Fired on Mars is an American adult animatedscience fictioncomedy television series created by Nate Sherman and Nick Vokey for HBO Max. It is based on their 2016 animated short film of the same name.[1]
Plot
Based on a 2016 short of the same name by Nate Sherman and Nick Vokey, Fired on Mars follows Jeff Cooper, a graphic designer living and working on Mars for the start-up technology company Mars.ly in the planet's sole colony. Jeff is fired after his job is deemed redundant and with no alternative roles nor an option to return to Earth, he becomes trapped in the Mars.ly colony. He struggles to reinvent himself and find a purpose using teachings from eccentric gurus and attempts to escape the indifferent Mars.ly corporate structure while trying to maintain a long-distance relationship with his girlfriend Hannah on Earth.[1][2]
Cast
Luke Wilson as Jeff Cooper: A graphic designer on Mars who is fired from his job at Mars.ly[2]
Fired on Mars is executive produced by Sherman, Vokey, Carson Mell, Brian A. Miller, alongside supervising producer Jackie Buscarino. Grey Gersten serves as composer and Rob Getzschman as editor.[1]
After working on Mars for seven months as a graphic designer for Mars.ly., Jeff Cooper's role is deemed redundant and his employment placed "on hold". Restless, Jeff researches hobbies, taking an interest in obsessively labelling all manner of items until finally acknowledging his role is over and that his colleagues do not miss him. Jeff becomes isolated, indulging in over eating and stops caring for himself, and struggles to maintain his relationship with his girlfriend Hannah who is still on Earth. After an employee in the Dreamspiration department dies unexpectedly, Jeff tries to take her place but the job is given to Ted, a man formerly employed to be in long-term sleep in the Tank, a water filled container. Outraged at being passed over, Jeff confronts his bosses Darren and Brandon who instruct Jeff he will be going into the Tank or he will lose access to all Mars.ly. property including his apartment and he will not receive food. Jeff instead steals supplies and prepares to flee the colony onto the barren surface before receiving an accidentally-dialed call from Hannah, allowing him to overhear her colleague recommend she does not go to Mars. Jeff angrily slams his phone into the airlock door, causing an explosive decompression.
An unconscious Jeff has been rescued from the surface and placed in the Tank for two months until it malfunctions and kills him. Jeff's life is saved but he is left critically injured, and to make Jeff happy Darren and Brandon make him an intern for the Dreamspiration department, the colony's Human Resources. The department's demanding boss, Reagan, is catered for by her career-focused and dedicated assistant Jaxton who begins training Jeff. After Jaxton catches Jeff making a personal call to Hannah during business hours, he sends Jeff to see the baby, a solitary infant observed for entertainment. When Jeff's injured eye begins bleeding while waiting in line, upsetting other people in the queue, he accidentally slaps a security guard and is arrested but convinces the guard to let him go. The following day, Jeff impresses Jaxton with his duties, and Jaxton demonstrates how he manipulates the Oxygen and Nitrogen Dioxide to help keep Reagan happy and productive. Jeff bonds with Jaxton who offers to distract Reagan during her birthday so Jeff can set up a party to impress her and get promoted, however, things go wrong with the cake, flowers, and necessary supplies being unavailable. Jeff's efforts to compensate with blown up rubber gloves, hay bundles, and rum balls cause him to panic and manipulate the gasses in Reagan's office which cause an explosion when Reagan's birthday candles are lit.
3
"12 Rules for Extraordinary People"
Crystal Chesney-Thompson
Katie Greenway and Sam West
April 27, 2023 (2023-04-27)
The Dreamspiration department staff are all injured in the explosion and Jeff is at risk of up to 2 years in the tank. However, Jaxton assumes he forgot to turn off the gasses and confesses that he is at fault. Jeff unsuccessfully tries to admit his involvement and is given Jaxton's job. The Dreamspiration staff are all resentful of Jaxton and Reagan admits she has planned for him to go into the tank. Jeff meets with a drunken Jaxton and asks for the necklace Jaxton keeps, which he says contains material about various acts conducted by Mars.ly. that can be used as blackmail material. Jeff steals the necklace hoping to use it to save Jaxon but learns it contains only a video of Jaxton on a TV show as a child when he was heavily overweight, which he used as inspiration to get in shape and change his name. At a Dreamspiration support meeting, Jeff confesses he caused the explosion and is again placed in the tank. Jeff dreams of a family life with Hannah until it malfunctions again, releasing Jeff before it explodes. Jeff notices sabotage on the tank and recognizes it as Jaxton's handiwork. After getting out, Jeff contacts Hannah who is dismayed as she had hoped his time in the tank would allow her to avoid admitting that she will not be coming to Mars. Their relationship is ended and Jeff dedicates himself to self improvement, reading books, learning new languages and to play guitar, getting in shape, and taking part in new activities, but quickly regresses to eating junk food and wasting his time.
