Premiering Friday, February 5 on HBO is Animals, a raunchy new animated comedy from New York natives, Phil Matarese and Mike Luciano. Produced in-part by Jay and Mark Duplass, the half-hour series follows “unexpected tales of urban life” through the eyes of Gotham’s vermin, felines, pups, pigeons, and more. Now streaming on HBO NOW and HBO Go, Animals is debuting ahead of its linear airtime on Friday at 11:30 simply for the sake of our cord-cutting pleasure.

Save for a singular storyline involving the metropolis’ own shady mayor, the bitingly-funny Animals takes on an anthology feel from episode to episode: a day in the life of New York City’s hardened non-humans. Voices of creators Matarese and Luciano are reincarnated in each half-hour bit, taking on the decidedly complicated personas of rats, cats, and more, who, unbeknownst to us, are experiencing their own myriad of crises.

Featuring characters voiced by the Duplasses’ inner circle — Rob Corddry, Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, Nick Kroll, Katie Aselton, Aziz Ansari, Adam Scott, Chelsea Peretti, Nathan Fielder, and many, many more — Animals has been graced with one of the best comedic casts on TV. The most impressive aspect of Animals, however, isn’t how two twentysomethings from Brooklyn got their show picked up by the Duplasses and HBO, it’s that all the dialogue you hear is 100% improvised. That’s right: they record first and animate later, which is virtually unheard of in the animated comedy world. And if that’s not enough to pique your interest, you probably aren’t cool enough to watch it in the first place.

Animals airs Friday nights at 11:30 PM on HBO, HBO NOW, and HBO GO.

[Stream Animals on HBO NOW and HBO Go]