May 8, 2020

-Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roland's "Solar Opposites" is now available on Hulu.

Justin Roland co-produced this animated sci-fi comedy filled with mayhem and gore. Solar Opposites, which arrives on Hulu today, will inevitably draw comparisons to Rick and Morty, the film that catapulted Roland to fame. On the surface, there are similarities: dimension-warping premise, irreverent humor.

But whereas "Rick and Morty" (currently in its fourth season on Adult Swim) follows the misadventures of a time-traveling human, "Solar Opposites" is about a clan of aliens stranded on Earth, and for that matter, in a suburb of central America. Roland created the film with Mike McMahan, writer and producer of "Rick and Morty."

Solar Opposites was originally planned for Fox. They passed and the series ended up on Hulu. McMahan told Den of Geek: "At Fox, you have to appeal to a wide audience; at Fox, you have to appeal to a wide audience; at Hulu, you have to appeal to a wide audience. So when we did the pilot one more time, we added more of the crazy parts and pushed the safe parts aside, and Hulu is like, 'Whatever makes you happy, make it happy.'" The eight-episode series, all premiering at once, also differs from "Rick and Morty," which critics have noted is more sequential in structure.

Voices include Thomas Middleditch, Sean Giambrone, Mary Mack, and Roland himself. The executive producers are Roland, McMahan, and Josh Bysel, and the show is produced by 20th Century Fox Television, which, like Hulu, is now owned by Disney.

The show has been warmly received. Daniel Feinberg, in a review in The Hollywood Reporter, distinguishes the show from its predecessor:

Fans of animated television will likely be excited by how hardcore Roland and McMahan are doing, especially for a premise that was originally developed at Fox They will be. From the abundant use of adult language to the violence that is so cartoonish and gory that visceral shows like "Rick and Morty" take a backseat, this is definitely not for kids.

Kayla Cobb, a contributor to Decider, also points out the differences:

But "Solar Opposites" triples the silliest moments of Roland's first show, the melancholy, nihilism, and existentialism of Rick and Morty, replaced with more humor. ...... Solar Opposites is not as meta, intellectually challenging, or philosophical as Rick and Morty. Instead, it is a silly show about bumbling aliens who are content to amuse themselves with bad magic tricks.

Like other critics, Alex McLevy of the A.V. Club claims that the series gets better as it goes on:

[I] took most of the season to get a firm understanding of who these characters are, and major personality traits are still introduced and explored in later episodes. With only eight episodes, the first season seems to be finding its footing as it nears its end. Fortunately, the humor is reliably strong, the pacing furious as it rushes from one plotline to the next, and it's hard not to be drawn in by the avalanche of "Hoero to the Sun" charm.

Bradley Russell elaborates on this point in his three-star review on Gamesradar:

Solar Opposites' tone is confused and erratic. The opening episodes include uncensored f-bombs, sex references, and even a torture scene that feels out of place with the overall light and fluffy tone cultivated elsewhere. One moment it's wacky, the next it starts cursing like a sailor. This disconnect will not work for the foreseeable future.