I loved "The Brak Show" volume 1. I gave it high marks and plenty of praise. And I waited for volume 2, and waited, and waited. FINALLY it came out. And boy was it ever not worth the wait! Huh? Did I just say what you think I said? Yep, I sure did. Go back and read it again if you don't believe me.

But WHY would I say such a thing when I’m obviously a Brakaholic? I mean ever since "Cartoon Planet" I have loved this character, and "The Brak Show" was one of my favorite cartoon comedies when it began. Then it went downhill like a skier that had too many bran muffins before the big race.

The show is a sit-com parody much like "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" parodies talk shows and Harvey Birdman parodies courtroom dramas. Brak is a young man …er… alien cat-like thingamawhosit, living with his parents. His best friend is Zorak, an evil mantis who is a bad influence on innocent little Brak.

The first mistake the show makes is dialing down the Brak and Zorak content. I think George Lowe as Dad is extremely funny. His little stories that make no sense and off the wall comments have me in stitches quite often. Mom is the straight-man, so to speak, for Dad’s silliness. These are fun supporting characters, but they should be supporting. Brak and Zorak are the stars and are what drew me, and most other viewers I know, to the show. Too many of these new episodes feature Mom and Dad prominently with very little Brak and Zorak. In fact, Zorak is completely absent from a couple of episodes and has no lines in at least one other one. This severely hurts.

The next problem is the new character Clarence. He’s a pudgy alien boy who idolizes Brak. He’s fine for an episode or two, but he goes beyond that and starts encroaching on the already shortened screentime for Brak and Zorak. He begins replacing Brak as the innocent character of the show which leads to my next issue. Brak is much less innocent than he has been up to this point. I’m not sure if this was intended and thus created the need for Clarence or if the new character just kind of pushed Brak to change. Either way it makes Brak less endearing.

Another change is the voice of Mom. Marsha Crenshaw had a sweet, all-American voice. One reason I liked this so much was that it fit with the classic sit-com parody idea. It was also extremely funny to hear her belt out some of the strange lines she did in that syrupy voice of hers. She is replaced by Joanna Daniel whose voice is less sticky-sweet and carries a British accent. I have nothing against Joanna, her voice just doesn’t fit the situation or the comedy as well as Marsha’s did. In addition, it takes a couple of episodes for her to settle in so a number of the early lines sound read off the page instead of natural.

If that weren't enough the stories barely even deserve to be called “stories” at all. The show has been silly and random, no question there. I mean Brak walks around wearing his dead grandfather's nose in an effort to get girls to notice him, Dad's lion mane comes out of nowhere, and the whole Carmine as Zorak's voice thing? And yet there was still a cohesive story more or less. This last set of episodes is more like throwing a bucket of water at a cup hoping enough lands in it to fill it up. On a couple of occasions this more or less works, but after a while the sudden randomness gets old especially with the other weaknesses I've mentioned.