Sonic Boom, Episode 2.38: Eggman's Anti-Gravity Ray

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.38: Eggman's Anti-Gravity Ray

Original Air Date: July 29th, 2017

At the beginning of "Eggman's Anti-Gravity Ray," the titular scientist is having a pleasant weekend morning when his Sunday paper gets blown away by a persistent breeze. He decides the best way to resolve this is to move his base several degrees to the right. He plans to accomplish this with an Anti-Gravity device he cooks up seemingly in an afternoon. The scientist leaves the room long enough for Cubot and Orbot to start playing with the gizmo. This results in it getting stuck on Cubot's head, while casting anti-gravity rays all over the general area as the robot continuously floats upward. Before Eggman can contain the situation, the same breeze carries Cubot over Hedgehog Village. Now it's Sonic and the gang's problem, as more and more innocent bystanders and their stuff starts to levitate towards the mesosphere. 

"Eggman's Anti-Gravity Ray" is an episode built around a true statement of physical comedy: People floating around in zero gravity is funny. The fact that we are held to the ground by the rotation and mass of our planet is perhaps the most unavoidable truth around. That stuff falls down is probably the first scientific law we all learn, when we are still babies. To strip away that ever apparent status is an innate violation of something our brains understand to be inherent about life. It's why the sight of people floating in space, or Superman taking to the sky, always fills us with a sense of wonder and whimsy. Such an upturning of the status-quo is also an upturning of something standard and evident, one of the principles of comedy. I know, I sure wrote a lot of words to explain why it's funny when people are flailing around in the air. But that's true and it's also the kind of physical comedy not many shows can do, at least outside of cartoons with some sort of sci-fi element.

That alone probably could've provided enough gags for a ten minute cartoon. However, "Eggman's Anti-Gravity Ray" amusingly keeps escalating. We begin with the funny premise of Eggman cooking up a wildly impractical solution to a commonplace, extremely mundane problem. That rises to Cubot getting the machine stuck on his head, which raises to the anti-gravity effects wreaking havoc on the village. This is a big, sci-fi, action movie problem the heroes must think of a solution too, before everyone floats off into space. After seemingly solving that problem, the episode keeps going. The machine is reversed and now extra-gravity is slowly flattening everyone, forcing our heroes to rethink a solution to a new challenge. In other words, every incident in this script builds organically on the one before as the story moves towards bigger and more exciting events. That's what writing is supposed to do when it's good! 

Another indicator that scripter Marie Beardmore was paying attention during screenwriting class is how Knuckles gets a tidy little character arc in this episode. At the beginning of the episode, while Eggman is engineering the shenanigans that will occupy the rest of the runtime, Team Sonic are playing soccer. (Otherwise known as "football" to anyone not born without a screaming bald eagle wielding an American flag and an AR-15 tattooed on their heart.) Knuckles gets kicked off the field because he's embracing his masculine need to dig holes. At the very end of the episode, after the Anti-Gravity Ray starts producing excess gravity, Knuckles' digging skills are what end up saving the day. A minor detail from the first act becomes important in the last act. An element of a character that he was previously scorn for ends up earning him respect. This only amounts to two scenes but it adds so much to the episode, making this story feel like a pair of gears smoothly clicking together and working to power a bigger machine that gives the audience satisfaction. I think my metaphor might've gotten a bit obtuse but the point remains: Knuckles has a real purpose in this episode and the script is nicely structured. To think, the domino that led to this moment all started with Takashu Yuda looking up animals that burrowed and deciding the echidna was the coolest looking one... 

Knuckles is also central to a moment in this episode that, unexpectedly, became something of a meme in 2017. What with the series' prominence in millennial pop culture, and subsequently being extremely recognizable among the terminally online, there have been a lot of "Sonic" memes. However, there are definitely layers to the "Sonic" Meme Iceberg. Bimmy is a meme among Archie "Sonic" obsessives but will result in nothing but a blank stare even from a person familiar with Sanic or Ugandan Knuckles. This fandom is composed of circles within circles and the cartoon shows are definitely deeper than the video games or movies. However, a scene from this episode – of Knuckles displaying an unexpected flash of brilliance by having an insightful feminist response to Amy girl-bossing it up – managed to break containment and gain notice outside the insular "Sonic" fandom. It went viral on Twitter shortly after airing, prompting reactions and think pieces from several industry news websites, including Entertainment Weekly. A YouTube clip of the scene currently has over two million views and it still gets reposted on social media from time to time. Considering most people probably weren't even aware of "Sonic Boom" in August of 2017, the show long since shuttled off to Boomerang where it could be safely ignored, this was a fairly big deal for the franchise. I definitely recall some folks commenting on the scene with bemused reactions like "whaaaat even is this show?!" and so forth. Weirdly, I mostly saw left-wing people applauding the joke as "based" or accusing it of "Echidnasplaining." I didn't see much in the way of right-wing hand-wringing over those dastardly feminists corrupting the minds of impressionable children with their woke agenda. I guess "Sonic the Hedgehog" cartoons are beneath the notice of Republican pundits and the deeper tentacles of the far right outrage echo chamber. 

But it is a good joke! It plays off "Boom" expectations of Knuckles being a total simpleton while, also, being a good general bit of absurdity. You don't expect a salient point about feminism in a children's cartoon, ya know? It's a sign of this episode being quite funny overall. There's a good mixture of the typical "Boom" gags here. There's self-aware jabs at the franchise and medium, such as a quality pun about "effecting cannon." Typical moments that are just good old fashion silliness, such as Eggman getting excited about fashion week or French fries, are present. Mostly, the laughs come from watching these characters interact with each other, their long-since-established personalities bouncing off one another. A good pile-up of jokes tarts with Eggman threatening to cut Orbot's wages, before Fastidious Beaver and Leroy the turtle pipe in with corrections. Even Comedy Chimp got a chuckle out of me, with a blatantly cheesy one-liner. Sonic's reaction to Amy being free to express herself, Sticks reacting with expected zeal to the sight of floating towels, or Knuckles murmuring "Touchdown" in a sad voice are all solid jokes built largely off of everything we know about these guys by now. Good, character-based comedy writing.

