's okay for their children to watch the show, with these mistakes seemingly tied ubiquitously to the CGI animation.

## Songs

* Jihad Me - RuckaRuckaAli
* Amoeba - Adolescents
* The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)" - The Greg Kihn Band
* Black Velvet - Alannah Myles
* Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival
* We Built This City - Starship
* Roundabout - Yes
* Crime Pays - Freddie Gibbs and Madlib
* Swimming Pools (Drank) - Kendrick Lamar
* D-I-V-O-R-C-E - Tammy Wynette
* The General Lee - Johnny Cash