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Solar Opposites (S4) with Jay Sisson
845 Plays1 year ago
Solar Opposites Season 4 is available on Hulu now! Jay Sisson from Commute the Podcast and Multiverse News joins J Scotty to talk about latest season as well as the series as a whole.
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Transcript
Introduction and Annoyance with Ads
00:00:00
Speaker
Animation deliberation was a perfect podcast until the ad break hit. Two hosts and their guest hosts were issued a podcast and escaped into the space, searching for new homes on uninhabited networks. We crashed on stranded Panda stranding us on an already overpopulated network. That's right. I've been talking this whole time. I'm the one hosting the podcast. My name is Jay Scotty. This, this is my show bollocks. I just dropped the podcast. Do you hear me? This, this is ridiculous. I hate ad breaks. They're annoying and inconvenient, but entirely necessary to support this show. I'll be back to singing the theme song right after this.
Guest Introduction and Excitement
00:00:30
Speaker
So good. Sing along if you know the words. One, two, three, it's time for animation deliberation. A conversation and a celebration of our favorite action animated series. Yeah.
00:00:48
Speaker
All right, folks, welcome to Animation Deliberation, the podcast that takes action animation and cartoons seriously, but not too seriously. Clearly, with that intro, I am your host, Jay Scottie St. Clair, and I'm excited to be joined by Jay Sis and one of my co-hosts over at Multiverse News. Welcome to Animation Deliberation. Jay, how's it going?
00:01:09
Speaker
It's going great.
Love for Animation: A Personal Journey
00:01:10
Speaker
I'm so excited to be here. First time guest on animation deliberation. Longtime listener, first time guest. And I'm excited to get into it and talk about solar opposites.
00:01:20
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, making your debut. Appreciate you being here. And yeah, Solar Opposites is a show. The fourth season just came out on Hulu, but it is a show that I've been enjoying for a really long time and have been looking for an excuse to talk about and someone to talk about it with. And, you know, I love my co-host, Zuhair, but he typically prioritizes anime.
00:01:42
Speaker
over like adult comedy or humor related content. So yeah, definitely appreciate you being on. And I guess before we get rocking and rolling, I'll kind of...
00:01:53
Speaker
maybe have you kind of introduce yourself to our listeners that may not be as familiar with you and kind of like maybe give a background on your relationship with animation, maybe what that looked like when you were a kid and maybe how that's progressed now that you're an adult and you can, you know, whatever you want to say about
Comparing 'Solar Opposites' and 'Rick and Morty'
00:02:10
Speaker
solar opposites in relation to that.
00:02:13
Speaker
Yeah yeah for sure so yeah i have followed animation in some form probably off and on my entire life i grew up with i'm just a love for entertainment and i was into cartoons very early especially like pokemon and stuff like that growing up i was really okay.
00:02:33
Speaker
into like Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers and just the idea of like universes and connectivity and just like carrying themes across multiple episodes. It just stuck with me really young. So as I grew up, I think I did sort of lose a little bit of the animation as I got a little bit older into middle school and high school, but I definitely rediscovered it again in my adult life and started watching
00:02:57
Speaker
You know, I always kind of off and on would watch like King of the Hill, like I did follow King of the Hill for a long time, but have just kind of recently gotten into watching Futurama for the first time, you know, watching through Rick and Morty, like watching a lot of these shows that I've just been really into. And so it's been a, it's been a cool, cool thing for me to kind of evolve with, to watch animation evolve with me, right? To go from kind of a,
00:03:21
Speaker
Kid shows in and being into that at that age to then now being an adult like finding humor and finding joy in More mature properties. It's it's been a cool trend for sure Sweet sweet. Yeah, so I you and I have to be like I'm surprised we've never really hashed this out But I think we're like right around the same age. You might be like slightly older than me. When did you graduate high school? I graduated in 2007. I'm 30
00:03:45
Speaker
So yeah, I suspected you might just be a little bit older than me. I graduated in 2008. But yeah,
Voice Change Discussion: Dan Stevens as Corvo
00:03:50
Speaker
all those properties you bring up, the Power Rangers, the Ninja Turtles, I had a feeling we had similar exposure in terms to the shows we were watching when we were growing up. So I relate to a lot of what you brought up there. And you mentioned Futurama, and that's a show that
00:04:07
Speaker
I've been able to cover in snippets here, but we're not here to talk about Futurama. We're here to talk about Solar Opposites. But I do want to compare this show favorably to
00:04:18
Speaker
Futurama, I think it's kind of in the same tradition as Futurama, as well as American Dad, where there are these shows that are kind of like second attempts or like spiritual successors to already very well received and very successful adult comedy series, like Futurama being a spinoff of The Simpsons, and then American Dad kind of spinning off a family guy. And I think, and then,
00:04:47
Speaker
solar opposites here being like a second
Narrative Style and Character Arcs
00:04:50
Speaker
outing from Justin Roiland with Rick and Morty there. But for me, the trend between these three series is that I find myself liking these second attempts more. They might have a little bit of a rockier start, and they might have to do a little bit more to sell me and get me on board. But I just think in terms of character development and the story arcs that they decide to tackle, I always find myself resonating with those second series more.