4
"Banana Express"
Andrew Han
Gonzalo Cordova and Zoe Jarman
April 27, 2023 (2023-04-27)
The stock manager Martin offers Jeff a job working under Sluggo Buchinsky. The pair are tasked with manual labor on the Martian surface moving rocks from one spot to another one nearby. Jeff observes a robot transferring a crate marked "Bananas" into a restricted cave but Sluggo instructs him to get back to work. He meets with a doctor, Crystal, who reviews the effects of the Martian surface on Jeff and Sluggo. Jeff continues his shifts, noticing the same crates being moved. During one shift Crystal invites Jeff to her apartment and he removes the protection from one finger so he can type back to her but suffers immediate frostbite, his finger turning black and eventually falling off. Crystal tells Jeff that she lost her own thumb after someone (Jeff) used all the labels and she accidentally spilt acid on it. She admits she has also just left a relationship and has a one-night stand with Jeff but no interest in pursuing a relationship, much to Jeff's disappointment. He drunk dials Jaxton who helps cheer Jeff up. Sluggo and Jeff are assigned to rat-catching duty in the colony sewers where Jeff notices another banana crate. He decides to give chase, stumbling onto the long-buried remnants of the original colony where a secret meeting is being held by a small group of colonists, including Martin, Crystal, and biologist Hubert. Jeff is captured and, overhearing they intend to kill him, escapes, ending up in the background of a live news broadcast. Darren interrogates Jeff and informs him a new tank is being built, but Jeff does not tell him about the secret meeting. Jeff is kidnapped by the group at night and offered a place among them.
5
"The God of War"
Edmund Fong
Nate Sherman and Nick Vokey
May 4, 2023 (2023-05-04)
The group, known as the Buckys, are revealed to be a group of intellectuals, scientists, engineers, academics, and poets, planning to leave the Mars.ly. colony and its corrupt ideals and found a new one dedicates to furthering humanity instead of a corporation. Jeff's increasing responsibility to the group leads to him growing distant from Jaxton and repeatedly letting him down. Sluggo gifts Jeff a prosthetic replacement finger for being respectful after Martin reassigns him to managing the feeding of locusts which will serve as a protein source in the Bucky colony but warns Jeff not to overfeed them to avoid overgrowth. The Buckys' leader, Sheila, is tasked with investigating a methane spike outside of the colony and intends to use it as an opportunity to scout a site for the Bucky colony, taking with her Martin, Don, Judtih, Crystal, and Jeff. Brandon, the Earth-based director of Mars.ly. offers Jeff the role of creative director of Marsiversary, the 30th anniversary of the colony, after their original director overshot Mars and became lost in space. The Martian excursion begins digging for an ice sheet essential to their colony as a sand storm approaches. After several failures and with time running out, Sheila resorts to using dowsing rods and eventually locates the ice. The excursion races away from the storm with the members becoming separated from each other as they take shelter. Jeff and Sheila find safety in some caves where they come across the corpses of astronauts from an unknown mission. The pair eventually rejoin the main group and begin walking home, but Sheila slips down a hill, cracking her visor and being immediately frozen to death. The group mourns Sheila and assigns Abbas as their new leader. Disturbed at what he has witnessed, Jeff takes the creative director job.
