The blow thrower, independent flower, magical emerald holder, he gives you the coldest shoulder, and his spikes go through boulders–Okay, that’s enough song lyrics. As I meant to say, everyone’s favorite Rad Red Echidna has finally gotten his show set in the maybe-soon-to-be SCU (Sonic Cinematic Universe), lasting a total of six episodes.
Overall thoughts? Yeah, I loved it. Still, keep in mind that this is the Sonic fan in me saying this, meaning I will be there to praise whatever this franchise puts out because I have a problem…
Now if we talk about it critically, well, it’s still enjoyable–to a degree. The show starts with a simple recap of the second movie, narrated by the blue blur himself.
After this recap, we follow Knuckles the Echidna, the warrior who’s now living with Sonic and Tails, but is feeling unfulfilled as there are no new threats to fight, nor a reason to train. That is until he is visited by one of his ancestors. After that, he gets ready to train the local Green Hills town Sheriff, Wade Whipple.
For those not aware, Wade Whipple showed up briefly in the first two Sonic movies as more of a comedic character who didn’t play that huge of a role in the overall stories. In this show, he plays a bigger role and I thought his quest with Knuckles was nice to follow.
To summarize, he plans to travel to Reno, Nevada to compete in a bowling tournament that’ll finally reunite him with his father who abandoned him in a TJMaxx. During this journey, Knuckles is hunted down by two agents of government.
Luis Bernal commented on this saying, “I liked that Knuckles was still treated as ‘a random alien’ on Earth and that he, Sonic, and Tails were under surveillance by the government because it establishes what happens after the movies.”
Speaking of Wade’s story, if people were expecting more Knuckles in his show, well, you might come out disappointed. From the fourth episode onward, Knuckles starts appearing less and less. It wasn’t a huge deal for me, I still enjoyed watching Wade and his antics. However, I have to admit that it does sting having a show called “Knuckles” not have Knuckles as much.
North Hollywood student Anthony Flores commented on this stating, “I thought it was a pretty fun show. But, I wish the later episodes would’ve had more of Knuckles, and that the main villain would have shown up more, but it was still enjoyable.”
Speaking of villains, we have Agents Willoughby and Mason, played by Ellie Taylor and Kid Cudi. In short, I loved these guys. Their dynamic was fun to watch and their fights with Knuckles were great. I am sad they weren’t included more because I think they could’ve made great main antagonists, at least compared to our actual main villain.
He goes by “The Buyer” and all we know is that he worked for Eggman…That’s it. That’s the only backstory we ever get from him. I feel like he could’ve been so good as a main villain had he been utilized more, but his whole character feels very underbaked. We don’t even get told that his name is “The Buyer” unless we look at the promotional posters for the show.
Overall, I feel like we got to know more about the human characters than of Knuckles himself. Again, most of them aren’t that bad, and they might manage to get a few laughs out of the audience. Mainly in episode four. That rock opera was a fever dream.
The visuals are great and the CGI quality is on par with the movies’, making the fight scenes very good. They’re probably my favorite part of the show, with one in episode three using a cool, wide camera shot that fully rotates around. There’s also no real need to watch this show to even understand the movies.
When asked to sum up her thoughts on the show, Adriana Perez said, “I think the show could have gone so much in a better and interesting route if they had, like, gotten a villain from Knuckle’s past that has been an enemy to his clan. But having humans and Dr. Robotnik is alright I guess….”