Not every gag hits. A bit about Eggman doing a gymnastic landing or Knuckles having a wacky line about pizza are fairly lame. This is a dense script, meaning another quality joke is right around the corner even if one whiffs. Cubot, unexpectedly, becomes a good source of yuks here. The droid's unobservant nature leads to some typical bits, such as his inability to understand levitation or to answer a simple question about his status. A wacky glitch leads to Cubot shooting levitation rats out of his hands, the machine immediately transitioning into a would-be New Age cult leader. Like I said, this episode packs in the jokes because imbecilic Cubot starting a touchy-feely cult could easily be the basis for a whole episode. Here, it's another delightfully unexpected joke in an episode that has an abundance of them. 

I guess my point is that "Eggman's Anti-Gravity Ray" is "Sonic Boom" operating in top form. The jokes are clever and abundant, nicely building atop each other as the episode pushes towards sillier moments. The notice of a comedy script being good is when, if you took out most of the jokes, you'd still have a decent story. This is also true of "Eggman's Anti-Gravity Ray," as you can imagine this same premise leading to a decently entertaining season one "Sonic X" episode or the like. And all in ten minutes too! This is what happens when a show is allowed to run for a little bit, so it can really build up its cast and characters, and you hire decent writers to bang out good scripts. The end of "Sonic Boom's" second season, and the entire show with it, is starting to loom. Episodes like this make me realize that I'm actually really going to miss this program when I'm done with it. [8/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.37: Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.37: Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom

Original Air Date: July 22nd, 2017

Despite the prominent billing it gets in the title, "Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom" isn't really about the Buddy Buddy Temple. The episode begins with Sonic easily out-matching Charlie and his mech suit, which prompts Eggman into a jealous rage. He builds his own bitchin' mech suit but finds himself without a power source potent enough to fuel it. A chance encounter with Charlie sees Eggman learning about the Tummel Crystal, a legendary magical rock said to be buried under the titular location. Eggman begins digging for it and stumbles upon some Froglodytes, who immediately begin to worship him as their new god. They kidnap nearly all the residents of Gogoba Village to act as slave labor in the mines. Sonic, Tails, and Amy decide they better put a stop to all this. 

I know I've been going on about this a lot recently but the fact of the matter remains: I'm still impressed with how the "Sonic Boom" writers have managed to take a bunch of basically one-off jokes and build an actual universe around them. "Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple" might actually be the most continuity dense episode of the program yet. There are at least five previous episodes you'd have to watch before this one to understand where all these elements came from. Charlie and the Gogobas are well established by this point. The Froglodytes definitely seemed like nothing more than gag characters to build a single episode around but here they are, making their third appearance. The Buddy Buddy Temple, however, only appeared in one previous installment. When Sonic leaps into his own battle robot at the end, a reappearance of the primary plot device from "Mech Suits Me," without any further information, I realized that this one truly is an episode for the hardcore fans. This is like if "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" made an episode weaving together Wes Weasley, Breezie, that town full of hot dog people, the "Mean Bean Machine" robots, and Easy Eddie's Chaos Emerald ring. I didn't expect this much care actually being taken with a gag show's universe. I guess that's to be expected when you're talking about the differences between a licensed kids cartoon from the early nineties, when nobody was paying attention to this shit, and the mid-2010s, when we were already living in the age of meticulously detailed fan wikis. 

The result is one of the more plot-centric episodes of "Sonic Boom." Instead of primarily being a joke delivery machine, there's an actual clear narrative here. The villain has an absolute goal. He enslaves some locals to do it, definitely among the most evil things this version of Eggman has done. The heroes see this clear injustice and set about resolving it, briefly getting captured themselves before breaking loose to save the day. Now, I realize that this plot structure is partially a homage to "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Aside from directly referencing that movie in the title, Eggman also wears a head dress not unlike Mola Ram's in the latter half. (Disappointingly, he does not yank a guy's still beating heart from his chest.) Considering the last two episodes where about Eggman being afraid of ghosts and going back to school, it's surprising to see "Boom" utilizing a fairly standard action/adventure plot. Even if it's largely taken from the most underrated entry – yeah, I said it – in a huge successful and popular franchise. 

Sam Friedberger's script manages to do all of this without sacrificing the essential "Sonic Boom"-ness of these characters. While Eggman is ostensibly motivated by a thirst for power and wanting to subjugate people here, his latest quest is largely built on petty jealousy. He sees Sonic defeat Charlie and wonders why the hedgehog gets praised for something he could do. Instead of then setting off on a career of heroics, Eggman gets distracted by building and powering a giant doom-mech. Fair enough but it still shows how this Eggman is motivated more by childish neuroses than your typical supervillain antics. Sonic, meanwhile, has to be repeatedly talked into doing good guy shit in this episode. Not because he doesn't enjoy smashing Eggman's hopes and dreams but more so because he hates spending time with the Gogobas. Again, a totally understandable feeling that nevertheless shows how this program repeatedly subverts the classical action cartoon personalities. 

All this high-minded talk aside, this episode is also about another universal truth: Everyone thinks giant robots are bitchin'. The Japanese have built multiple whole genres around this fact, all of which are variations on the idea that all of us wish we had an enormous robotic suit we could ride around in. Considering how ever-present robots are in all branches of the "Sonic" franchise, I'm surprised we haven't seen more instances of Sonic leaping into a highly marketable mech suit and wailing on Eggman in his own set of toyetic armor. (The comics have done it a few times, though usually as a homage and not as a means to its own thing.) A robot fighter "Sonic" game would probably be kind of neat, right? Get to work on that, Sega. Anyway, the machine Eggman builds in this episode is cool. I like how it invokes his classic look, with a mustache-like design on the face, while still being its own thing. And having some cool, beetle-like wings for no particular reason. I, personally, wouldn't enslave a whole village of indigenous people in order to dig up a power source for my awesome mech suit but, I gotta say, I understand the temptation to do so. 

By bringing back the Froglodytes, this episode does raise some questions though. First off, the previous appearance of Buddy Buddy Temple had no connection to the frog monsters living under the island. We never actually see them – or anyone, for that matter – step foot into the temple, so presumably no link is meant to be implied. I guess we have to go with the idea that digging underground anywhere on this island brings with it a high probability of running into some of those frog guys. Despite the idol of their frog god being displayed, this episode also suggests that the Froglodytes will worship anyone who comes along. After Eggman breaks into their chamber, they mistake him for a half-robot centaur thing and, after he promises not to destroy them, immediately dedicate themselves to serving him. Obviously, this is so the bad guy can have a horde of henchmen in this episode. This plot turn also suggests that any display of superior technology is enough to convince the Froglodytes. I guess, if the John Frum cult is anything to go by, this is not a terribly unrealistic depiction. But it seems these primitive amphibian critters have a rather inconsistent dogma, that slingshots from human sacrifices to conquering the surface world to bowing before the first person with a hovercraft they see. There should be an episode where someone writes an anthropological study of the Froglodytes. The kids would love that! Anyway, the running gag of the Froglodytes screaming and flailing their hands, seemingly as a gesture of worship, got old fast though. 

