‘Solar Opposites’ Season 1 – A Non-Spoiler Review

Solar Opposites is a brand new animated sci-fi sitcom that debuted May 8th exclusively on Hulu. The show was created and produced by Justin Roiland, co-creator of the wildly popular Adult Swim series Rick and Morty, and Mike McMahan. The series follows an alien family who landed and are living in small town America, because their home planet imploded. The series stars the voice talents of Justin Roiland as Korvo, Thomas Middleditch as Terry, Sean Giambrone as Yumyulack, and Mary Mack as Jesse. In short, Solar Opposites is hilarious, intelligent, and absolutely on par with, if not better, than Rick and Morty.

The biggest strength in Solar Opposites is it’s writing. The show is regularly hysterical and I found myself laughing harder than I have in a long time. The team of writers behind this series, including creators Roiland and McMahan, consistently deliver jokes that land. More than the comedy though, a majority of the episode premises are incredibly clever and lend themselves to the jokes. There are many moments throughout the series where you expect it to go one way, but it goes in a totally different direction. While the animation style and humor is definitely reminiscent of Rick and Morty, it’s choices like that that truly set it apart. Solar Opposites also benefits incredibly from being a direct to streaming series. The series goes for broke and the comedy and visuals are insanely vulgar. It’s obvious that Roiland feels free from the network television grip of his previous work, and the unchained nature of Solar Opposites is a strong attribute.

In addition, the animation is great! As mentioned before, it’s in the same style as Rick and Morty and all the characters are drawn in a similar way. The character design of our resident alien family is very well done. The overexaggerated size of their mouths was quite funny and at one point a character points it out to comedic effect. The most striking aspect of the visuals, however, is how graphic they’re willing to go with the adult themes. The show features a hefty amount of gore and the occasional graphic depiction of sex. It’s all shown in a very comedic and lighthearted way, but it is still quite shocking when first seen. 

The voice acting in the series is quite good as well. Roiland’s voice work is nearly identical to his work on Rick and Morty. His character, and series protagonist, Korbo, basically talks exactly like Rick Sanchez. Initially, it was kind of distracting, but by the second episode it had completely slipped my mind. I found the best voice work to be done by Thomas Middleditch with his character, Terry. He provides such a humanity to Terry, and while the character is often ridiculous and silly, the voice work makes him feel very real and thus relatable. The other main cast members, Mary Mack and Sean Giambrone are both good as well. They just didn’t stand out as much as Middleditch.

Voice acting aside, the characters and their development are excellent. Every member of our main alien family is an interesting and engaging character in their own right. Each episode aims to give them all their own arc, and more often than not succeeds. The episodes are typically split into two different narratives: one following Korbo and Terry, and one following Jesse and Yumyulack. This structure lends itself wonderfully to developing each of these characters. I won’t get into spoilers, but the characters are all uniquely different and deal with situations in their own ways. 

The plot of the show is presented in an isolated episodic way, but will occasionally have through lines from previous episodes show up. The through lines are interesting, especially in the case of Yumyulack and Jesse, and help to develop the characters. However, the majority of the series’ plots are contained to one episode. That being said, the individual episode narratives are incredibly engaging and interesting. The series tackles many science fiction tropes and philosophical questions in a highly comedic and clever way. Sadly, while the episodes are extremely entertaining, there isn’t much of a build up to the finale. The finale itself is an isolated story and just sorta comes and goes. In a future season of the series, it could benefit from more of an overarching narrative, but as it stands it’s still quite entertaining.

Solar Opposites is a home run for Hulu and further establishes Justin Roiland as a comedic force on television. If you love Rick and Morty, then you’ll love Solar Opposites. If you don’t love Rick and Morty, there’s a good chance you may still love Solar Opposites.

9/10

Have you had a chance to check out Solar Opposites on Hulu? Do you think it’s on par with or better than Rick and Morty?

Let us know! Make sure to follow us on Instagram @thecinemaspot_ and Twitter @thecinemaspot for all your television news!