It has been a day now and many have an odd way to classify this latest mission by Netflix to produce a rated-R comedy. This latest stunt has been in the works for a while and Agent Elvis has caused divisive attention to itself for many reasons. Overall, this in effect had many to flock to social media expressing their enthusiasm, confusion, and judgment. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “the best thing about Netflix’s Agent Elvis is that no matter how outlandish and ridiculous it is, it’s all true.” The setup of the overall plot for these episodes has some real-life event that it loosely takes inspiration from. With that logic, many count this fact as a reason why the show stays true in its own unique way.
Agent Elvis tells the adventure of the king of Rock’n’Roll himself, Elvis Presly, played by Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club, Mud) as a spy. Right from Netflix’s logline, “Elvis trades in his jumpsuit for a jetpack when he joins a secret government spy program to help battle the dark forces that threaten the country.”
The show was developed and produced by Elvis’ ex-wife, Priscilla Presley (The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, The Smell of Fear) in collaboration with Rock singer John Eddie via. Deadline. Mike Arnold (The Litigator, Homeschooled) is the co-showrunner and executive producer along with McConaughey. They would be joined by Kevin Noel (Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, Valkyrie), Chris Prynoski (The Legend of Vox Machina, Motorcity), and Shannon Prynoski (Her, Big Mouth) to name a few.
McConaughey stars as Elvis Presley who in this series visits then President Richard M. Nixon and is drafted as an honorary U.S. Government Agent. According to Collider, they reference a note reportedly written by Elvis stating, “Sir, I can and will be of any service that I can to help the country out. I have done an in-depth study of drug abuse and Communist brainwashing techniques, and I am right in the middle of the whole thing, where I can and will do the most good.”
Joining McConaughey would be the main cast for the series. Kaitlin Olson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Brickleberry) stars as Cece Ryder, another agent who partners up with Elvis and tags along on secret missions across the country. Johnny Knoxville (Men in Black II, The Ringer) plays Bobby Ray, the loyal sidekick to Elvis and is described as a funny buffoon and dim-whit. Tom Kenny (Spongebob Squarepants, Adventure Time) will be Scatter, Elvis’ sidekick who just so happened to be a Chimpanzee who worked at NASA. Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Armor Wars) is Commander, the head honcho of the TCB who keeps tabs on many of the agency’s missions. Niecy Nash (Uncorked, When They See Us, Mrs. America) stars as Bertie, who acts as motherly figure towards Elvis. Priscilla Presley will star as herself as she was married to the late king of Rock’n’Roll from 1967-1973. via Collider.
Joining them would include the following: Jason Mantzoukas (The Good Place, Parks and Recreation) will guest star as Howard Hughes, a businessman, pilot, and film producer. Ego Nwodim (SNL, 2 Broke Girls) guest stars as Zara. Fred Armisen (Easy A, SNL) will guest star as the infamous cult leader, Charles Manson. Finally, Christina Hendricks (Mad Men, Drive) guest stars as Roxanne Ryder.
According to Collider, the series is a creative telling of a thrilling spy story that takes inspiration from true events experienced by Elvis. On December 21st, 1970, He met with Nixon and requested to have a badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD). He was aspiring to master Karate and even instructed it. Finally, he even had his own pet Chimpanzee named Scatter who just so happened to have an infamous personality that inspired the show’s version of the Chimp.
The show itself garnered massive attention leading up to its release. When it finally premiered on Netflix on March 17th, 2023, it was an instant hit. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “It’s easy enough to watch the 10-episode first season of Agent Elvis concentrating exclusively on the entertaining ridiculousness.” Without going into spoilers, it describes load of ludicrous shenanigans that occur throughout the show. Agent Elvis has proved to be a mixed bag full of humor that is specifically geared to an adult audience. On Rotten Tomatoes, the audience score is at 87% while the critic reviews are at 57% for the Tomatometer. On IMDb, the series sits at a 7.1/10 with its top-rated episode being episode 8 titled “Head Soup” with a rating of 8.8/10.
Its humor has caused a stir on social media with many praising the show for embracing its absurdity while cracking jokes along the way. Others say though that the show lacks in story and development, even one review from Yahoo calling this move from Netflix “desperate”. However, this divisive debate has brought even more attention to the King of Rock’n’Roll especially after the release of the biopic, Elvis (2022) by Baz Luhrmann (The Great Gatsby, Romeo + Juliet).
If there is one thing that people took notice of, it was the soundtrack and the music for the series. According to Variety, Composer Tyler Bates (John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) notes how when creating the soundtrack, they were told to make it, “as musically bold, brash and unapologetically irreverent as the show itself is at its core.”
The Hollywood Reporter goes on to say that, “Agent Elvis is admirably attuned to enough actual music and historical footnotes to instigate some diverting research on the part of interested viewers. You’ll also quickly discover that the character’s costumes, designed and cartoon-refined by John Varvatos, match amazingly well with real outfits Elvis wore, presumably not while fighting off international supervillains.”
You can watch Agent Elvis on Netflix and if you want a sneak peak, you can watch the trailer that is down below.