 

This being "Sonic Boom" and all, there's some good zingers in the script and quite a few meta moments too. Amy observed that "Eggman is despondent," which is a funny enough line on its own, but Sonic and Tails top it off with a brief conversation about the oddness of their relationship with their archenemy. Later, Eggman and Charlie discuss their ability to defeat their enemies being ensnared by an unforeseen formula. Amy gets another stand-out moment, when she uses reverse psychology to get a Gogoba to hand over her hammer. In fact, the Gogobas – usually more annoying than amusing – get a decent amount of chuckles here, when bickering with their Froglodyte overseer. I guess the secret to making the Gogobas' guilt tripping habits amusing is to give them some enraged cave frogs to bounce off of. By far, the funniest moment here is a real blink-and-miss-it gag. Before Eggman's robot minions are shut down by a plot contrivance, one of the machines deadpans by asking "Eggman, will I dream?" That was absolutely a throw-it-in line and the one that made me laugh the hardest in this entire ten minutes stretch. 

With this being a piece of "Sonic" media from the late 2010s, when the franchise was in its most self-aware era, there's a random shout-out to the PINGAS meme. I'm so used to hearing Long John Baldry say that line that hearing it in Mike Pullock's Eggman voice caused a moment of psychic dissonance for me. Eggman also says "Hail to the king, baby!" Which is obviously an "Army of Darkness" reference but the editors over at the "Sonic" wiki seem to think it's taken from something called "Beetle Adventure Racing." This might be an example of one form of autism getting in the way of another. (The same editor seems to think this episode is full of references to a different Sam Raimi movie, which also strikes me as a stretch.) Also, Knuckles and Sticks aren't in this episode, presumably because they didn't fit into the hero/heroine/kid sidekick roles dictated by this being a "Temple of Doom" callback. If only Sallah had been in the second "Indiana Jones" movie. I can totally see Knuckles intoning gravely about "bad dates." Anyway, this is a good episode. [7/10]

Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue 72

Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue 72

Original Publication Date: August 28th, 2024

 

I often refer to "Sonic the Hedgehog" as a multi-media franchise because that's exactly what it is. The fast blue rat exists as a video game series, a comic book long-runner, various animated adaptations, popular blockbuster movies, and a horde of merchandise. The nature of this multi-branch structure sometimes means "Sonic" stuff ends up competing with other "Sonic" stuff for the audience's attention. I had completely missed that a new issue of IDW "Sonic" had come out last Wednesday. I assumed this was simply because I was knee-deep in preparing for my two month long horror movie marathon over at my other blog. Upon second thought, I had seen zero chatter about issue 72 in the various "Sonic" fan communities I participate in. What other hedgehog news happened this week? Oh yeah, the trailer for the star-studded, multi-million dollar new movie. I'm sure the new comic being released two days after the "Sonic 3" trailer was a complete scheduling fluke. If IDW was hoping hype for the new film would draw eyeballs to their comic, it seems the opposite is true. Any discussion of issue 72 has been totally overshadowed – pun! – by the trailer drop. Luckily, there's always time to catch up. 

Where is the Phantom Rider/Clean Sweepstakes story arc taking us this month? Surge and Kit express their desire to quit Cleansweep to Clutch, who essentially laughs their announcement off. This enrages Surge so much that she generates a massive lightning storm above, at the same time a horde of flying car traffic is passing by. Coincidentally, Sonic is lurking around in the same traffic jam, his disguise malfunctioning. The Babylon Rogues swoop in, redirecting traffic in the storm and playing hero in hopes of rehabilitating their own public image. At least until Jet spots the Phantom Rider and that hyper-fixation takes over. Sonic is rescued by an unexpected ally: Nite the Owl and Don the Rooster, who also happen to be in this same traffic jam. 

In my review of issue 71, I referred to the current on-going arc as a collection of subplots all acting in their own lanes. Perhaps Evan Stanley was feeling that weigh on the plot too, fearful that it might collapse under the weight of so much happening at once. Her solution to bring some of these threads together in this issue is inelegant. Surge getting mad at Clutch results in a thunderstorm, that Sonic and the Rogues and Sonic's rescuers all happen to be caught in too. If this was depicting as Surge's atmospheric freak-out being so powerful, it stretches over an entire metropolitan area, that would be one thing. Instead, it seems almost all the current plot lines come together in the same spot by sheer coincidence. What makes this massively convenient fluke more frustrating is that it does little to push the overall arc forward. The last issue felt like the buffer between the middle of the arc and the finale. This issue feels like... More of that buffer. How much longer are we going to watch these various divergent plot lines bounce around each other before they come together for some sort of satisfying whole? 

This frustration is most felt in Sonic's portion of the issue. What does the blue hedgehog actually do this month? He lurks around a traffic jam, trying to hide his face. He has a brief interaction with Jet before getting yanked into Nite and Don's Space Winnebago. They talk and, after Don patches up his Henshin-A-Go-Go gadget, then he leaves! While forcing Sonic into a double life was interesting at first, now it's clear that isolating the hedgehog from his friends has also isolated him from the flow of the rest of the story. This issue feels as if everything is happening around the hedgehog. Which is not a great position for the titular hero to be in. 

If I were to be cynical for a moment – something I never am – I would say this sequence is only in the issue for strictly commercial reasons. First off, you've got to have Sonic the Hedgehog do something in the book with his name on the cover. The fans who complain about the comics being nothing but the author's O.C.s doing stuff will get mad otherwise. This sequence also allows an issue otherwise focused on character development to have an action beat early on. The minute Jet sees the Phantom Rider, he deviates from his plan and chases after the guy. It's the briefest struggle and there's a longer fight scene in the issue's back half. The feeling that Stanley is trying to make Jet and Sonic's rivalry a major lynchpin in this arc is starting to become a little sweaty. She wanted to do a racing arc and, if you're doing that, the Rogues have to be there. But the Rogues aren't that interesting on their own, so Stanley has seized on Jet's obsession with Sonic to beef up that particular corner of the story. However, you can always tell where Stanley's interest actually resides. And it's not with Jet's raging hate-on for Sonic. 

