Milo Murphy's Law
Entry updated 4 July 2022. Tagged: TV.
US animated tv series (2018-2019). Disney Television Animation (see Disney on Television). Created by Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. Directed by Bob Bowen and Robert F. Hughes. Writers include Jim Bernstein, Scott D Peterson and Joshua Pruett. Voice cast includes Sabrina Carpenter, Mekai Curtis, Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, Kate Micucci, Dan Povenmire and "Weird Al" Yankovic. 39 22-minute episodes (usually with two stories), plus one double-length episode and one short. Colour.
Milo Murphy (Yankovic) is the living embodiment of Murphy's Law, "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong", a result of being surrounded by "negative probability ions" (see Imaginary Science). But being unlucky doesn't faze this thirteen-year-old, who remains chipper throughout. He is capable, inventive and always comes prepared, so can ameliorate the worst effects of his ill-fortune; he is also grateful that his bad luck makes life far more exciting than the mundane reality experienced by his peers (when they are not avoiding becoming collateral damage). Milo is also, in his own way, lucky: falling off a cliff on the way to school, he lands on a UFO and the Aliens obligingly use their transporter (see Matter Transmission) to get him to class on time. His best friends are Melissa Chase (Carpenter) and Zack Underwood (Curtis).
Milo's favourite TV show is The Dr Zone Files (see Doctor Who), about a time-travelling (see Time Travel) Alien Cyborg and his time ape. The programme, we learn, was inspired by a pair of bickering time agents (see Time Police): Cavendish (Marsh) and Dakota (Povenmire) – who are involved in most of season one's genre storylines. Their equipment turns Milo's and his friends' parents into children (see Rejuvenation) and, on another occasion, accidentality creates a world without Milo (see Alternate History) but with talking squirrels. Cavendish repeatedly dies, with Dakota going back in time to swap places with his past self to save his friend – this past self goes to live on an island filled with his predecessors (see Time Paradox). When the pair take Milo to their own time, 2175, they discover that pistachio nuts have mutated into humanoid creatures and have conquered the planet. Other adventures involve sentient blobs, Robots and an Antigravity device.
Season one ends with the Pistachions replacing present-day humanity with themselves (echoing the Invasion of the Body Snatchers films). All hope rests with the inventor of Time Travel, revealed to be Dr Heinz Doofenshmirtz (Povenmire) from the creators' previous series Phineas and Ferb (2007-2015); season two's first episode is a crossover with that show. Doofenshmirtz becomes a regular for the rest of the season, moving into the Murphys' home; another change is Cavendish and Dakota being fired and joining P.I.G. (the Paranormal Investigation Group), then being assigned to its janitorial Division, also called P.I.G. (Purgers of Intergalactic Garbage). Stories include a Future War when – after a programming dial is mistakenly set to "Destroy All Humans" instead of "Field Mice Population Control" – thousands of owl-shaped drones attack humanity; fortunately a mysterious sentient crock-pot of goulash saves them – a combination of Dr Doofenshmirtz's Inventions going off at once and a time capsule. Aliens abduct Milo, replacing him with an "organic Android" grown from his DNA (see Genetic Engineering); communication is hampered by a malfunctioning Universal Translator giving Milo the impression they want to eat him (actually, they just want his help). He escapes into the vents and several aliens follow: the Cliché of a monster in the vents picking off humans is reversed and Parodied.
Though there is much enjoyable Humour, the series suffers from a bland central cast: Milo is amiably forgettable, Zack just forgettable and Melissa more of an elder-sister character; Milo's actual elder sister, the bubbly Sarah (Micucci), would probably have made a better sidekick. Season two compensates for this by making Cavendish and Dakota regulars and bringing in Doofenshmirtz, resulting in more of an ensemble cast. Other characters from Phineas and Ferb also make regular guest appearances. [SP]
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