My literal first thoughts after finishing the first episode: mmm mm yes, that is FUN! I want more!

Spider-Noir is not a modern-styled piece. Spider-Noir is not trying to be a modern-styled piece. It is very obviously reaching for classic noir while holding onto its modern sensibilities. It isn’t a pitch perfect match for actual historical noir, but this loving homage feels right.

It also might throw you for a loop if you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. How recently have you seen classic noir?

Spider-Noir has a certain amount of overt theatricality that has faded from most modern cinema. When we call something cinematic these days (certainly when I call something cinematic) we don’t think of wisecracks and banter and exaggerated expressions. Instead I’m usually thinking of being subsumed into the vastness of the hyper-real offered by Dune, or the slow emotional burn and moving beauty of Project Hail Mary, or the perspective warping heroic and artistic and humorous tales of the Spider-Verse movies. That’s not this show.

Spider-Noir feels cinematic in the old way. This show feels to me like theater writ large, like we know that these people are actors portraying a heightened version of reality and we’re okay with that. Spider-Noir doesn’t feel like other movies or shows that are coming out right now, and I love it for that.

Spider-Noir also delivers the noir beyond offering a black-and-white version (the one I watched). It’s a mystery. It’s a crime story. It slowly unveils its web of moneyed interests and bloody clues, full of power and corruption and duplicity and (of course) murder. It pulls our reluctant hero into the multi-layered conspiratorial mess even as he struggles to get away.

But it’s not just the classic intrigue, it’s the humor. Spider-Noir delivers those wisecracks and banter I mentioned above, the ones that feel like classic Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart. It also includes just enough of that slightly-weird Spiderman humor—and the focus on the little guy and the everyman—to succeed at the perilous balancing act of being both noir and Spiderman.

I’ve seen other reviewers saying “if the opening monologue turns you off, this probably isn’t for you.” I don’t know if that’s true, but it feels right. That monologue didn’t turn me away. I did like the show.

Spider-Noir worked for me. I was chuckling and nodding appreciatively by turns, and deeply enjoyed how neatly Spider-Noir shows us our hero’s position in the Spiderman arc within the first few minutes of the story. Watch Across the Spider-Verse if you don’t know what I mean by that. By the end of the first episode, I was ready for more.

I like this imitation-noir’s slightly-hammy stylings. They’re my cup of well-whiskeyed coffee. If you like Spiderman and are on the fence about noir, or you like noir and aren’t sure about Spiderman, this might work for you. If you liked Rian Johnson’s Brick and would enjoy something a little more playful, you should definitely try this out.