The rambling point I'm making here is... This scene feels like it's in this issue because it has to be. There has to be an action scene within the first few pages. Sonic has to do something. If the Babylon Rogues' dedicated plotline, of trying to reinvent themselves as heroes the way Surge and Kit have, went anywhere, this would feel less intrusive. It doesn't though. Jet is still determined to chase Sonic until the ends of the Earth and the hedgehog is more annoyed by it than anything else. The moment where Wave feels unappreciated that ego maniac Jet never allows her to take any credit for her ideas is the sole moment here that catches my eyes. Will that go somewhere? Will Wave become so fed up with Jet's bullshit that she leaves the team? That would be a good end to this story, Jet's obsession growing so great that the closest people he has to friends abandon him. I kind of doubt that will happen though. Would Sega allow Stanley to break up the band, even temporarily? Feels like that would violate their unified brand vision or something.

While you can feel the author struggling to make compelling fiction out of this part of the story, she's clearly more invested in other parts. Namely, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the comic exclusive characters that she's more-or-less defined. Surge continues to be the beating heart of this saga. Last month, an enthusiastic fan made Surge realize that she didn't have to be bad to be loved. This month, she stands up to Clutch, tells him to take this job and so on. He immediately fires back that the public coming around to love Surge was his work. He gave it to her, he can take it away. Being the angsty little marshmallow she is, Surge immediately has to have a temper tantrum about it. Has to bemoan how someone is always trying to control her. Kit gives her a big hug and it's absolutely fucking adorable. I do wonder why Surge wouldn't just shock the shit out of Clutch and call it a day. I suppose his villainous monologue is very convincing to her. Considering part of her thundering rage involves screaming how no one can tell her what to do, hopefully she will find a way to rebel. Still, I love when this unhinged psycho bitch shows her soft, squishy, vulnerable insides. There's no doubt in my mind at this point that Surge is one of the most psychologically fleshed-out characters in this entire series. 

This scene serves another purpose too, besides making all of us want to give Surge another hug. The longer the Clean Sweepstakes event goes on, the clearer it becomes what one of Stanley's big goals with this narrative were: To properly establish Clutch as a major villain. He's been floating around the sidelines for a while, being all untrustworthy and shit. Now he's making his big plan to rob the Restoration. The scene with Surge and Kit, meanwhile, show personally devious this guy is. He manipulates Surge perfectly with only his words, looming over her and breaking her will with a simple statement. When Starline would monologue at Surge like this, it worked. He "created" her, after all. I still don't 100% buy Clutch as a mastermind, high-ranking bad guy. He still seems like a petty crook trying to break into the big leagues. The comic needs to have him do some real bastard shit – engineer a public crisis, kill someone, run for public office – for me to see him as a truly S-tier antagonist. The comics have yet to develop him much beyond mildly foppish crime boss. Stanley clearly wants Clutch to be the Kingpin of the IDW Sonic-Verse but he still strikes me as more like the Crime Master or Big Man or whichever D-list Spider-Man villain best fits this metaphor. The narrative supports the idea that Clutch has graduated from wannabe to major threat but he still feels more like the latter to me. 

This issue also provides a chance for Evan to write two of her other creations into this on-going. Nite the Owl and Don the Rooster have been present since the Metal Virus Saga. Previously, I had no strong feelings about them one way or another. Don's grumpiness is mildly endearing. Nite's indefatigable peppiness is slightly annoying. However, these two didn't seem to fill any role other than a radio DJ and his sidekick. They added some color to the world but I didn't have any desire to know more about them. Why couldn't Kit the Capybara been the minor supporting character to take off? This latest appearance does give us a peek into Nite and Don's lives. Turns out the owl is a secret informer for the Restoration and they own a van together. (No word yet on if it resides down by the river.) I guess that means we'll be seeing more of these two guys in the near future, not only when Nite comes out of a goddamn up-tempo record when he has to talk about a fucking dog dying. 

Oh yeah, also, they're gay. Speaking of coming out! I mean, I guess Nite referring to Don as “my dear” could be totally platonic but the goo-goo eyes he gives the rooster in the same panel suggest otherwise. I had some vague recollection of some word-of-God confirmation that these two are lovers but doubted it would make it into the actual comic in any significant way. Revisiting the Tumblr post where Evan dropped this lore nugget confirms that these two are canonically a couple and have been from the beginning. As far as representation goes, this is still very subtle. It's not like they are pressing their beaks together in an awkward attempt to replicate kissing.. Considering how coy the comic has been with confirming Tangle and Whisper's really, really obvious relationship, it's nice to see these two being out and proud. That gay characters are allowed to exist in this universe without anyone drawing attention to it. (Though did Stanley consider the implications of making the “Sonic” universe's first confirmed bara a literal cock? Lol.)

Somehow, this does not cover all the fucking subplots in this issue. I still am not sure what timeline Tails, Amy, and Belle are operating on in comparison to the rest of the events. However, here they rush towards Jewel's office only to be stopped by the Cleansweep mascots, soon revealed to be Rough and Tumble in disguise. There is one adorable moment here, when Belle puts two-and-two together and realizes she's made a big mistake. However, this particular series of events still feels like it's being dragged out way too long. That Jewel doesn't hear the fisticuffs going on right outside her office is explained by her having some headphones on, which is very contrived. I'm beginning to think Evan is not great at actually pacing out her storylines, especially when there are multiple threads to juggle. 

Despite having some big problems, I still enjoyed this installment. Once again, the little character interactions end up saving the day. Surge having her wangsty cry session and Kit comforting her – and even Nite's tiny act of affection towards his boyfriend – make these convoluted action/adventure events feel a lot more meaningful. I would rather the forward momentum of the plot and the emotional events of the cast feel intertwined... But considering all the bad “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic books I've read over the years, I'm simply pleased that one of those elements exist. It looks like IDW is going to stretch this particular arc out for at least three more issues. Guess I better get used to complaining about all these subplots competing for time and attention. [6/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.36: The Haunted Lair

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.36: The Haunted Lair

Original Air Date: July 15th, 2017

When I was a kid, we just called them "haunted houses," even the ones that weren't actually set inside of houses. (My local example was technically a haunted trail.) Around Halloween, you'd pay a couple of bucks, get led into a creepy location, and a bunch of performers in monster masks would jump out and yell at you amid fittingly macabre set-dressing. Fun for the whole family, really, and a suitably spooky excursion for late October. In the decades since then, attractions such as these – now typically called "haunts," I guess to distinguish them from genuinely spirit infested locations – are a multi-million dollar industry. There are haunts out there with professional actors and elaborate, state-of-the-art special effects. Some run all year round, looking to satisfy horror nuts in search of simulated terror no matter what month it is. Some even seek to take the "simulated" part out, pushing towards more and more extreme angles. Yet humble, kid-friendly, small town haunts still exists too. These attractions have become such a common place feature that even cartoons with otherwise no scary elements feel the need to comment on them. And that brings us to "The Haunted Lair," the thirty-fifth episode of "Sonic Boom's" second season, which aired during the scariest month of all... July! What's more frightening than scorching heat waves and dog-traumatizing fireworks? BoOoOoOoO!!!

