The Pentaverate

2022 - 5 - 6

Post cover — Image courtesy of "Vulture"

Mike Myers Returns, Cautiously, With The Pentaverate (Vulture)

There is no denying the endurance of the humble poop joke. Next to death and sex, it stands constant. Jokes about race and gender may rise and fall.

In a similar way, the Pentaverate may be a secret cabal, but its members are also nice. That’s the resilience of juvenile humor: It never ages. More than anything else, The Pentaverate is a more anxious TV-show version of Austin Powers — not the franchise but the character. Ken manages to infiltrate the Pentaverate’s headquarters, which sets off an increasingly absurd and rapidly developing chain of unfolding secrets and silly miscommunications. There are long exchanges between characters that circle several times around a suggestively named hotel, attempts at “Who’s on first?” patter, a lingering shot of a sasquatch defecating in a hallway. You may also be unsurprised to hear that the station is called CACA News.

Mike Myers Attempts Comeback with Inconsistent The Pentaverate ... (Roger Ebert)

Clearly once conceived as a movie, “The Pentaverate” is now a six-episode Netflix comedy series with Myers himself playing more than a half-dozen characters.

And one almost hopes that “The Pentaverate” is successful enough to bring Myers back to a project with collaborators who know how to rein in his wilder instincts and focus his often-very-sharp humor. And yet there are moments in “The Pentaverate” that work. In the pilot, The Pentaverate is revealed as an ancient society who has been trying to influence the world for generations—in a funny bit, Jeremy Irons introduces each episode as himself, varying the background details each time. Myers’ best character in the project is Ken Scarborough, the kind of sweet Canadian local news journalist who has never really broken a big story as he does bland human interest pieces. Clearly once conceived as a movie, “The Pentaverate” is now a six-episode Netflix comedy series with Myers himself playing more than a half-dozen characters. The real conspiracy is how often talented comedians go to Netflix and can’t find the rhythm they did elsewhere—look at Judd Apatow with “ The Bubble” or Steve Carell with “Space Force.” There’s something just off with these projects, almost as if comedy needs to work within restrictions to be effective.

The Pentaverate review – Mike Myers is back, and he's still an ... (The Guardian)

The Austin Powers star plays almost every character in this sweet, silly, charmingly harmless comedy about a secret society – when he's not joined by the ...

We are informed of this at the beginning of every episode via a voiceover by Jeremy Irons, enjoying himself hugely in maximum Jeremy Irons mode.) It has worked behind the scenes for the good of humanity ever since. One for all the fans of country singer Crystal Gayle, there. This includes most of the Pentaverate, a secret society that is, unlike most secret societies, benevolent. Those who feel the same will fall like ravening beasts on The Pentaverate (Netflix). This is a six-episode piece of accomplished idiocy by Mike Myers, who has been specialising in such since the early 90s via Saturday Night Live, Wayne’s World, Austin Powers, the Shrek franchise and assorted other ventures. Billie Eilish is a future member – she will join in 2047.

Mike Myers' 'The Pentaverate' Is Just the Latest Example of Netflix's ... (Variety)

Netflix's 'The Pentaverate' stars Mike Myers as about a dozen characters in a limited series that is basically just one bloated movie.

Making sense of “The Pentaverate” simply isn’t the point of “The Pentaverate,” which exists to let Mike Myers do whatever he wants almost 15 years after he last starred in a project of his own. The very charming Lydia West (“It’s a Sin”) gets the closest to playing a real character, but still deserves better than the one she got. With “The Pentaverate,” which dropped its six episodes on May 5, Myers gets to play as many characters as he likes in a story about a centuries-old cabal resisting discovery.

Stream It Or Skip It: 'The Pentaverate' On Netflix, Where Mike Myers ... (Decider)

In the first episode of this limited series, Mike Myers plays eight different characters. Yes, you read that correctly.

None of the characters that he plays, with the possible exception of Ken, has anything resembling the most surface of character traits. The gags are either super-subtle, like the fuzzy, old-TV-esque picture of Ken and Reilly while they’re in Canada, or groan-inducing, like “Big Dick’s Half-Way Inn.” When a gag does land, he pounds out its chuckleworthiness by doing another minute of dialogue that underlines that gag. He almost turns down the offer to join the Pentaverate, but the alternative is taking poison, so, he takes the lesser of two evils. It’s a not-funny exercise in ego by Myers that strains to tell jokes that are about as fresh as a week-old avocado. Even when he hosted The Gong Show, he did so in character. Meanwhile, in Canada, where everything is fuzzier, veteran good-news reporter Ken Scarborough (Myers) finds out from the exceedingly nice news director at CACA that it’s time for him to retire, unless he can come up with a big story.

'The Pentaverate': Mike Myers makes another multi-character ... (Chicago Sun-Times)

Comic loads on the prosthetics to play eight roles in a profoundly unfunny series of sex and poop jokes.

Following the death of tech genius Jason Eccleston (Myers), Clark has been brought in to spearhead a plan to end global warming. The convoluted and goofy plot holds little or no interest and is basically just an excuse for some fish-in-a-barrel humor poking fun at conspiracy theorists and disinformation on the Internet—and the aforementioned and relentless barrage of uninspired jokes about flatulence, sexual organs, penetration, bodily functions, circumcision, vomiting, you get the idea. (It’s almost never a good sign when characters laugh at their own jokes or the one-liners delivered by others.) … [Its members include] the queen, the Vatican, the Gettys, the Rothschilds and Colonel Sanders before he [croaked]. ” It hardly matters. - Shep Gordon, legendary rock ’n’ roll manager to Alice Cooper, Blondie, Pink Floyd, et al.

The Pentaverate ending explained as Ken and Reilly fight to save ... (digitalspy.com)

Mike Myers is back with Netflix conspiracy comedy, The Pentaverate. Playing eight characters! The story delves into an ultra-secret society's weird ...

The pure soul in question is that of Ken Scarborough, which is the reason Reilly was given the mission to bring him to the Pentaverate. Reilly is heartbroken to discover she essentially brought Ken as a sacrifice and begs him not to do it. The remaining members of Pentaverate decide to destroy the group as it is not the positive force that it once was. Most storm out – good on you, Your Maj – but a few remain, and the bids start in the trillions. Soon Lansdowne takes his shot and throws himself out of the pit too, dragging Bruce along with him with one last cry of “but her e-mails”. Pentaverate member Australian media mogul Bruce Baldwin (who is definitely not inspired by Rupert Murdoch) is due to give a speech.