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Man caves, drugs, bullying, animal rights, black holes, magicians, zombie teenagers, and the pupa. These are all things that were teased in the trailer for Solar Opposites, the newest adult animated sitcom by Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland. At first glance, the Hulu Original series was speculated to be a spin-off series of the popular sci-fi series Rick and Morty. However, it was announced that this was a new series that focuses on a family of aliens adjusting to life on earth.
What is Solar Opposites about?
Solar Opposites is about a group of four aliens living on earth after their home world was destroyed by an asteroid. After being stranded on earth, the four aliens try to kill as much time as possible, while their pupa (a small yellow alien blob) grows into its final form and terraforms Earth so that the aliens can take over and restart their civilization. The series stars Justin Roiland, Thomas Middleditch, Sean Giambrone, and Mary Mack as Korvo, Terry, Yummyulack, and Jesse.
Is This Like Rick And Morty, But With Extra Steps?
To put it simply: No, this isn’t Rick and Morty. Solar Opposites is its own show that shares some qualities to Rick and Morty. However, the biggest difference between these two shows is that Solar Opposites is a fast-paced comedy that focuses more on the comedic deliveries of Justin Roland’s dark, Meta, and possible improvisational humor.
The show doesn’t place much focus on narrative and instead establishes itself as a show to relax and laugh along to the chaos. As opposed to Rick and Morty that focuses more on its character driven narrative and dark meta-commentary.
Is It Better Than Rick And Morty?
It is too soon to compare the two series as a whole, because Solar Opposites did not have the chance to establish itself as its own show. While this is one of the show’s biggest flaw, many fans weren’t excited about the show’s announcement to begin with. This was due to how many fans thought the show’s development was the main reason that the fourth season of Rick and Morty was delayed. This rumor was later proved to be untrue as both co-creators Dan Harmond and Justin Roiland had prior commitments to other projects in addition to negotiating future Rick and Morty episodes with Adult Swim.
Solar Opposites is an opportunity for Roiland to expand his unused ideas into a new series that shares similarities with his popular predecessor. Because of this, the show shares a similar art style and comedic layout to Rick and Morty. However, this doesn’t mean that Solar Opposites is a cheap knock-off. Family Guy creator, Seth MacFarlane and The Simpsons creator, Matt Groening both developed series that shared animation and comedic similarities to their popular predecessors, most notably American Dad and Futurama. If given the opportunity, Solar Opposites could become as popular as its own. It also shows to the fans and the animation industry that Roiland has the capability to work on other projects that is not Rick and Morty.
Narrative Driven Side-Story
Surprisingly one of the strongest parts of the show is a side-story that indirectly involves the main cast. The characters of this side-story are humans that Jesse and Yummyulack shrank down and placed them in a wall of interconnecting dioramas in their room. This eventually becomes a post-apocalyptic parody where the shrunken humans try to establish order in a lawless land while fighting for scarce resources.
The sudden introduction to a narrative side-story balances out the fast-paced comedic banter with the aliens. It also highlights the animators and writers for their creativity, as the shrunken humans adapt various small objects like coins, candy, toothpicks, and legos to survive.
The Solar Verdict
Despite it’s lack of consequential narrative and lack of character background of its main cast. Solar Opposites is a fun fast-paced dark comedy that is meant to enjoyed and not taken seriously. Viewers don’t have to be a Rick and Morty fan to enjoy the series, as it is made for anybody who enjoys dark comedy, and Meta commentary about society. The voices of the main cast fits the absurd sci-fi premise, the delivery of dark humor is sudden and on point, and it has the potential to be as popular as Rick and Morty.
However, the fast-paced nature of the series may bring some confusion and the episodic design of its premise lacks the focus to make really stand out as its own. The show was released on Hulu on May 8th, and Hulu announced that a second season is on the way. If you need a new show to binge-watch, Solar Opposites can kill time and provide enough entertainment to stave off any quarantine boredom.