The episode begins with the gang arriving at T.W. Barker's latest endeavor: The Haunted Forest, a walk-through attraction designed to spook the skeletons right out of ya. Even though Eggman pushed to the front of the line, he soon finds the crudely engineered haunting too much for him. Even into the next day, he's possessed by an overwhelming phobia of ghosts. When a spectre seemingly appears in his lair, he's happy to get rid of it. He sells his HQ and everything inside it to Barker, who then turns it into an even bigger and better haunted attraction. When Sonic's ongoing quest to prove to Eggman that ghosts aren't real ruins the business, Barker then goes on the offensive, attacking Team Sonic with his newly acquired robot army. Now, Sonic being saved is dependent on Eggman getting control of his lair back. 

I have an unquenchable thirst for all things macabre and creepy. You probably know this, as I mention it about every chance I get. "Sonic Boom" has dipped its toes into the horror-adjacent side of things from time to time. Going into "The Haunted Lair," just based on the title, I was really hoping this would be another Halloween-y "Boom" installment. The first half certainly fulfils that promise. Sonic and the gang walk through a demonic looking gate into a mist-shrouded forest. Cardboard tombstones, rubber bats, moaning sound effects, and blinking eyes surround them. When the ghosts do appear, they are white sheets with crude faces drawn on them, suspended by ropes. I find super lo-fi attempts at the horror aesthetics like this incredibly charming, actually. The joke here is that these effects are deeply, obviously unconvincing but they still reduce Eggman to a quivering mess anyway. Despite this, I mostly came away from this scene enjoying seeing Sonic and friends hanging around a dollar store haunted location. I'm a simple man. Piped in some fog, prop up some tombstones, and sprinkled in a bat or two and I'm happy.  

Disappointingly, most of "The Haunted Lair" isn't actually devoted to the spoopy location promised in its title. After Eggman's traumatizing encounter with a sheet ghost, Sonic and Tails fuck with him in a public library by pretending to be harassing poltergeist. When it becomes clear how intense Eggman's spectophobia is, they start to feel bad and back off. Exactly one scene is dedicated to showing a ghost appearing in Eggman's lair, this being enough to scare him off. We never even see the full width of what Barker does to the place once he converts it into an attraction either. Sonic leads Eggman down one hallway, points out a projection of a ghost, and that's it! Instead, the episode quickly turns towards Barker taking over Eggman's position as the biggest thorn in Sonic's side and the doctor's attempts to get back that which is rightfully his. I'm just sayin': An episode called "The Haunted Lair" probably could have spent a little more time showing how haunted this lair is. 

Instead, the second half of the episode is focused on another idea. Though he has shown flashes of competence over the 88 episodes of "Sonic Boom" I've thus far watched, Eggman's credentials as a villain have long since come into question. (That was literally the premise of the last episode, after all.) Eggman will always be undone by his wafer thin ego, his own self doubts, and his general incompetence. While T.W. Barker has suffered his own humiliating defeats over his handful of previous appearances, "The Haunted Lair" suggests that he's at least better at utilizing Eggman's tech than he is. The second act has Barker using actual strategies with Eggman's armies of Badniks, eventually overwhelming and cornering Team Sonic. They even admit that, with someone more competent at the wheel than Eggman, the machines they usually tear through like tissue paper are creditable threats. This presents an interesting idea on its own. Namely, Eggman has the ability to be a genuinely dangerous villain, he simply lacks the necessary ruthlessness. Probably because he secretly wants to be friends with Sonic or whatever. 

It's a big, action-packed finale. Eggman does prove his competence, in a roundabout way, when he outsmarts Barker and gets control of his horde back. Yet, as the episode ended, I felt disappointed. I really expected "The Haunted Lair" to circle back around to the titular haunting. Wouldn't it have been a funny ending if Eggman goes through all of this, only to discover his base is genuinely haunted? Or maybe he simply doesn't realize the ghost is real, after going through all of this. Instead, the episode simply never returns to that moment. It wraps up on the image of Sonic and friends posing on the battlefield. That abrupt conclusion definitely feels like a case of the limited runtime these episodes have catching up with the ideas the writers had. Or maybe the haunted house set-up truly was merely set-up and I should stop expecting everyone to be as enamored of spooky shit as I am. (That will never happen.)

Despite that serious, gaping reservation I have with this episode, it's still funny. This is the sole "Sonic Boom" credit of Sandrine Joly. Her resume is a real grab-bag of licensed cartoons, having also provided scripts to shows based on Maya the Bee, Lassie, Noddy, and Robin Hood. Judging from that work, it's surprising to see some pretty sharp, caustic jokes from her. There's a great gag about what really frightens Sticks. There's an off-hand line about the Haunted Forest attraction being built in a Gogoba burial mound. Probably the funniest line has Barker assuring everyone that his attraction is not the most morally bankrupt, as at least he's not hurting any whales. Did I expect a "Sonic the Hedgehog" cartoon to reference the SeaWorld/Blackfish controversy? I did not. I also didn't expect the show to include a joke about Eggman deleting his browser history, which has got to be among the edgiest one-liners in the show's history. Did Joly actually write these jokes or did the "Boom" home team spice up the French script to make it smarmier? I can't speak French, so I'm not going to watch that version of the episode to know for sure. 

So, yeah, I did laugh. I laughed at Orbot and Cubot doing some Eggman themed roleplaying. I laughed at Barker's verboseness on the battlefield. I laughed at Sonic debunking the haunting. I'm just saying, this episode needed to emphasize the "Haunted" aspect a lot more. Don't promise me ghosts if you aren't willing to deliver! And it's not like ghosts aren't canon in the "Sonic" universe! At least give me a proper "Scooby-Doo" mystery or something. I'm just saying, if I had the chance to write a haunted house themed episode of a "Sonic" cartoon, it would go a lot harder than this, alright? [6/10]

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 TRAILER...