6
"Back in The High Life Again"
Zach Bellissimo and Christopher Nance
Bernardo Britto and Alexandra Johnstone
May 4, 2023 (2023-05-04)
Jeff struggles to balance his creative director role with his responsibilities to the Buckys including securing resources and feeding the locusts, causing his relationship with Jaxton to further deteriorate. Inspired by a retro pornographic magazine gifted to him by Hubert, Jeff develops a retro-style campaign for Marsiversary. He presents it to Tee, the creative director for the colony and the son of the CEO, Falco. Jeff's work is well received until Ted arrives and dislikes it, changing Tee's mind. Tee tasks Jeff with using war propaganda as a reference instead. Frustrated and on a tight schedule, Jeff decides to use Sluggo's cuckoo clock to push the locusts' feed button automatically so he can focus on Marsiversary. The Buckys call a vote to determine their own schedule for leaving the colony, having secured ample supplies concealed in the banana crates, and Jeff, not paying attention, raises his hand for the rapid two week schedule, inspiring the others to follow his lead. Crystal and Jeff having a romantic liaison while Sluggo hears his clock during rat patrol and smashes through the wall of the locust room to recover it, causing a propped up chair to fall on the feed button. Over fed, the locusts swarm and invade the entire colony, leading the Buckys to desperately attempt to conceal their resources and plans.
7
"The Fibonacci Sequence"
Zach Bellissimo, John Martinez, Christopher Nance, and Ira Sherak
Carson Mell
May 11, 2023 (2023-05-11)
Abbas and Martin destroy evidence of the Buckys but are unable to retrieve Hubert's named DNA samples of those involved because he has changed the safe password. Colony security begins investigating the old abandoned colony, discovering the Bucky's vast collection of stolen resources. Darren covers up the infestation as a breeding program that went out of control, drawing the attention of the paranoid former mechanic Trevor Sullivan, who is suspicious of various conspiracies. Blamed for the outbreak, Jeff hides from the Buckys who are being hunted as terrorists. Jeff's new Marsiversary campaign is well received by Tee. Meanwhile, Sullivan approaches Darren and convinces him to hire Sullivan to seek out the Buckys. Sullivan encounters Hubert recovering the DNA samples and gives chase, the pair getting into a fight until Hubert tricks Sullivan into a waste disposal chute. Crystal ends her relationship with Jeff because of his mistake and his return to a corporate role after he tries to convince her to stay in Mars.ly. Jeff is brought to Tee in the exclusive Centauri House nightclub where he receives a call from Hannah informing him she is coming to Mars. Tee suggests that the Mars.ly. colony is insufficient for men like them and proposes that nuclear explosions at the Martian North and South poles could mean they would be able to walk on the Martian surface without space suits, although it would kill everyone not in Tee's secret nuclear bunker.
8
"Marsiversary"
Andrew Han and John Martinez
Nate Sherman and Nick Vokey
May 11, 2023 (2023-05-11)
More equipment is stolen from Mars.ly. by an unknown party. Brandon, frustrated at Darren's failure to manage the situation, fires him. Sullivan escapes the waste disposal area and returns to Darren to reveal Hubert's complicity. Darren does not believe him but allows him to investigate Hubert's apartment where Sullivan takes Hubert's aftershave. Darren has security attempt to arrest Sullivan who retreats back into the waste chute. Hubert goes into hiding, but Sullivan uses Hubert's aftershave to help a scent-tracking robot locate him. Crystal searches for Jeff but is unable to find him. She takes a letter to Jaxton from Jeff's room and gives it to Jaxton. As Mars.ly. and Earth prepare to celebrate Marsiversary, Crystal sneaks into the party and one of Tee's entourage mentions Jeff was going to rub Santa's belly, a ritual he and Sluggo performed for luck before going onto the surface, and Crystal runs to the airlock. On Earth, Falco gives a presentation and introduces Jeff's segment but Jeff does not appear. Instead, a video plays promoting moving outside of the colony and criticizing Mars.ly., much to Falco's annoyance. A despondent Darren puts himself in the tank. Jaxton reads the letter from Jeff, asking him to come help with Jeff's new project. Crystal arrives at the airlock moments after Jeff leaves the colony in a truck loaded with supplies.
Reception
Slash Film called it "the best new adult animation series of 2023"––"pushing the boundaries of what an adult animated series can be" and "a worthy successor to a show like Bojack Horseman."[3]Inverse's Jake Kleinman praised the show as "a lot of fun".[4]
