"Smiling Friends Season 1 and Season 2" How Do They Do It?

 


    I don't get it, this show doesn't make any sense, it shouldn't work, yet it does. It's not funny, I don't think I ever laugh when I watch this show, nor do I crumple because it feels like my gut is about to burst. It's not like the story is quite that deep, sure there's lore and a bunch of random explained things that happen in the show, but I think things would start to be bogged down if they explained them. Yet, despite all of those things, I can't stop watching this show. I legitimately don't understand why I love this show so much, it's so weird, bizarre, absurd, but also so captivating that my eyes are glued to my screen every time I put this show on. Of course, I had seen clips of this show online, and I had heard people rave about it, but it wasn't until my told me he had watched it that I decided to give this show a try, and boy was it worth it.

    For starters, I think one of the ways Smiling Friends succeeds is that it has a really short runtime. There are 9 episodes in season 1, and each episode is only approximately 10-11 minutes long. They never go over and they never go under, and that way nothing really overstays it's welcome. This works really well for this show, because it's basically just the writers fucking around with whatever weird or absurd bit/gag they wanted to do that day. And for the most part they hit, I mean other than the last episode where they just go to Brazil and stay in an airport the entire time, which I don't get, I'd say most of them landed. If I had to choose my favourite episodes I'd say Mr. Frog, Enchanted Forest, and Charlie Dies and Doesn't Come Back are probably my favourites this time around. Just something about Mr. Frog and the way he'll randomly say Hello in ways that make no sense intrigues me.

    I'd write a longer review for this show, but frankly other than the premise there's no way to explain it. It's just two peeople, Charlie and Pim, who work for a company who's job it is to make people smile. The rest is just random weird stuff happening with and around them. Like that one time Pim was explaining how he kissed his dad on the lips, or that one dude who lives in the walls of their company building, which is somehow a sphere, or that thing that sucks on the bosses tit. If you think too hard about it, you're not watching the show properly. You are simply meant to observe and react, not analyze, and considering the show is basically 90 minutes a season I'd say its absolutely worth your time. I mean giving it a try would mean it's still shorter than most movies, so why not right?

Final Score: 75/100

    I think I really appreciate the short length. I mean it could be seen as an admission that my attention span is absolutely destroyed, but it could also be seen as a recognition that not everything has to be super deep for it to be enjoyable. There's not some big underlying message that really makes you rethink how society functions, it's just fun. I'm just surprised at how popular this show has become. I guess with the mainstreamification of Rick and Morty another Adult Swim show was bound to take it's place, and the characters in this one are cute enough.

Edit: 13/07/24

    I'm just writing this paragraph to talk a bit about season 2, because basically, I think it's the same good heaping of the same show. I mean I'm not particularly picky when it comes to TV, but the show's so short, and the formula remained so unchanged, I didn't really feel like I had anything new to warrant a whole new review on the show. What I've mostly noticed is that they're trying to tinker with the dynamics, fleshing out other characters. So no longer are all of the adventures just Charlie and Pim doing stuff, sometimes Allan will tag along, or maybe it's Pim and the Boss. I think this is a good move by the showrunners to try and diversify the content of the show a little bit, though personally, I would have liked to see Glep finally get to go on an adventure, whether it be a solo one like Allan, or one with other characters from the show. Allan is still my favourite character by the way they should include him more in my opinion. I'd also like to talk about how the show is doing callbacks to beloved characters from season 1 like DJ Spit and Mr. Frog. I love how they don't even acknowledge that they've been on screen before and are just having them show up to play random unexplained roles.

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