We’re Super Creeped Out

‘PEE-WEE’S BIG HOLIDAY’ TRAILER REVIEW BY METRO CREW

Capitalizing on the recent ‘80s-‘90s nostalgia craze, Netflix revisits enthusiastic man-child Pee-wee Herman — and this time, he’s leaving the Playhouse. After meeting a cool stranger (Joe Manganiello), Pee-wee is inspired to take his first vacation. Along the way, he gets mixed up with a gang of robbers and meets a slew of other characters. Basically, we think this looks like the weirdest thing ever. But what else can you expect from Pee-wee? Pee-wee’s Big Holiday streams on Netflix starting March 18.

JAIMIE: In many ways, watching this trailer made me feel nostalgic. And old. It’s nice that Netflix and other networks are riding this nostalgia high that everyone seems to be on right now. It’s fun to see, even though the idea of my (maybe) future children watching the same shows I did is a little weird. It makes me wonder, though, if everyone’s well of creativity has just dried up. Like, yes, cool, everything seems to be coming back these days.

But I also want to see new ideas and new TV concepts and movies.

JAMES: I missed Tim Burton’s sensibilities in this one. He created this surrealist suburbia where Pee-wee could have lived in the same neighborhood as Edward Scissorhands. The world seems more straightforward in this one.

PAIGE: I actually have never seen any of the old Pee-wee things. I literally never watched TV with real people when I was a kid. I only watched cartoons and anime until I was like, in college. So I cannot tell what the tone of this is supposed to be. Heartwarming? Vaguely unsettling? I feel vaguely unsettled. I always thought Pee-wee looked creepy as hell.

CHRISTINA: I don’t know if it’s that Pee-wee is older or we are older, but it made his antics seem all the more insane. His laughing out of nowhere really creeped me out.

NICOLE: It’s super creepy that he’s friends with all the little kids in the neighborhood.

JAIMIE: You know what else creeps me out? The fact that Paul Reubens hasn’t aged. He seriously looks the same. Also, also, what the hell is Joe Manganiello doing in this movie?

PAIGE: My first thought when Joe Manganiello walked in that it was going to turn into a vaguely homoerotic bro trip and I was not prepared to deal with that in this lifetime or any lifetime.

CHRISTINA: I think a homo-erotic bro trip would be far better than Pee-wee hanging out with much-younger women and waving to children.

PAIGE: But seriously, what is this supposed to be? A parody of children’s shows? What is Pee-wee??

JAIMIE: Maybe Pee-wee as an adult is not OK, especially considering that whole child pornography snafu he was involved in. Or, maybe it’s just like, every single thing about his character.

JAMES: On his show, he married his anthropomorphized blender or something. But that’s the sort of controlled ambiguity that he became known for. No one knew what he was. Was he a kid? Gainfully employed? Did he have a soul?