00:05:18
Speaker
Yeah, no, I definitely hear that. I have found myself multiple times throughout the four season run of Solar Opposites because naturally you're going to compare it to Rick and Morty. It is so similar and the Justin Roiland connection and all of that. Like I remember whenever I first started watching it, it was really hard for me to get over Corvo because he sounded so much like Rick.
00:05:38
Speaker
And I was like, I don't know if I can do this, like, because I just can't like separate these two things. So there's always going to be that connective tissue and you're always going to be comparing them. But I've definitely found myself throughout the four season run thinking like, this is better than Rick and Morty, like having those moments where it's just, and then I'll go back and forth, you know, and naturally, they
00:05:59
Speaker
You
Voice Actors and Character Dynamics
00:06:00
Speaker
don't have to take them and be like one's better than the other, but just naturally, my brain is going to do that. I think as a product, I don't know if I'm ready to call it better than Rick and Morty, but I think it's right there with it if it's not. I would take its best episodes and put them up against Rick and Morty's best episodes for sure.
00:06:21
Speaker
Okay. So you brought up a couple of things there. And so first of all, you talked about Corvo's voice and how much Justin Roiland sounded like he was doing his voice for Rick. So with the fourth season, we obviously had a big change up with Dan Stevens stepping into the role. So I wanted to ask, what's your reception to that? I mean, for me, it took a little bit of adjusting, but I kind of liked the way the show just hit it head on. It kind of reminded me of
00:06:46
Speaker
the Marvel Cinematic Universe when you've had recasting, like, you know, Rhodey specifically when Don Cheadle stepped in the role in Iron Man 2. He was just like, yeah, I'm here. It wasn't as meta as this show was about it. But yeah, so I kind of want to get your take on that. And then you also mentioned how, like, maybe stacking some of the best episodes of this show against some of the best episodes of Rick and Morty. So I'm just kind of wondering, like, do you have any episodes
The Wall Subplot: Depth and Emotion
00:07:10
Speaker
that come to mind when you say that?
00:07:12
Speaker
Yeah. So the voice thing, I feel like, like you said, they, they did the thing that they had to do, which is they had to just attack it head on. You couldn't have dancing around it and drawing it out more would have just made it worse. So they, it literally in the first scene, the voice changing Ray, which is like such a ridiculous thing to use, but it like, it fits for the show and it makes total sense. Now the voice itself, it is so different that at first it was jarring. I didn't, um, I,
00:07:42
Speaker
You know, I'm used to just jumping on board with things. If somebody says, hey, this is this character now, I'm used to just being like, okay, and just kind of doing it. But definitely while I was preparing kind of mentally, like, all right, there's gonna be a different thing. It still did hit me. And I think it probably took maybe like two episodes before I finally really adapted to it. And I do feel like by the end,
00:08:05
Speaker
it was pretty seamless. I felt like the voice fit pretty well. It did not throw me off that much. The only time that it threw me off almost every time was the intro. And I don't know why, I don't know if it's just like that was burned into my mind as sounding a certain way, but it was like, I never got used to that intro. It was almost every time I was like, this doesn't feel right, you know? But then the episode would start and I would completely forget about
Celebrating Notable Guest Stars
00:08:30
Speaker
it and I, it was fine, but it's just for some reason that intro just never,
00:08:34
Speaker
Never clicked with me the right the right way. Yeah, but I know a lot of people it does seem the consensus online It's hard to tell because people I think a lot of people who watch the show are probably like us They're like, all right. Well, I like the show I'm oak if this is a thing that happened and sure I'm just gonna roll with it But people who did not like this are very vocal about it online
00:08:56
Speaker
It's been review bombed. It's like, yeah, rotten tomatoes. If you look at the, if you look at the critic score, it's pretty high. People like the season, but the audience score is incredibly low. Same with IMDB. It's been review bombed like crazy.
