Adult Swim quietly launched the first season of their hit new show Smiling Friends on HBO Max late Tuesday night (or really early Wednesday morning, depending on how you want to look at it). That means that most audiences now have access to it at no additional cost, and it’s the perfect time to check it out. The show is the first successful commercial property from creative minds Michael Cusak and Zach Hadel; two guys who have had varying degrees of success over the years in the realm of online media through outlets like YouTube and Newgrounds.
Smiling Friends follows social workers Charlie (voiced by Hadel) and Pim (Cusak) who attempt to bring happiness and joy to their bizarre animated world. This typically involves their boss assigning them with the job of making someone smile, whether that be a canceled celebrity, a heartbroken gamer, or anybody in need of cheering up. This allows the show to explore different social and political terrain in a way which feels genuine and calculated. Stereotypes, cancel culture, media misinformation, racism, and many other hot topics are covered but never exploited. The root of the show is always the often loveable characters and the situations they find themselves in.
In the first episode, Charlie and Pim are tasked with bringing happiness to what they are led to believe is a young boy named Desmond (voiced by Red Letter Media’s Mike Stoklasa). When they arrive at the young boy’s house, they are greeted instead with a middle aged man ready to take his own life due to social and physical complications. “My dog died of a broken heart last fall”, Desmond hilariously mentions. The two decide to embark on a journey to show Desmond some reasons why his life is worth living after all. The rest of the episodes in the season follow a similar formula.
Immediately the show stands out with its stark blend of surrealism; each character is given distinct scale and features to represent their personality. Sometimes this means using different forms of mixed media like stop motion, live action, paintings, or CGI. Other times it’s the way the environment itself reacts to the characters inhabiting it. It’s almost as if David Lynch’s Dumbland was constructed by the team behind SpongeBob Squarepants. Of course those shows are vastly different from one another, Smiling Friends finds a middle ground in a way which many earlier Adult Swim shows used to achieve. I could see younger audiences really gravitating towards this show, especially with the steep decline in young adult programming since the dawn of streaming.
Audiences who grew up in the ‘00s will also find plenty of the vindication in watching their childhood icons make television appearances. There are cameos from YouTube stars like David Firth (Salad Fingers) and James Rolfe (The Angry Video Game Nerd). There is a particularly hilarious use of live action in the form of a performance by Perry F. Caravello as a fast food restaurant owner named Simon S. Salty. Gilbert Gottfried himself even drops in for a few short lines. Clearly a lot of thought was put into the individual roles the voice actors would be playing, and it’s hard to imagine any of them being delivered differently than they are currently. It’s a testament to incredible pre-production work and the dedication from everyone involved. I think it’s safe to say that Adult Swim has quite the product in their hands. It will be interesting to see where they choose to take it with subsequent seasons. Season One gets Four Stars from this smiling friend. 🙂
Smiling Friends is streaming on HBO Max and available for Rent/Purchase on Apple TV.
This show is brilliant and subversive, glad to see you reviewed it.
I agree, Joe. Already renewed for Season Two!
This sounds like something one would get high and watch late at night and eat snacks to like the Adult Swim days.
Definitely! Would love to hear what you think of it.
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