A Criminally Overlooked Sci‑Fi Sitcom Finally Arrives on Netflix

Image: 20th Television Animation

If you enjoy Rick and Morty but wish it pushed its absurdity even further, then Solar Opposites is likely to be right up your alley. Debuting as a Hulu original in May 2020, the show quietly built a devoted following. Despite operating in the long shadow (and occasional controversy) surrounding Rick and Morty, Solar Opposites stands on its own as a clever, boundary-pushing piece of science fiction now available to a wider audience on Netflix.

Writer-producer Mike McMahan supplies much of the show’s creative backbone. After his Emmy-winning tenure on episodes like “Pickle Rick,” McMahan moved on from Rick and Morty to develop new projects — including the animated Star Trek spin-off Lower Decks — but Solar Opposites arguably represents his most unfiltered comedic voice.

The series — co-created by McMahan and Justin Roiland — follows a motley extraterrestrial unit that escapes its doomed homeworld and lands on Earth with colonization plans. The principal players include Korvo (originally voiced by Roiland, later recast) and Terry (Thomas Middleditch), who shepherd their cloned wards Yumyulack (Sean Giambrone) and Jesse (Mary Mack). Their household also contains a mysterious engineered infant known as the “Pupa,” a creature destined to metamorphose and reshape the planet.

At its core, Solar Opposites is a study in cultural observation: the aliens intend to document humanity as a prelude to conquest, but their research repeatedly derails into surreal, self-contained misadventures. Early episodes lampoon pop-culture fixation (an in-universe show called Funbucket), while others send the leads off on bizarre detours — from constructing a masculine hangout to fixating on trivial comforts.

The series truly sparkles when it abandons restraint. Season 1 features a striking bottle episode in which Yumyulack miniaturizes humans and houses them in a terrarium, allowing the show to develop a gritty, Mad Max-esque micro-society. The creators also indulge in inventive holiday detours; one standout Christmas installment reframes Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Jingle All the Way as a piece of sci-fi horror, a blend that lingers long after viewing.

When both Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites parted ways with Justin Roiland amid allegations, each show took a different route. Rick and Morty pursued a high-profile search for replacement voice talent capable of echoing the original performances. By contrast, Solar Opposites brought in Dan Stevens (known for Legion) to inhabit Korvo and let the new interpretation evolve organically.

In short, Solar Opposites can be thought of as a looser, more anarchic cousin to Rick and Morty: it sacrifices some of the latter’s philosophical rigor in favor of full-throttle satire and wild genre pastiche. If that energetic, off-kilter approach appeals to you, it’s well worth a watch.

Solar Opposites is available to stream on both Netflix and Hulu.

Source: Polygon