00:09:12
Speaker
So people are very angry about it. And it's all just like, shouldn't have recast. The voice is stupid. I hate the voice. So it is a sticking point. It's turned a lot of people off to the show. At least ones who are vocal, it's turned them off. But I do think, to me, I don't feel like the show really missed a beat too much by jumping into it. As far as favorite episodes,
00:09:33
Speaker
It's hard to pinpoint a favorite episode just because it's hard to get them all organized in my brain, but I do like a lot of
Strengths and Improvements of the Show
00:09:40
Speaker
the certain subplots. I think the Goobler subplot is absolutely hysterical. I love that they hit it every season. I think that that's such a hilarious and just
00:09:52
Speaker
just a ridiculous thing that they've doubled and then tripled and quadrupled down on every season and made more crazy. So I love that. I love the idea of just like the, and I know we'll talk about it because it's a huge part of the season, but the stories within stories of solar opposites
00:10:09
Speaker
they do it better than any other show that maybe I've seen just of like taking these three distinct storylines of, and really up until this point, it's really just been two of the, the schlorpions and that whole thing, and then having the wall and then adding this whole like silver cop thing to the whole thing. To me, like it's masterful, the way that they cut it up and they stream these three conscious, different storylines together. I just, to me, that's what makes the show great. It's like,
00:10:39
Speaker
hey this guy
Future Prospects Amidst Backlash
00:10:40
Speaker
that we don't like and he's a jerk and we accidentally shot him in the foot we're gonna shoot him into space you know most shows would just end it there they'd be like all right we shot him into space it's funny it's a joke it's over but they're like you know we're gonna tell an entire story around launching this guy into space he gets picked up by these silver cops he has to go and like we're still with it and it's got some of the best like emotional beats of the show so to me it's just that's that's what makes this show so great to me it's it's it's
00:11:06
Speaker
It's willingness to just be what it is to just commit fully and run like through a brick wall into what it wants to be and then just own it, you know, and own every crazy thing that they came up with. Just double down on it and not try to be something it's not, but just lean into that sci-fi aspect really hard.
00:11:26
Speaker
Yeah, I'm with you 100%. I want to backpedal a little bit to address some of the things you brought up. So kind of going back to Dan Stevens stepping into the role of Corvo, I agree with pretty much everything you brought up and I
Conclusion and Call to Engagement
00:11:40
Speaker
one of the things that kind of stood out to me as well is I think it might have been in the first episode, maybe the second episode, but even as I was still going through that adjustment period, they made mention like, oh yeah, even when we do flashbacks, this voice changing ray affects flashbacks now. So just like, you know. Even Jesse was like, is he just going to sound like that now? Is that what he sounds like? Yeah.
00:11:50
Speaker
think
00:12:02
Speaker
Yeah. And then what you brought up about the intro. I agree with you a lot because I really like that intro. It's one of those intros that I never skip. And part of that maybe I don't think Hulu even brings up the option to skip the intro, but I still just enjoy it. But I think the improvisational nature that Justin Roiland brought to that, it really feels like a first take. He has the, uh, where he doesn't know what word to use for space.
00:12:26
Speaker
So you have Dan Stevens, who is like a, you know, a classically trained theater actor that, you know, cut his teeth on like shows like Downton Abbey and whatnot. And he's trying to recreate that. You could just kind of feel that he's like reading that. And I do, you know, I like his inflection. He's kind of, he's doing the very angry vocalization there. But even
00:12:46
Speaker
like Corvo always has the last little bit at the end where he says something unique about society and observation and those always felt like they didn't feel as natural as they did when Justin Roiland was doing his own. Okay, somebody wrote this for him and he's doing his best to deliver it, but it just doesn't feel as organic. Yeah.
00:13:01
Speaker
But then in terms of the B stories that we get, I'm with you. The Wall has always been incredibly fascinating to me. It feels like it could be a show on its own. I recently watched the series Silo on Apple TV, which it's crazy how much these two stories have in common in terms of it being a dystopian society basically stuck underground or
00:13:27
Speaker
within this wall. And then, yeah, the introduction of the whole Silver Cops thing has been great. I think it was first introduced last season, season three. And the Silver Cops are basically just take the Green Lanterns and Silver Surfer and just smash them together. And there you go. You got the Silver Cops. I kind of like that they're playing in column A and column B with Marvel and DC. And I didn't notice it when the character made his debut in season three. But having watched the HBO show Succession,
00:13:56
Speaker
in between these seasons, I noticed Kieran Culkin's voice immediately. He's voicing this guy, Glenn, who's a total douche, and his morals and his choices are based on the Fast and Furious franchise. That's the thing. Some of the concepts in the show, the show moves at 100 miles an hour. The
00:14:19
Speaker
the jokes and the pop culture references and all that, they move so fast. And so if you don't catch them on, I feel like I'm pretty plugged into pop culture. But there were definitely times where I was like, who is they talking about? But it's like by the time they had finished the joke, they had already made another joke that I did. And so it was like, I'd forgotten. But when you go back and you think about the concept, sometimes like you realize that the writing is really good. Like,
00:14:44
Speaker
I'm still laughing, and I was laughing today just thinking about, I was sitting and thinking about the idea of a pronunciation bee, which was like the second episode. It didn't hit me when I was watching it, and I started thinking about how hilarious of an idea that is, like a pronunciation bee. And it's just things like that that just come back from the show that you're like, wait a minute, somebody wrote that, and it's great. It's fantastic. Sure. Yeah.