The first "Sonic the Hedgehog" movie ended with a hopeful teaser for a sequel. There is another universe, I imagine, were Paramount didn't listen to the fan outrage that followed the disasterous first trailer. The movie subsequently flopped and Tails' mid-credits cameo became nothing but another overly optimistic sequel hook for a would-be franchise that died after one failed installment. In the immediate aftermath of "Harry Potter," "Lord of the Rings," and the Marvel Cinematic Universe becoming cultural phenomenon, we saw so many examples of this. 

That's not what happened. Instead, Paramount cracked the whips on the poor CGI animators and special effects team, Sonic got redesigned at the last minute, and the first movie became a hit. This created a precedent. "Sonic the Hedgehog" was an actual film series now. Which meant, when "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" ended by revealing Shadow the Hedgehog existed in this cinematic iteration of this world, it was expected to actually pay off in a future film. 

That time is nearly upon us. After many months of fans endlessly badgering the production company for any sort of peek at the new sequel, the first full trailer for "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" has been unleashed upon the world. We now have our first look at what Sonic's third cinematic adventure might entail, what Keanu Reeves as Shadow sounds like, and what weird alterations Jeff Fowler's third hedgehog fest will make to the source material. 

I naturally have some thoughts on this matter. Before any images came out, I was already deeply skeptical of "Sonic the Hedgehog 3." Even if I liked the first two movies well enough, Paramount's entire endeavor plays fast and loose with all the things I actually care about in this series. I know why Fowler and his team chose to introduce Shadow the Hedgehog in the third movie. He's probably the second or third most popular character in the franchise. From a financial point of view, bringing Shadow in early makes all the sense in the world. From a storytelling perspective though? By the time Shadow debuted in the games, "Sonic" had already built up an elaborate and deeply inconsistent lore. Sonic had an established supporting cast, world, rules, and various relics floating around him. The movies have been extremely choosy about what elements from established material they've incorporated. Paramount's live action "Sonic" series remains a bizarre hybrid of stuff fans are actually interested in and stuff studio executives insist all modern kid movies should include. The point I'm making here: A "Sonic" universe that introduces Shadow before Angel Island? Before a rainbow of different colored Chaos Emeralds? Before Amy Rose and the Chaotix and Metal Sonic and Cucky? What kind of "Sonic" universe is that?! 

I guess we're going to find out soon enough. The trailer for "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" is now out, ahead of its December release date. It makes a few things clear: The plot of the third film will involve Shadow going on some sort of villainous rampage, forcing G.U.N. to actively recruit Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles to fight him. When the good guys still find themselves overwhelmed, Sonic goes a step further and makes an alliance with Robotnik. In this continuity, Gerald Robotnik is still alive and also being played by Jim Carrey. We only get a glimpse of Shadow's back story, though it seems heavily suggested that the death of Maria will still be the formative experience in the so-called Ultimate Life Form's backstory. 

Being the Negative Nancy, the Debbie Downer, I naturally am, let me start by pointing out the things I hate about the trailer. I know Sonic has worked directly with G.U.N. and other government organizations in the games, comics, and cartoons. I still dislike the idea of these guys being superheroes the not-so-secret government agency calls on to do stuff for them. Ya know, ever since they made Sonic's adoptive dad in this series a fucking cop, it's been hard to miss the creepy authoritarian undercurrents of the series. Sonic is free like the wind, baby. He's not a cop, a narc, a fed, a bootlicker, or a corporate stooge. I will not be unmoved on this point. 

Applying my political belly-aching to a movie for babies aside, the set-up the trailer hints out also gives me a clear vision of where this story will likely go. Assuming G.U.N. is still responsible for the death of Maria, what will heroic Sonic and friends' reaction to discovering that information will be? They'll probably be upset! They'll probably turn against the organization they've been hired by, teaming up with Shadow instead. As happens any time a good guy and a bad guy team up, Robotnik forming a truce with Sonic will precede a predictable and obvious betrayal. What form this double-cross will take, I can only guess. Some have already speculated that the shot in the trailer of Robotnik grabbing a quill from Sonic might foreshadow him building Metal Sonic. But some fans will always expect Metal Sonic to show up any minute. Regardless, the movie is going to end with Sonic and Shadow putting aside their differences to fight a greater enemy, the superpowered hedgehog learning a little lesson about friendship along the way. 

I'm sure all the backstory surrounding Shadow will be very different. I'll be surprised if the ARK appears in the film. Since Gerald is apparently alive, we already know things will be quite different. I don't actually give a shit about Shadow's lore. That has always been the least interesting part of him as a character. The probable outline I laid out above coming to pass, leading to a predictable and dull motion picture, is something I'm much more concerned about. 

Alright, so that's my main gripe with the trailer. What do I like about it? First and foremost, the action looks sweet. The second movie represented a serious step-up from the first in terms of its set pieces and combat sequences. Paramount clearly gave Fowler and everyone way more money to play with. Clearly, things will get bigger and better in part three. Shadow's superpowers are already leading to more elaborate action sequences. Fowler's background is in animation and, in the best moments of the "Sonic" movies, you feel that. Hopefully that will be even more evident in this installment. 

When it was announced that Keanu Reeves was going to voice Shadow the Hedgehog, I wasn't sure how to feel. My natural inclination is always to be slightly annoyed when a big celebrity is picked to voice a famous cartoon character over a veteran voice actor instead. Idris Elba as Knuckles has done okay and he got better over the course of his whole show. Reeves at least has a little experience voicing cartoons. It was still an odd suggestion to me. Reeves is a fine performer that I enjoy immensely. His physicality and screen presence have a lot more to do with that than his voice. The idea of Keanu voicing Shadow didn't strike me as the slam dunk to me that so many other fans seemed to think it was. 

Now, I've actually gotten to hear Reeves as Shadow, has my opinion changed any? The first line he delivers when he saunters up to the good guys, I wasn't too sure about. His delivery sounded flat. Which is, you young'uns might not know, something Keanu was often criticized for early in his career! However, as the trailer progresses, Reeves sounds better to me. If nothing else, it doesn't sound like he's going for laughs. Ben Schwartz' Sonic is always cracking jokes and Elba's Knuckles is an oblivious straight man. Reeves' Shadow, meanwhile, seems to be dead fucking serious. It's good to know the superstar didn't take on this voiceover gig in a kid's movie as an assignment he could half-ass it on. He's putting his whole ass into this iconic character. 

