'Solar Opposites' Review
TV-MA
Runtime: 21-26 Minutes per episodes
Production Companies: 20th Century Fox Television
Distributor: Hulu
Created By: Justin Roiland, Mike McMahan
Voice Cast: Justin Roiland, Thomas Middleditch, Sean Giambrono, Mary Mack
Release Date: May 8, 2020 (All 8 Episodes)
Adult animation has grown very popular over the course of the 21st Century. I would argue that they came in waves. Ever since South Park appeared on the scene in 1997, everyone wanted a piece of the pie. Then, in the 2000s, Cartoon Network premiered their adult-oriented programming block titled Adult Swim, which allowed more adult animated series to strut their stuff and make their mark. If you ask anyone what show sits on the throne as the best adult animated series airing today, they would tell you it’s Rick and Morty. It’s one of the funniest, most outrageous, and inventive series that’s out today. Now, series co-creator Justin Roiland continues his comedic conquest with Solar Opposites on Hulu, which he created alongside Mike McMahan.
At first glance you’d think Solar Opposites is just Rick and Morty but with extra steps — and in some ways it is — but let’s be honest, is that familiarity a bad thing? When the end product features some really good writing and funny jokes, the answer is no.
Solar Opposites follows a family who lands on Earth slap dab in middle America where they take refuge after their home planet is destroyed. The alien family consists of two adult males: inventor Korvo (Roiland), who is pretty much Alien Rick but more vulnerable and not as clever, and his partner Terry (Middleditch), an optimist who enjoys time adjusting to the American lifestyle and gets most of his knowledge from watching TV and movies. Then, you have Jesse (Mack), a female plant that wants to fit in with humans, especially at school, her brother Yumyulack, a mischievous inventor who enjoys shrinking humans down to miniature stature and storing them in his own personal vault, and The Pupa, the family’s pet that is destined to grow and destroy the Earth. Of course, they all try adjusting to the human lifestyle, which often ends in terrible results for most humans who cross their path.
What makes the series hold up on its own is the off-beat dynamic of the family, especially between the leads Korvo and Terry. Their separate personalities truly make for great comedy. At times it feels as if their dialogue is ad-libbed, a signature technique Rick and Morty utilized, but the improv works, especially since Roiland has another cast member who is great at improv, Thomas Middleditch (as seen in the Middleditch and Schwartz specials on Netflix), to bounce off of. The two have really great chemistry and most of their episodic storylines are hilarious. The same goes for the kids Yumyulack and Jesse, whose adventures are predominantly school-centric. It’s structured similar to a family sitcom where characters learn lessons in the end, but with a Justin Roiland sci-fi spin where the lessons are often at the expense of the lives of humans, resulting in some great dark comedy.
The art style and direction is very familiar, but it's still fun to look at. This is Roiland’s style and while it doesn’t do anything new visually, it’s still entertaining to watch. This time around they really focus on satirizing modern society, our culture, and our love for some of them. There’s an episode that does a fun satirical riff on magicians while deconstructing the tropes of magicians presented in the media, even taking shots at movies like Now You See Me. It really makes for a good companion to the Rick and Morty episode from this current season where they deconstruct the tropes of the heist narrative. As much as I tried to keep a hard shell, a joke — whether it be a line of dialogue or a visual gag — would catch me off guard and crack me up and the humor is often consistent. Because it is a Hulu series, where censors be damned, the writers crank the raunch up. There are several sexual moments that took me by surprise and that wouldn't have made it onto the likes of Adult Swim.
Initially, my biggest gripe with the series was that, albeit being really funny and clever, nothing really made it special. That was until several episodes passed and something that I thought was going to be a recurring gag became a creative and fleshed out subplot that even got its own focused episode at the midpoint of the season. I’m not going to spoil what it is because I think the idea itself is fascinating and funny, but the writers and team of animators took a lot of creativity fully realizing that subplot and making it its own thing.
Solar Opposites is pretty much Roiland and McMahon’s take on the fish-out-of-water dynamic, mocking the family sitcom structure with their morbidly violent on brand sci-fi twist. It stands well on its own as a fun continuation to the world inside Roiland’s fucked up science-fiction-obsessed head and it leaves you wanting more.