00:15:08
Speaker
Yeah, it really is. Can you use it in a sentence? No, because then I would be pronouncing it. Yeah, I want to talk about some of the other characters. So I mean, obviously, we have a really, really great cast here.
00:15:24
Speaker
So we've talked about Corvo previously voiced by Justin Roiland now being cast or being voiced by Dan Stevens, but we also have the character of Terry voiced by Thomas Middleditch, who my only real exposure to him prior to this was the role he played in Silicon Valley, which is a very different role. He's much more meek and, you know, reserved, whereas Terry is just, you know, he's the total
00:15:49
Speaker
hedonist. He's loving humanity. Corvo hates humanity and Terry's just taking it all in and then you've got...
00:16:00
Speaker
the replicants, the kids in this, it is worth mentioning like solar opposites. It's kind of taking the model of the odd couple, but very loosely taking that and just, and for those not indoctrinated, the odd couple is basically that classic sitcom scenario where you have a highly organized kind of type A personality meets a
00:16:25
Speaker
carefree and spontaneous, more type B personality and their thrust in a living situation together and shenanigans ensue. So yeah, so you've got Sean,
00:16:38
Speaker
Jambroni voicing Yumulak, the replicant who is responsible for the creation of the wall. Anytime a human does him wrong, he shrinks them down and puts them in this wall. And then you've got Jesse being voiced by Mary Mack. I'm not as familiar with her, but apparently she's a comedian that's been around for a long time.
00:17:01
Speaker
Are there any standouts for you? Do you find a member of this family that you kind of look forward to their storylines or you find them particularly funny or what have you?
00:17:10
Speaker
Yeah. I love Terry. Um, I feel like he just, he fits every, he's glues all of the situations together and he glues a lot of the family together to me just from like the polar side of Corvo being so serious and just like so angry and so just like a powder keg at all times. And then to have just somebody so unserious is just like really funny. And then the idea of like the shirts are just like iconic, like every episode being something ridiculous that
00:17:40
Speaker
some kind of like ridiculous joke that's like a pop culture reference or whatever like that i love that that was something they've been doing ever since the first episode is having him in some kind of ridiculous t-shirt like every episode that just says something funny so i love that idea they even make reference to the development of the characters with
00:18:00
Speaker
I mean, it's a very meta show, right? I mean, like Yub you lack at one point even says something like, well, you got to do this because you're a more developed character than me. Like that stood out to me because I was like, yeah, she is like, you're not really that developed at all. But the fact that they called it is hilarious. And like the reusing of the chase scene, like in that one episode, I don't even know. And they're like, are you reusing a chase scene from season one to try to save money? Like, so stuff like that, like,
00:18:24
Speaker
I love the idea that they're looking back on characters that maybe they haven't really super developed, but they can play with that and they can joke about it. To me, I love that two of the characters that just really popped this season was the pupa one because he always has like a really
00:18:44
Speaker
funny adventure episode every season. I'm thinking back to the one where he slices the football kicker's leg so he can kick open the vending machine to get the candy or whatever. That was an entire episode. It took him an entire episode to do that. And then in this episode, you had
00:19:02
Speaker
two things you had the thing where he was trying to go on the rescue mission in the ship and he was trying to save the ups driver and then you found out it was just because he wanted a package like some kind of toy or something that was in a package and that was a whole episode and then you had the whole subplot of him um trying to uh or basically like making this lady feel bad by basically doing the raven but saying coco melon at her and making her go crazy so like
00:19:28
Speaker
I love that. He's such a fun character because he's a kid. There's still something I think about all the time that he said is either last season or the season before, where it just hits me all the time. And it's funny is whenever the girl is leaving the wall for the first time and she runs into the bupa.