As for the rest of the trailer... The reveal that Gerald is alive caught many off-guard. However, the first half of the trailer has Tom Wachowski repeatedly point out to Sonic that he has a family now. A voiceover from Olive Garden Guy points out that Shadow doesn't have that family. Clearly, this "Fast & Furious"-ian concept will be the main theme in the sequel. Robotnik forming a bond with his long-lost grandfather makes more sense in that context. Will Shadow learn the true value of family over the course of this adventure? My magic 8-Ball says "Likely."

Many individuals in the "Sonic" fandom have already overturned and dug into the various images briefly seen in the trailer. This has lead to the typical amount of idle speculation. Many are already pointing out, with annoyance, that his live action "Sonic" trilogy is turning into a sausage-fest. Some have gone so far as to wonder if Amy Rose or Rouge might actually be in the movie, a big surprise being kept for us from now. The Metal Sonic theory above is something much along the same lines. Not to mention people in mascot-like Chao costumes always appeared briefly in the trailer. 

Personally, I think Amy or any other Sega characters cropping up in the movie is a long-shot. I expect the Chao cameo to be nothing more than an in-joke. People have always been seizing on a shot of Tom Wachowski laying on the floor, screaming. Some are wondering if Donut Lord is going to get killed off. Would I love it if the film finally cut out the unimportant human protagonist it's been saddled with? Yeah. Do I find it likely? Probably not, even if James Marden getting written out in some way does seem likely. 

Lastly, there's the factor of Jim Carrey coming back as Robotnik. After the second film, Carrey announced his retirement. Clearly, that didn't stick. Carrey's hyperactive take on Sonic's archenemy amuses me, even if I don't think it has much to do with the character as he usually exists. The actor's presence certainly added a lot of energy to the last two films, so I'm happy to have him back. The gut he's grown in isolation is another belated attempt to bring the movie version of Robotnik more in line with his rotund video game counterpart. Sure. Whatever. I'm glad the fan girls will have more bait for toxic yaoi fanfics about Robotnik and Agent Stone though. 

The special effects look nice. The action seems decent. Shadow does the "Akira" slide. I'm not made of stone. All that stuff is neat. However, I feel an increasing distance from Paramount's "Sonic" films, this sense that these movies and shows will never become the version of "Sonic the Hedgehog" I want them to be. I'm definitely going to see it. I'll probably give it an overly positive review that I then look back on a few months later and I think overdid it. Maybe the movie will really surprise me. Hope springs eternal. Ultimately, I suppose the short version of my response to the "Sonic 3" trailer is that... It's decent. Looks fun. Didn't blow my socks off. Didn't make me shit my pants in rage. Looks about what I expected, truth be told. Sorry to disappoint or underwhelm anyone expecting me to either explode in praise or rage on this one. 

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.35: Mister Eggman

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.35: Mister Eggman

Original Air Date: July 8th, 2017

The second Sam Friedberger penned episode in a row is also an Eggman-centric story, I guess proving his favorite character is. While buying some evil supplies at the evil supplies store, it is revealed that Eggman never finished his degree in evil science. This means he's not actually a doctor. News of this spreads through the village quickly, resulting in Eggman being utterly humiliated. Determined to regain his pride, he goes back to evil university. There, he comes under the cruel tutelage of Professor Kingsford, the harshest teacher at the college. Eggman struggles with the various tests and projects, suffering greatly from anxiety and questioning whether he's cut out for being a supervillain after all. Meanwhile, his archenemies enjoy some time off. 

The homage-heavy run of "Sonic Boom's" second season continues with "Mister Eggman." The episode seemingly based its entire premise on one iconic line from "Austin Powers," about spending six years in Evil Medical School. The episode uses that as a jumping off point, continuing to put Eggman in highly relatable, everyday scenarios. If the previous installment showed us how Eggman would do in a demeaning, average job, this one puts him through the ego-deflating challenges of going back to school. As he was a mediocre hotel manager, he's a mediocre student too, suffering through humiliating failure one after another as he struggles to please a hyper-strict professor. We've all been there, man. 

All of this plays on an easy enough joke, designed to contrast Eggman's inflated image of himself as a master villain with a sadder, far more pathetic reality. In fact, this episode hammers home the image of Eggman as a sad sack wannabe. He repeatedly screws up in school, dropping his pencil, not doing the reading, flunking out on tests and projects. The entire kerfuffle also costs him his reputation, everyone in town mocking him and losing all respect for his threatening ability. By the half-way point, I was genuinely starting to feel bad for the guy. Sonic and the others have always called Eggman names or slung one-liners at him. Here, especially in a scene where Team Sonic plays keep-away with the last piece he needs for a class project, playful battle banter seems to have elevated to full-on bullying. I wasn't yelling "Leave Eggman alone!" at my TV but I was definitely starting to feel like Sonic was the asshole here. It's all at Eggman's expense, as his repeated villainy makes him an acceptable target. Yet the script putting him so totally into the role of a bullied outcast, a perpetual loser, made me look at the heroes in a much worse light. 

This puts "Mister Eggman" in a somewhat uneasy position as an episode. On one hand, we're obviously supposed to relate to Eggman. I think everyone, in their academic careers, has encountered that one teacher that seemed to have it out for them. When this pairs with a subject you aren't great at – for me, it was anything math related – it can result in going to class everyday being an anxiety-inducing nightmare. At the same time, we are clearly meant to derive some comedic pleasure from seeing Eggman in this position. It gets to the point that he's hanging out in Dave's basement as part of a study group, making the comparison that Eggman is merely a goofy nerd worthy of our scorn all too apparent. Are we suppose to cheer with Eggman or laugh at him? It's possible to do both but that requires a balance of tone that an eleven minute cartoon doesn't have time to invest in. The result is an episode that ends up feeling a bit more mean-spirited than I think was intended at times. 

