Streaming exclusives: they’re great when they’re on the platform you have but beyond frustrating when they’re on the one don’t, and with every producer and their brother getting their streaming platform these days that’s becoming more and more common. The big two for exclusives would be Netflix and Hulu, platforms that most of the general population is going to have at least one of, and lucky for us, the show we’re talking about today is available exclusively on Hulu; a gag they run with a lot throughout the show.
So, what’s the deal with Solar Opposites? Odds are if you’ve been scrolling through Hulu you’ve seen the thumbnail pop up from time to time and perhaps have even caught an advertisement for it between watching your favorite shows. If you’re a fan of adult animation, like myself, you’re going to instantly recognize it as being very similar to another famous adult cartoon: Rick and Morty. Well, big surprise, it’s created by Justin Roiland who co-created the hit comedy. The biggest thing people want to know about Solar Opposites is if it’s just a watered-down version of Rick and Morty? Is it just the creator recreating similar success he had on one of his previous shows and now is trying to expand his shows for more revenue? Basically, is it the American Dad/Cleveland Show to Rick and Morty’s Family Guy?
Short answer: No. And yes.
Okay, I know that’s the most annoying and pretentious thing to read a reviewer say but you have to stick with me here because the more I compare the two the trickier it is. Let’s go back to the last example; is it doing the same thing Seth MacFarlane does with his animated comedies and by that I mean is it the same jokes with a different family? I would confidently say no. Everyone has their preference of which Seth MacFarlane they like. You have the classic that started it all: Family Guy. Then there’s a spinoff in the (basically) completely unrelated universe of American Dad which focuses on more family-based comedy over incessant pop culture references, though it doesn’t shy away completely thanks to that damn alien. And then there’s the Cleveland Show, which is Family Guy but black. Sure, the jokes are different but they’re the same formula, that strange and disjointed MacFarlane bit with the constant flashbacks and unrelated jokes that rely less on context and more on brief sketches as filler for their show.
So what’s the style of comedy for Rick and Morty as it pertains to Solar Opposites then? I’m not going to go too deep into the “genius” of Rick and Morty, many egotistical internet blowhards are happy to do that for me but I do enjoy the show. In a nutshell, it’s a multigenerational family sci-fi adventure that focuses on the relationship between a random and chaotic universe where nothing matters and the bonds and responsibilities of family. It’s irreverent and shocking at times but many fans of the show will reference many of the gut-punch moments where the show pumped the brakes on the fart jokes and violent comedy and tried to address some very real and scary issues such as loneliness, depression, and hopelessness. Solar Opposites does not do this. I mean, at all. You’ll find more serious moments in Spongebob Squarepants than you will on Solar Opposites.
The two Justin Roiland shows are very connected in animation and theme: God-like science fiction technology existing in the modern age able to do anything the characters needing it to do and their subsequent troubles stemming from that insane power. But it’s the dynamics and story it’s trying to tell that convince me that this isn’t just a rip-off of the creator’s huge success. For starters, the main characters are all aliens from another world. They exist in this universe among humans after the destruction of their planet and besides a little discrimination, everyone seems to be pretty aloof of the fact that they’re living amongst extraterrestrial life. And before someone with a film degree tells me this could represent the discrimination refugees face every day in America (taken from an actual Reddit comment), it’s not. Don’t even try to make that argument, all you’ll do is ruin a good thing. This isn’t even me trying to keep politics out of cartoons either, deep analysis of this show goes against what it’s trying to be. Let Rick and Morty have the deep existential questions and let Solar Opposites be what it is: a spoof on contemporary humanity.
Seriously, that’s all I can see it being. After watching the first season twice and just finishing the second one I’ve come to the conclusion that this show simply exists to make fun of us and I am absolutely in love with it. It starts right away with the irresponsible Terry, who shirked his scientific responsibilities to fully ingratiate himself with Earth culture by collecting pointless pop culture memorabilia and wearing dorky shirts from famous franchises like Harry Potter or twilight. He is the stand-in for human culture with an outside perspective, we get to see him fall into intense fandom with all of these fads that have passed only a few short years ago and by doing so we see how ridiculous we all looked during them. And it’s a lot of fun. The second main alien, Korvo, brings that same outsider’s perspective to our culture but in a more cynical tone. In fact, at the beginning of every episode after the introduction sequence we hear the main character vent about some facet of human life that seems so strange to him and normal to us – of course with that Justin Roiland shocking twist to it like some of the following:
“…people are stupid! They’re always talking about how they love their family, but they’re never making their family gigantic. They’re all normal-sized! If you like something you should be trying to make it gigantic!”
Or my favorite: “…people are stupid! Everyone claims to like old people, but they’re not fucking them! I fuck old people all the time, they love me!”
The two alien children, or “replicates”, meanwhile have to deal with the turmoil of high school. Something that’s a must for almost every comedy. They wind up with their issues and struggles of fitting in and while Jesse, the sweet young alien girl, tries to solve her issues with compassion and friendship, Yumyulack, the headstrong boy alien, tends to solve his problems using his advanced technology and intellect. Most importantly, he does this by utilizing a “shrink ray” to shrink people down and imprison them in this giant terrarium they keep in their bedroom.
By why are the shrink ray and terrarium so important? Because it brings us back to something similar that Rick and Morty uses; a disconnected in-universe plot with its characters and developments completely unrelated from the main cast. While I said I would argue that Just Roiland doesn’t just recreate the formula for Rick and Morty for another cheap show, he does take parts of it that have been successful and use them here. Notably: the wall.
The wall does the same thing that the “evil Morty” universe does in its namesakes show. Basically, there is a whole series of events going on that don’t concern our main characters, but through the spans of multiple episodes, we get drawn into them almost as little vignettes of these brief and interesting worlds. In Rick and Morty it was the council of Ricks and the citadel and Evil Morty’s brutal take over of the government. In Solar Opposites, the people that Yumyulack has so casually pumped into his terrarium have started a culture and lifestyle of their own to adapt. The show goes deep into the daily life of the people living here: how they adapt to the struggles of being tiny, the government, society, it could be an HBO series on its own if it took itself a little more seriously. I don’t want to go too far into it because I don’t want to spoil anything but it does an interesting thing where it eases the gas on humor just a little bit. It tells a story of control and insurrection, sacrifice, and freedom all in the context of this ridiculous world where people shoot toothpicks as arrows or milk rats for fresh dairy. You become more interested in the main plot and the rules of the wall and don’t find yourself missing the humor as much as you think you would, not to say it’s completely dour and serious but it doesn’t have the irreverent punch that the alien’s storylines do.
What I’m getting at here is Solar Opposites stand on their own legs. Of course, the elements from Rick and Morty are there I mean look at the animation style, it’s the same animators. But so what? Futurama and the Simpsons did it and you can’t tell me those are even close to being the same show. Bobs Burgers and The Great White North also share the same animators and they’re not nearly the same either. So yes, they’re different shows, but they use the same themes and rules of the universe to tell their jokes and make their points. I guess the big question is “If I like Rick and Morty will I like Solar Opposites?” and I would say it depends. What did you like about Rick and Morty? Was it the brutally dark comedy or the aloof nature of the characters in the face of all these dangers and questions? Then yes, you probably will. Did you like Rick and Morty because liking it made you feel smart or you like shows that have an emotional punch and depth to them? Maybe not, though I will say without spoiling that there was a scene from the wall’s storyline that got me very close to tears and I’m man enough to admit it.