00:19:47
Speaker
And she tells him this whole like emotional thing about why she has to leave the wall and please don't kill me and all this type of stuff and he just goes I like lightning McQueen and that's all he says and like that hits me sometimes cuz like I have kids and that's what they they literally do that like tell them something so serious you're having such a serious conversation with right and then to say something like I like lightning McQueen like that's so funny.
00:20:08
Speaker
And then past the pupa, like I love what they did with Aisha this season too. Like taking a character who has always just been a computer who just kind of like does computer things. And it's funny because she's like for sassy and all that. But to take her on an episode and develop into this idea of like sending her on a date. Like she wants to find love. Like she's looking for connection and like having that whole subplot. Like I loved that. That idea of taking that side character who has always just kind of been
00:20:38
Speaker
somebody who pops in and says a couple of funny things and then disappears for three episodes and kind of devoting a lot more of the real estate of the show to developing her. So that really stood out to me with some of these like smaller characters getting their moment to shine a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Aisha, the ship's like AI is voiced by Tiffany Haddish. So yeah, she definitely had a lot more to do this season. And that does make me think about, you know, you talk about how like Yummy like points out the fact that like,
00:21:09
Speaker
He's lacking character development. The show is very self-aware and it points out the things that they're doing. I remember I think it was last season or maybe the second season where Terry says something like, the solar opposites are going on vacation or it's a road trip episode or whatever.
00:21:28
Speaker
Keeping in mind that Aisha is tied to the ship, it might have been the last episode of the season, actually. Now that I'm thinking about it, I think it is. But the fact that they've been stranded on Earth has been such an integral part of the show. And we find out that the ship has been repaired for the better part of four months.
00:21:50
Speaker
the the the commitment to just get weird with what the schlorpians can do too is is great like they're all of a sudden they'll just decide that the schlorpians have this like weird anatomy thing and they'll just that'll be the episode so like and this season it was the whole jesse and yum yelak having the elbow thing where their elbows were like getting all weird and stuff at the
00:22:12
Speaker
It was, I think it was in maybe first episode, like, so that was completely out of nowhere. You have the whole thing of them transforming into humans because it's like a nervous response system. You have the thing with Jesse, like basically going through puberty and having like a flower spurt out of her hair like two seasons ago and being like,
00:22:29
Speaker
So it's like every once in a while, they'll just be like, all right, the schlorpians have something really strange. You know, like, that's where the whole the whole Goobler thing came from. Like, they get stressed out and they create creatures like stress, you know. So I really like just that deepening of lore that they're constantly doing. You know, you think about us like,
00:22:47
Speaker
Our anatomy would be weird to someone with no background right so like you got an alien species their anatomy is just crazy to us but I do like the idea of just constantly exploring that bringing something just absurd out into the limelight every few episodes and then just constantly carrying it through multiple seasons.
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah, the Gooblers especially are, I especially like those and historically we had only seen Gooblers emerge when somebody was stressed or panicking, but we had the great episode, the season, the Super Gooblers, where we found any strong emotion that gets repressed, we will see the emergence of a Super Goobler and Terry has a whole cavalcade of like so.
00:23:30
Speaker
As much as he's like the happy-go-lucky character, he clearly has some stuff going on. And then Yum Yulak's got that sex-crazed one, which is fitting with his character. He's definitely the horny teenage kid. But then Jesse does get some real development with her repressed anger and her Googler kind of becoming such a problem.
00:23:52
Speaker
Again, the show being as self-aware as it is, they point out that Corvo and Jesse don't really have much of a relationship, and they never had a story together. And as they're exploring that, they're effectively having a story together. Yeah.
00:24:06
Speaker
Yeah. And the other thing that kind of comes to mind when you're talking about that, you did mention the flower sprouting out of Jesse said, but they, they frequently bring up the fact that they're like plant based beings. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty wild. Turn. I mean, literally the end of the season was them turning into trees and you're just like, cause you thought that they were going to die and then they turned into a tree and you're like, I guess this is how they're going to explain it. Okay. And they just never talked about it again.
00:24:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And it wasn't this season. I think it might've been last season, but they talk about at the introduction how Planet Shlorp was a utopia and this asteroid hit. So all these Shlorpians went out into the galaxy and had to find new homes. But we find out that this has happened like
00:24:48
Speaker
over and over and over again to the point that like schlorpians are actually like being hunted by the silver cops for basically just, you know, killing countless, countless planets and species. Yeah. So I do want to talk about some of like the guest stars we've had. So we, you know, we mentioned Tiffany Haddish and the, and the role of Aisha. And I think about Dan Stevens taking the
00:25:13
Speaker
role of Corvo and had he not been put in the situation where he did have to take that role, I have to imagine it would have only been a matter of time before he joined the show. I don't know how that all went down, but if he was a fan of the show and
00:25:27
Speaker
asked to be a part of it or something like that, but they've gotten some incredible talent like Alfred Molina appearing as the Duke, the desperate ruling over the wall in the first couple of seasons. Sterling K. Brown making a turn as one of the denizens of the wall.
