One episode of Solar Opposites, the latest brainchild of deliciously deranged mastermind Justin Roiland, opens with one of the main-cast aliens living on Earth, as he drives through his adopted human city in a frantic manner that wreaks havoc and destruction all along his path, then when he gets home, hurls himself inside the house and anxiously yells to his family "We have no nose!!!" Roll opening theme. The moment is truly hilarious, yet soon feels empty and barely satisfying because of how detached it is from any strong, coherent narrative. That, sadly, is how the entire show goes.
The series concern
a family unit of sorts, comprised of aliens from a planet that was destroyed by
a giant meteor. Like the Space Goofs of France, they crashed on our planet and
must shack up together in a suburban house until they can repair their spaceship
and complete their mission of finding a suitable planet to perpetrate their
race, because Earth clearly isn't it. The concept of Aliens in a family sitcom
setting has been tried many times before with various degrees of success -Mork
& Mindy was hit & miss but remains beloved, 3rd Rock nailed
it for most of its run, a plethora of others failed too hard to be remembered-
but this one failed not for a lack of humor and human observations, but rather
from not knowing what it wants to be.
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Roiland barely veils
the many comparisons his new creation draws to his most famous, pop-culture
sensation Rick & Morty. Both shows feature a grumpy genius whose
gigantic brain is so perfect a plot device one could easily argue Roiland's
double-dipping in that specific pool causes more of a meh than proper giggles.
His partner in life and work, voiced by Thomas Middleditch of Silicon Valley,
has nice guy routine that nowhere near attracts both affection and
disparagement the way Morty does when faced with his grandpa's antics. As for
'the children', they reek of missed opportunities, save for one gloriously
predictive episode where they are chastised for their loose school attendance,
and in turn proceed to attend without fail every single day... of the summer.
Solar Opposites is what happens when someone with an overbearing mind for vicious
comedy like Justin Roiland doesn't have the guidance of a man driven by strong
subtlety of narratives like Dan Harmon. A recent episode of Rick & Morty,
ironically all about storytelling, used Harmon's screenwriting tools themselves
to drive the narrative of the story in what is another prime example of that
show's incredible depth and intelligence. Here some of the gags are very clever
but lift the cover and you get nothing but the floor, no underlying river of
nuance is there strengthening the show and drive it along. The gore and
absurdist violence that somehow finds every funny bone on Earth C-137, here
feels just mean and desperate. And gets your cup filled quite quickly; after 3
episodes I was debating whether to drop it and watch BoJack Horseman
again, or buckle and see the journey through.
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Along the way a
second, background story develops where one of the alien kids starts himself an
ant farm of sorts, comprised of humans who crossed him in ways that vary from refusing
him a refill at the restaurant to looking at him funny on the street. He shrink
them and ‘put them in the wall’ where they have to fend for themselves in a
makeshift society. And by the end of the season that story, itself much darker
and edgier than the show it is supposed to support, seems to become the main
focus, as if along the way the creator, without his firm-handed usual partner,
lost interest in the primary story and wished the secondary one was the whole
show. Word around the water quantumizer is that Fox, who wanted a Rick Sanchez
of their own, lost faith in their shiny new toy mid-way through production, and
a good long year went by before a streamer picked it up. Smart money is on the
fact that in between, the main man had a change of heart, and left us with a
show that struggles to maintain its identity, if it ever truly had one of its
own.
Mind you, this is
coming from a rock-hard fan of the Smith-Sanchez adventures, so let us avoid
the 'for fans only' trope. Solar Opposites is a valiant effort, but ultimately
a lesson in how not to let your imagination run too rampant.
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