EGN NEWS DESK
The setup for the Adult Swim collection “Smiling Friends,” obtainable on Max, sounds just like the premise of a cheery, do-unto-others youngsters’s present: Charlie and Pim (voiced by Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack, the present’s creators) and their kooky buddies work at Smiling Friends Inc., the place their job is to make shoppers smile.
But there may be nary a shred of cutesy wholesomeness right here — as an alternative, there may be cursing, bloodshed, absurdity, silliness. The present is so quick and feral it appears like its personal spotlight reel.
Each 12-minute installment takes us on one other deranged misadventure, to odd enclaves and international planets, to seek out misplaced loves, affect political elections, revamp video-game franchises. “Smiling Friends” has an omnivorous sensibility, and its punchlines may be surreal and warped or grounded and tenderly particular, all a part of its grand ethnography of bizarre little freaks. It additionally varies its animation model, with Charlie and Pim wanting largely unchanged however visitor characters depicted in a variety of codecs: stay motion, grotesque illustration, rotoscoped realism.
If a few of this character design conjures fond associations with “Tom Goes to the Mayor” or “Beavis and Butt-Head,” nicely, that’s how you might be in the proper place. “Smiling” is extra acrid than “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” and performs by completely different guidelines than “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” however it has an analogous naughtiness.
The present first aired as a backdoor pilot in 2020, was ordered to collection in 2021, debuted in 2022 and is about to complete its second season on Sunday at midnight on Adult Swim. (It was lately renewed for a 3rd season.) Part of the enchantment right here is the present’s broad curiosity and unpredictable rhythm; its grab-bagginess recreates the lure of a blind-box toy. There’s additionally a snacky high quality to “Smiling,” due to the peppy vulgarity that’s principally Adult Swim’s Doritos powder.
Its episodic nature and quick operating instances assist, too — although as with every fashionable present that desires to be beloved, Easter eggs and deep-cut callbacks abound.