00:25:46
Speaker
trying to think if any other ones come to mind. I can't remember her name, but Pezli's mom, like the redhead in the wall, is voiced by Christina Hendrix. Yeah, yeah, Sherry. And she's just a solid voice actor in anything that she's in. Yeah, definitely.
00:26:03
Speaker
the Hive Mind from the Hive Mind episode of Rick and Morty, which is Unity, which is like one of my favorite Rick and Morty episodes. So she was the voice of Unity and just brought so much life to that character. So she's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know there are countless other ones, but they're just not coming to mind. I mean, Kieran Culkin, as we mentioned, being the voice of Glenn. Oh, and that episode that he had, so I do appreciate that the show is willing to,
00:26:31
Speaker
We're going to, they have episodes where it's like, we're not even going to deal with the schlorpians right now. We're going to have a whole episode devoted to Glenn and his, you know, his space adventures or a whole episode devoted to the wall. So, um, with Glenn, there was, uh, that episode where he was on this, this planet with like a, a class battle going on. But, uh, I know Skylar Gisando voiced one of those, um, I think they were called like hollow cons or something like that with holograms in their chest. And then Daveed Diggs was actually like,
00:26:59
Speaker
the main one that Glenn had this budding friendship with. So yeah, yeah. Talent all around. And I guess on that note to speak to some of the talent kind of behind the scenes, like Rick and Morty has been celebrated for being a collaboration between Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland. But Solar Opposites was a collaboration between Justin Roiland and Mike McMahon, who I had to do a little bit of research to be more familiar with him. But he's had a
00:27:29
Speaker
a pretty storied career in animation. He worked on shows like South Park. He was initially a writer on Rick and Morty. He went on to create Star Trek Lower Decks, which I have not watched, but I've heard great things about. So I did notice in this fourth season, they made it a point not to have Justin Roiland's name featured. I think before, when the Solar Opposites title card came up,
00:27:56
Speaker
it was there, but now they just omitted it entirely. And I'm like, yeah, I don't know if that's fair to Mike McMahon or not. Yeah. Yeah. You can, I did wonder like if we were going to see a shift at all in tone from the Roiland departure, but it really does seem like to me, I didn't feel like it missed too many beats.
00:28:15
Speaker
No, I agree. Yeah. And in a lot of ways, you know, and it could be just the fact that the show's been going on for four seasons. Now they have the ability to go back and make these callbacks. But I felt like this season really did like pull something, at least one thing from every single season that's come before. Like we got to see the wood city again, that was a result of, you know, them transforming an entire city into these people that are made out of woods and everything like that. You have daft trunk.
00:28:44
Speaker
It's like, I totally forgot about that until you said that. Yeah, yeah. And then one of my favorite episodes, I think it was in the first season, but they had Fun Bucket, this character that was like Chuck E. Cheese or something like that, but they really liked and they made him real and he went on to reject them. But they make references like, oh, we can use the same ray that we used to create Fun Bucket to create this dinosaur that's going to be the family pet.
00:29:10
Speaker
What do we find out they all want to kill the family pet and the family pet? And then that led, like it's just, you start to put the pieces together. It's like that led to the stock, the stock averse, which I thought was so hilarious. Like I thought that was such a hilarious subplot of the, and it's so creative and interesting. And just to me, like it's, it's one of the, I think it's one of the best animated shows on right now. Like in terms of comedy, I mean, I think, um,
00:29:36
Speaker
there's certainly things that it could improve on and it could do a little bit better. But like, I think when you add them all up, I think it's one of the most just, um, if you're looking for something that just takes itself, uh, not super, super seriously, but knows what it is and leans into what it is. And it's just really smart and funny. Like, I don't know what I'd put. I mean, I'd put Rick and Morty up there with it at its best. Um, but like it's, I think it's right up there with some of the best, uh, animated stuff that's out there right now.
00:30:04
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree. One thing I do wish, uh, I'd like to see from it, which I don't know if it is this show is the thing. Like, I don't know if it's really wanting to be this on any level, but I do, I do see when it tries to take an emotional beat every once in a while. And I think it does sort of succeed like in a sitcom way.
