Dan Vs. is one of TV’s best animated series, and you probably totally missed it

Dan Vs. was a modern classic of animation, but TV viewers have yet to fully appreciate The Hub’s series featuring Curtis Armstrong at his absolute best.

No animated series has ever been as unique as Dan Vs., which makes it all the more mind-blowing that most people have never heard of Dan Vs. But we’ll explain it all to you, and prove why you should watch the show immediately in this week’s Deeper Cut.

Animation has evolved just as much as the rest of TV over the last decade, and the wide variety of animated series now goes far beyond cartoons aimed at children. But there’s never been anything as spot-on as Dan Vs., which aired on The Hub for three seasons between 2011-2013 and which no one would ever confuse with a children’s cartoon.

Here’s the story: Dan (voiced by the absolutely perfect Curtis Armstrong, whose many credits in TV and film include his roles in Revenge of the Nerds and Supernatural) is mad at everything. He rants, he raves—and he plots revenge against each of his frustrations, usually of the outlandish variety.

Dan’s only friends are his cat Mr. Mumbles (who happens to be a girl) and Chris (Dave Foley from NewsRadio and The Kids in the Hall), whom he met at summer camp and enlists as his partners in crime. Chris’s wife, Elise (voiced by Criminal Minds star Paget Brewster) attempts to keep the duo out of trouble while also working for a secret government agency.

It’s a completely different premise for an animated TV show, and it’s also completely perfect.

Everyone gets frustrated by aspects of everyday life; Dan just actually does something about them. Among the foes he faces in various episodes are the DMV, his boss, traffic, reality TV, jury duty, and stupidity. Yep, there’s a whole episode about how people are getting stupider.

These are all common things that make people crazy, and that’s when Dan Vs. is at its best. Dan actually is crazy, and so he gets to say and do the things many people dream of doing… and then some. He gets to yell at the completely unhelpful DMV clerk, rant about how reality TV is taking over the airwaves, and try to take down his boss. It might be the most universal TV show in any format because everyone can identify with where Dan is coming from, and that makes viewers immediately invest in his adventures.

Creators Dan Mandel and Chris Pearson get most of their humor from these universal situations and the friendship between the characters of Dan and Chris (which as their names indicate, they are based loosely on themselves). Even though Dan is full of rage and Chris is incredibly dense, there is a real friendship between them that stands the test of all the outbursts and illegal activities.

It’s important because that bond gives Dan Vs. depth beyond being just a revenge-fantasy run amok. Fans care about the characters, and Chris and Elise are also there to haul Dan in when he has to be stopped… which does happen on occasion.

That’s because Dan’s ways of getting even are beyond anything anyone else would think of. He’s almost always seen in a T-shirt that says “JERK,” so that gives you an indication of where his head is at. Dan has to go on a camping trip? He plots to create a hurricane, kidnap Chris, and unleash a swarm of killer bees — in that order.

The show adds to its humor with outlandish developments that could only work on an animated series. In “Dan Vs. The DMV,” when Dan’s threats don’t work, he finds himself in an underground dungeon where he has to defeat a fire-breathing dragon to get his license renewed. And there’s “Dan Vs. The DInosaur,” where his enemy is a literal Tyrannosaurus Rex.

These plot twists are funny in their own right, and they keep the show going forward. It’s being able to do something over-the-top that makes this work, as nobody would watch a show about Dan asking to see a manager or filing a petition.

And while there aren’t dragons in the basement of the DMV or dinosaurs being engineered by the government, these setups show amazing creativity on the part of the Dan Vs. writers — not just for creating them, but because they also have to get Dan out of them.

An even bigger strength, though, is the outstanding voice cast. Curtis Armstrong does fantastic work as the voice of Dan, considering that the role requires him to be yelling more than he talks, which is incredibly demanding for a voice actor.

He earned an Emmy nomination for the role in 2013, and should have won for how he pours every ounce of anger and frustration into each of the tirades that hold the show together. But Armstrong also nails Dan’s dry, sarcastic humor and his adorable relationship with Mr. Mumbles, showing how Dan is more than his anger.

The cat is also voiced by Paget Brewster, whose Elise is the straight woman for Dan Vs. and keeps the show anchored with a calm authority, while Foley is charming and endearing as Chris gets pulled back and forth between the two of them. All three main cast members complement each other well, and guest voices on the show include legends like Maurice LaMarche, Mark Hamill, Felicia Day, Henry Winkler and Tom Kenny.

But Dan Vs. is at its best when it’s at its most mundane, generating laughs from real problems and idiosyncrasies, and unleashing Armstrong on things that ought to be yelled about. It’s a welcome diversion from all the horrible things going on in the world, even today… perhaps even more so now because Dan provides a sort of therapeutic outlet for everyone’s frustrations. Many of the things he got upset at six years ago are still problems today (except for maybe New Mexico, Canada and that mall Santa).

But chances are you’ve never known of Dan Vs. before this column. It was on The Hub, a cable channel primarily aimed at young children, among shows like My Little Pony (which led to some amusing cross-promotion). Then in 2013, it just ceased to exist. Star Curtis Armstrong broke the news on Facebook after months of even him being kept in the dark. Then The Hub disappeared, rebranded as Discovery Family the following year. All of this added up to Dan Vs. largely slipping through the cracks. And it shouldn’t have.

Dan Vs. was a genuinely original idea, based on universal annoyances that every TV viewer could empathize with and laugh at, brought to life by writers with imagination and a voice cast who threw everything they had at it. It’s a treasure, and luckily the complete series is out on digital platforms, so more people can discover it. Because once you meet Dan, you’ll never forget him.

All three seasons of Dan Vs. are available on iTunes, Amazon Video and YouTube. Find the latest Deeper Cut every Wednesday in the Entertainment category at FanSided.