‘Exploding Kittens’: Netflix Adaption of Silly Card Game Somehow Works

Is Hollywood running out of ideas? Even stranger than rebooting seemingly every old hit for a new generation is the longstanding tradition of adapting intellectual property that really has no business being a show or film in the first place. Board games like Clue, Candyland, Dungeons and Dragons, and even freaking Battleship have been made into films. Looking to up the ante in head-scratching, inexplicable IP adaptations, Netflix has a new series: Exploding Kittens, based on the bestselling card game.

For those like me who’ve enjoyed many a round of Exploding Kittens, it’s apparent that there’s virtually nothing adaptable about it. It’s a straightforward game that revolves around the simple premise of drawing cards until you lose by picking up an “exploding kitten” card. There are modifiers, of course, but it's ultimately a game of chance with adorable character designs. This is an adaptation in name only; Exploding Kittens is about as similar to the card game as any movie about capitalism is an adaptation of Monopoly.

The game was created by Matthew Inman, a cartoonist best known for The Oatmeal, a website chock-full of colorful, hilarious, tongue-in-cheek comics. Inman has also written several comic books under the Oatmeal brand, including How To Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting To Kill You and Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby. The series Exploding Kittens is closer in spirit to the Oatmeal comics than its namesake card game—and that’s very much a good thing.

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