00:30:24
Speaker
right where it's like kind of teaching a lesson at the end maybe it's like a teaching a lesson about family or something like that and you know you can kind of see where they're going with it but I still feel like it is missing just like an occasional like really impactful emotional beat you know like a development for the character and again it's like it's not that kind of show but I think it can be like
00:30:48
Speaker
Rick and Morty like for example like Rick and Morty is not that show in ninety five percent of its run. But every once in a while it'll hit an emotional beat that sticks with you so like. The mention the episode we mentioned earlier about the hive mind with unity like the end of that episode that's one of the most powerful scenes in the whole show I think.
00:31:07
Speaker
Yeah, where he's like depressed and he, you know, sticks his head under the ray and then passes out, you know, all of that, like you have the scene where he switches Beth and her clone, like, and that's and he and says, like, he's a terrible father and all this stuff. Like, that's a really hard hitting.
00:31:23
Speaker
episode and then the episode where he the guy dies that was sitting on his toilet that he had like declared war on and it affected him deeply like he was so upset and deeply hurt because it was this one person that he had connected with he hated him he didn't he loved him and so he's sitting on that toilet and it's like he's got his own hologram calling him the loneliest most pathetic man in the universe and you can tell like so
00:31:48
Speaker
Those emotional beats, they're rare, but they're so, they just, they nail it. Like every time they try to nail it, they do. And I really want to see that in this show. Like I don't want to see it all the time. Like, you know, but I want to see it just like once a season or something. Like you just make me like, you just crush me about like,
00:32:08
Speaker
Or you like crush me about Corvo, you know, like you give me something just deeply emotional. I think it would help me connect a lot more with yeah, and I already feel connected to them. But I think I think that that to me, I do kind of want to see that a little bit. Sure, sure. No, I think you're spot on if there was anything that the short the show rather kind of has a shortcoming with I would agree and
00:32:32
Speaker
When you started talking about these emotional beats, my head went to the same space that episode with Rick at the end of the Unity episode, just how that really sat with me. And it was something I reflected on and thought about after the episode. And I can't say I've really done that with Solar Opposites to the same extent. And even some of the other shows I brought up, Futurama has certainly had some episodes like that where it really strikes an emotional chord. And I guess thinking about this show, I think
00:33:00
Speaker
the best avenue it has to do that and probably the closest it's come so far is with the Walsap lot, just having these people that had regular lives and one little slight wound them up in this dystopia. But I think about so...
00:33:16
Speaker
in the first season, we had the character of Tim, who was our protagonist, like going up against the Duke and then we see him become the villain and he becomes, you know, the ruler of this wall. But in the third season, I believe it was, he had this whole like fever dream where he thought, you know, he was, he's making things right. And then it turns out it was just the results of
00:33:33
Speaker
lead poisoning from this collectible cup he had been drinking out of. So I think that's probably the closest, because I do remember when we got that revelation, it was just like, oh, wow. It was kind of crazy to watch this character that we were really rooting for, just like him have this such an unfortunate end.
00:33:51
Speaker
Yeah. And that's what they do. So we've kind of said it before, but they do so, so such interesting things with taking characters that in any other show would be a minor throwaway character and just developing them and getting to the point where they're almost develop the developing them like for the joke.
00:34:10
Speaker
like they're developing them so much over seasons. Again, like what we said about this is a guy that was a complete throwaway in a subplot. They shot a bullet up into the air and it happened to fall into this guy's foot and he was just this normal average, just like douchey guy. They shot him into space, but we've been with him for over a season now and we're heavily invested in what happened to him.
00:34:34
Speaker
And so it's like, to me, that type of commitment to the development, it shows me that they know how to develop characters. That's there. They can bring depth to these characters and stories to these characters. I mean, they've proven that. But I think it's just, how are they going to continue to do that? I know a season five is coming, but is that the end? And it's like, are we seeing more seasons of this? How deep are we going to go on some of these characters?
00:35:05
Speaker
Yeah, I know. I agree. And I think that's a great point. And I'm glad you mentioned the fact that we do know that we have a season five on the way. I think it was...
00:35:14
Speaker
uh, confirmed back in like October, October of 2022. So I kind of find myself, you know, hoping that what you brought up about the audience reception to this season with Dan Stevens, uh, stepping into the role that hopefully that doesn't negatively impact the show too much because, you know, I, I really look forward even having just finished season four, I'm already looking forward to season five and then the places they could go with it because this season like left off with them still being human. They look like they're, you know, they're taking the right, um,
00:35:44
Speaker
course to correct that. But I just have to imagine similar to the way previous seasons have picked up right where the last one left off, like this season we had Corvo and Terry working the boring job, like the boring corporate job because they had to do it for the good of the pupa. And they abandoned that after episode two, but I would still like to see that thread picked up. But I don't think we need to be too long winded on this episode. Did you have anything else you wanted to
00:36:31
Speaker
the backlash that we're seeing from solar opposites with the review bombing and just the really negative takes that are online about, um, about the voice and all of that. And people just immediately being done because of the voice, like not even giving it a chance. I do wonder if we'll see a similar reaction with Rick and Morty when it starts in October or, or if the, I don't know if people are getting it out of their system now or whatever, but it does seem to be a lightning rod kind of at least online.
