Knuckles (2024)
Season One
Premiered: April 26th, 2024 (Paramount+)
Directors: Carol Banker (2 episodes) Jeff Fowler, Jorma Taccone, Brandon Trost,, Ged Wright (1 Episode each)
Writing Credits: Toby Ascher (6 episodes) James Madejski (1 Ep), Brian Schacter (2 episodes) John Whittington (3 episodes)
Cast: Idris Elba (voice), Adam Pally, Stockard Channing
Opening Thoughts:
Streaming services don’t care about artistic integrity. Not when there is a cheap buck to be made. So what happens is the vast majority of the films produced are crafted simply to bank off of already-known enterprises. Give the audience cheap entertainment and maybe they’ll shell out some money for your so-called premium streaming service.
Plot:
Knuckles is bored in Green Hills, and he takes Walter under his tutelage to mature and become a “warrior”.
Dislikes:
The worst aspect of the Knuckles season experience is the writing. The humor is not up to par most of the time. The characters don’t have a lot of depth to them. There isn’t the development of any emotional bond with the characters. The character arcs are very shallow. The villains feel very mediocre and more or less are easily dispatched repeatedly.
This is a placeholder as people wait for Sonic the Hedgehog 3, that is being released later this year. Add in a possible source of returns for the struggling Paramount+. It makes sense they would go with this idea, but they don’t deliver something of real quality. It fills the time, but not the heart.
Likes:
The best thing about this series is that Knuckles looks good. They gave the SFX budget some respect and it paid off in the visual quality.
Knuckles is very much the character you see in Sonic The Hedgehog 2 though they do add some camp value to the series, but it works well enough.
There are a few action sequences that are satisfying to watch. Mixed in is the occasional joke that works.
The cast makes this work better than it should. The acting is all average to above average. If the jokes landed better, it would be more memorable.
There is a story arc of having Wade, the deputy of Green Hills become a more matured and serious character. He still has his comedic relief tone, but there is an added edge to him that could pay off in the future. I welcome the advancement of this character although I feel they could have achieved it by other means.
Some great supporting characters in this mini-series.
Closing Thoughts:
Streaming services are short on quality content and ever shorter on art. On seldom occasions, you may get something worthwhile, but a lot of it is lackluster. Knuckles isn’t great, not even as good as the movies that run that line of average. That being said, it isn’t awful and I see no harm if people have some enjoyment here. The series has some nice action sequences and some good jokes. Far from perfect, but at least it feels like some effort was given even if sometimes it goes in a strange direction.
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