—Kel McKnight, B1Daily

Keith David has spent decades being one of Hollywood’s most recognizable voices. Now, at 70, the veteran actor finally has an animated series built around one of his funniest characters, and President Curtis is wasting little time proving it can survive outside the shadow of Rick and Morty.

The Adult Swim spinoff premiered July 26 and follows President Andre Curtis, the swaggering, short-tempered commander-in-chief David has voiced since Rick and Morty Season 2. Instead of Rick dragging everyone across the multiverse, Curtis and his White House crew deal with paranormal disasters, monsters, supernatural diplomacy and whatever other cosmic nonsense lands on the president’s desk.

The Reviews Are Pretty Spectacular

Calling a new show a “hit” can get slippery without Nielsen or streaming numbers, but by the measures we can actually see, President Curtis is having an excellent debut.

The first season currently sits at a perfect 100% Tomatometer score from 21 critic reviews, alongside an 80% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics have particularly praised David’s performance and the show’s ability to retain the insanity of Rick and Morty while establishing its own personality.

Even some of the more reserved reviews acknowledge that David is the show’s secret weapon. Variety described the series as a solid extension of the Rick and Morty universe, while io9 called it an enjoyable mixture of science fiction, horror, comedy and American-history absurdity.

And eight episodes into the season, the show isn’t running out of gas. The latest episode, “Knox,” sends Curtis and the FBI hunting whoever stole the gold from Fort Knox, because apparently being president in this universe means the Secret Service handbook needs an entire chapter titled “What If Somebody Steals Fort Knox?”

Keith David Finally Gets the Spotlight

That’s arguably the best part of the show’s success.

David has more than 400 screen credits across an extraordinary career that includes The Thing, Platoon, They Live, There’s Something About Mary, Spawn, Community, Nope and countless voice performances.

His booming voice made President Curtis memorable even when the character was only dropping into Rick and Morty occasionally. Giving him his own series turns that supporting character into the main attraction.

David plays Curtis with enough authority to make him sound presidential while simultaneously selling completely ridiculous dialogue. That’s the joke’s engine. He can discuss vampires, aliens or supernatural catastrophes with the same thunderous seriousness another president might reserve for addressing Congress.

Co-creator Dan Harmon has explained that Curtis also gives the writers something Rick doesn’t: stakes. Rick can escape almost anything. Curtis actually has a country to protect, citizens to answer to and approval ratings to worry about.

Adult Swim Was Confident Before Anyone Even Saw It

Perhaps the biggest vote of confidence arrived before the premiere.

Adult Swim renewed President Curtis for Season 2 before Season 1 even aired, with production already underway when the announcement was made at San Diego Comic-Con in July.

That decision is looking considerably less risky now.

The show has strong reviews, an enthusiastic early audience response and a veteran lead actor who seems perfectly suited to the material.

More importantly, President Curtis doesn’t feel like Rick and Morty: Leftovers.

It’s building its own supporting cast around Stephanie Beatriz’s Rho Banks and Jim Rash’s Agent O’Doyle while leaning harder into government conspiracies, monsters, American history and paranormal comedy.

For Keith David, that’s a pretty sweet victory lap.

After decades of making practically everything he appears in sound cooler simply by opening his mouth, Hollywood finally handed that voice the Oval Office.

And President Curtis is making excellent use of it.

—Kel McKnight, B1Daily