International Espionage and Comedy with 'The Rascal'

Imagine if you took an episode of 24, stripped out all the interpersonal mumbo-jumbo (translation: “drama”) and reduced it to a series of action sequences and pithy, Leslie Neilsen-worthy dialogue.

Then, instead of Kiefer Sutherland, you had a mustached, almost ambiguously gay, villainous main character who was really good at roller-skating and operated a top-secret lab out of the back of a tractor trailer a la Knight Rider.

That’s what you get when you watch The Rascal

The Rascal is the brainchild of two men – Jay Rondot (who writes and acts for the series) and Ross Novie (who directs) – with long histories in television production. Rondot, a former producer for G4 Networks, and Novie, an Assistant Director on some of the funnier comedies in recent history (including It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Arrested Development) first started working together on short films.

“We made a short film and we realized that short films are totally lame,” half-joked Novie, who recalled investing far too much energy into a festival piece that was lucky to fill a theater with 20 people. Once, however, the duo made the transition to Web (most notably with their series of vignettes …With the Stars), they found the reception online to be, “a lot more satisfying.”

The Rascal stars Rondot as twin brothers Shep and Sinclair Maddox, with most of the action focused on younger brother and inept criminal-wannabe, Sinclair.

He’s an aspiring super-villain with hopes to take the world hostage with the mythical weapon of cold fusion…as soon as he can get his hands on it. To complicate matters, Sinclair needs to hire an intern to get his life in order, gets involved with a Nigerian get-rich-quick schemer and fights in a full-on brawl with Fred Savage – who plays himself (in what could be a Neil Patrick Harris-esque comeback?!?!?).

The whole time Shep, Sinclair’s older twin and federal agent, is gunning for him, baffled that his look-alike is harder to locate than Osama Bin Laden.

The Rascal is silly but smartly referential. “In terms of storytelling,” the creators said, “we feel you can watch any one episode and enjoy it but it also has jokes with call-backs which fit within the overall season…For the series in particular, we put together a batch of the craziest scenes we could think of.” The end result teeters on the absurd with just enough sense to be palatable beyond the 30-second test.

See how the action unfolfds in weekly episodes every Monday at Crackle.com.