00:36:34
Speaker
to bring up about the show before we get out of here.
00:37:01
Speaker
But I personally, I feel like I got over the voice. I feel like I got into it and I feel like by the end I was embracing it. And I'm excited for another season. I think the places, the storylines that the show could go, the fact that we have these three concurrent storylines that I'm really invested in different ways in all of them. I'm invested in just the craziness and the sci-fi craziness of the Shlorpians and all of that. I'm invested in just the,
00:37:29
Speaker
the drama and the politics and like the Game of Thrones of it all off the wall. And I'm really invested in this whole story of the Silver Cops. And they're all in different ways. So to me, just watching these stories kind of take these different branches, all playing around each other. I'm really excited for the future of the show. And I'm excited to
00:37:50
Speaker
to watch Rick and Morty and watch this and kind of see how they're adapting to this, not reboot, but just kind of refreshed. Like we're, we're kind of moving on from the, the old guard. We're kind of embracing some new writers. We're trying to see if we can put our own new type of spin on it.
00:38:07
Speaker
sure you know I mean we're not we weren't in those rooms we don't know anything about Justin Roiland but it does seem like all the legal stuff aside it does seem like a lot of people kind of had an issue with working with him just as a professional I mean it seems like a lot of things came out about just
00:38:25
Speaker
having to feel like he, while he was talented in many ways, that people did feel like he maybe was kind of dragging down a little bit of the writing of the show and the direction of the show. So I think you can feel a little bit of renewed energy in Solar Opposites. I mean, I felt like I felt a bit of renewed energy in the season and I am kind of anticipating that that'll be true of Rick and Morty too, that there will feel like there's a little bit of fresh energy around it. Yeah. Yeah. We can, we can hope.
00:38:55
Speaker
But I generally share your optimism for the future of both shows. On that note, I guess we will wrap things up here. So thank you again for making your debut on Animation Deliberation. Do you want to let the people know what else you have going on and where else they can find you?
00:39:13
Speaker
Yeah, I am on Multiverse News with you. We record on Tuesday nights and those episodes drop on Wednesday where we talk about entertainment news. And that's always a fun show. So you can catch me over there. If you're into geek culture and entertainment news and movies and TV shows, you can kind of come join in those conversations with us.
00:39:34
Speaker
And then I'm also on Commute the Podcast, which is a weekly educational show. It's only about 20 minutes long. It drops on Monday mornings. And me and my co-host, Dave, we run through three interesting topics in about 20 minutes to try to teach you something just like water cooler stuff on your way to work, stuff you can bring up with people and talk about and have interesting things to go over with other people. So yeah, you can find me in both those places, Multiverse News and Commute the Podcast.
00:40:01
Speaker
Right on. Yeah, I just kind of have to take a moment to seeing the praises of Commute. It's really good and just the production value that's there and the amount of work that clearly goes in the show. You guys run a tight ship and I started listening to podcasts because of a 45 minute commute in Southern California traffic and I just got so frustrated because I like to listen to talk radio, but there was always so many ads. So the fact that you've
00:40:26
Speaker
crafted a show that, like you said, it teaches you something and gives you these random facts and little tidbits that you can bring up in conversation and kind of be the educated one at a cocktail party or what have you. So if any of our listeners haven't checked out, commute the podcast, please do that. And if you haven't listened to Multiverse News, I'm extremely disappointed in you. Do that now. I'm just kidding.
00:40:53
Speaker
So yeah, if you like what we're doing here, I just ask that you like the show, share the show, leave us a review. You can always hit us up on any of our social medias. Find us at Animation Deliberation. And if you want to send us an email, animationdeliberationpodcastatgmail.com. And thank you for the support, and keep tuning in. That's T-double-O-N-I-N.
00:41:15
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Animation Deliberation Podcast, a proud member of the Strandepanda Network. If you would like to contact us, you can email AnimationDeliberationPodcast at gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at AnimationDelib1. For this and other great shows, you can visit Strandepanda.com or join the great community that is the Strandepanda Chat Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash spchat. Tune in next time and remember, stay well.