Then again , it tracks that a village that is constantly being terrorized by Eggman would revel in any chance to mock him. And I mean "revel!" Within minutes of this episode starting, Staci calling up her sister to spread the hot gossip turns into a village wide musical number, just about everyone in town getting involved in the singing and dancing. Ya know, I gotta admire the "Sonic Boom" team for swinging for the fences with this one. An otherwise non-musical episode including a big musical number is usually a reliably amusing gag. All the more so when the song is – if not an instant toe-tapper – at least well realized enough that I didn't cringe all the way through it. I guess I have to take back what I said the other day about how "Sonic" characters breaking into song is usually a recipe for disaster. I want to say that the difference is that this is some Broadway musical style shenanigans, instead of a typical rock number... Except the episode also features a rock number, during a scene where Team Sonic have a montage of them having radicool adventures together now that they aren't spending all their time fighting Eggman. That's right, there's not one but two musical numbers in this episode and neither one made me want to rip my ears off. By the standards of this franchise, that's a massive success. 

A montage devoted to mocking the very concept of montages certainly isn't outside the norm for the kind of meta wackiness "Boom" specializes in. However, this episode is notable for how conceptual its gags get. This is most noticeable during an elaborate, and rather bizarre, nightmare Eggman has that features such unusual sights as a giant Sonic and Eggman bleating like a goat. That is followed shortly after an extended "Mission: Impossible" parody sequence. The episode has the typical jokes you expect of "Sonic Boom," like hyper-verbal banter about inconsequential things and jokes that lean on the fourth wall. (Like Sonic hoping he has more to do next week, a joke that only really works if you watch this episode and the previous one back-to-back.) Yet these two scenes definitely feel a little denser and wackier than is the norm for even this show.

Unfortunately, as amusingly out there as parts of this episode is, it still leads to a highly predictable ending. Eggman steals the test answers, gets everything wrong on the final exam, but because stealing the answers is what a villain would do, Eggman still passes. I guess the little children watching this cartoon in 2017 probably would've been caught off-guard by the subversion of "person did bad thing but succeeds anyway," when the double subversion of "Eggman fails anyway because Eggman sucks" would've been much funnier and more in line with the thesis of this episode. I did like him attempting a freeze frame at graduation, only to end up awkwardly standing in place for a few minutes. That's the kind of surrealism that elevated this episode for a handful of moments. 

Ultimately, this one is kind of a weird episode that feels a little bit like it tossed together a bunch of random ideas for gags into something resembling a solid whole. Having said that, I still laughed a decent amount. Eggman being forced to put up with mundane bullshit is almost always a good recipe for a "Sonic Boom" episode, even if this one missed the mark on a couple of key attributes. [7/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.34: Inn Sanity

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.34: Inn Sanity

Original Air Date: July 1st, 2017

"Sonic Boom" gets a little "Fawlty Towers" in it in the thirty-fourth episode of season two, "Inn Sanity." After another humiliating defeat by Team Sonic, Eggman is left with a dumpster full of robot parts. He complains to the mayor to actually pick up the trash, only to get stuck with an oversized bill for exceeding the normal limit. As a quick way to earn some money, Eggman ends up converting his evil lair into a luxury resort. Despite his frustration with the guests, that goes well enough for Eggman to pay his bill... Only to get stuck with another fee for operating an inn without a permit. When a secret reviewer arrives at the hotel, Eggman has to actually commit to doing a decent job. 

"Sonic Boom" being a sitcom allowed it to do something that stories about these characters rarely get to do: From time to time, Eggman actually gets to be the protagonist. The comics have, occasionally, followed a story from the villain's perspective but always in-service of his role as the bad guy. "Boom" Eggman is also a villain, of course, but the show's irrelevant tone and subversion of classic action/adventure tropes makes him much more of a relatable sad sack than any previous version of the character. Episodes like "Eggman the Auteur," "Hedgehog Day," "Mombot," and this one really put us in Eggman's shoes for a day. Without losing sight of his status as an egotistical jerk, "Inn Sanity" does make Eggman the classic sitcom protagonist here. He's a guy that is beleaguered by trouble but trying to do his best in a world seemingly designed to vex him. It even makes the evildoer something of an underdog. 

The real reason, I think, Eggman is so relatable in "Inn Sanity" is simply because the episode sticks him in a position a lot of us can relate to. Namely, he is now in the customer service industry. If you're reading this, chances are you've worked in retail, food service, guest services, or some other middling, low-paying job that forces you to interact with people all day. That kind of work is already slightly demeaning, simply because you have to clean up after people or concede to their pettiest demands all day for what is surely a meager paycheck. For whatever reason, seeing you have a name-tag and a smock makes a lot people want to treat you as subhuman. It seems that the expectation of being served by someone turns many otherwise decent people into the most entitled, self-centered little monsters. Eggman gets a taste of that all too common experience here, having to deal with a bunch of people demanding he drop everything and please them all day. Here in the real world, we lowly workers have to grit our teeth and bare it because, if we piss someone off, it might mean our job. But Eggman is a cartoon character, one with no expectations of social niceties to begin with, meaning he can be as rude to his obnoxious customers as he wants to be. The result is a surprisingly cathartic episode. Especially the scene where he yells at the Walrus Mom for letting her kids run amok. I've been there, man. 

This puts "Inn Sanity" right into my favorite genre of "Sonic Boom" episodes, when these oversized characters have to put up with down-to-earth, commonplace problems. That Eggman is in this desperate situation entirely because of having to pay an annoying, unexpected bill makes him even more of a put-upon everyman here. All of that probably would've been enough for ten minutes worth of jokes. The comparison I made to "Fawtly Towers" above wasn't just me pointing out a probable influence though. The second half of this episode has a secret hotel reviewer arriving at the inn. Eggman incorrectly identified multiple people as the inspector, lavishing attention on them at the detriment of all his other guests. This is a classic sitcom set-up but also, specifically, the premise of the fourth episode of "Fawtly Towers." This not just confirms the "Sonic Boom" writer room's taste in classic television but it also adds a little more dramatic tension and narrative structure to an episode that probably would've just been a series of gags otherwise. 

And that's good. Even if "Inn Sanity" probably would've been a decently amusing ten minutes if devoted solely to being a series of gags. After hearing about Eggman opening a hotel, Sonic and the others show up, assuming the villain is plotting something underhanded. When it turns out he doesn't, Team Sonic decide to stay as guests. The script certainly plays with the idea that the heroes, Sonic at least, are intentionally fucking with Eggman by being demanding guests. However, the episode mostly goes with the far funnier idea of all of them simply being lunatics. Tails demands more free notebooks, to work on origami. Knuckles wants more towels, to dress himself in homemade luxurious gowns. Sticks keeps stealing everyone's pillows to make a giant pillow fort. Sometimes comedy is people acting weird for no reason and a straight man responding to it. The last episode slotted Eggman into the role of the crazy person but turns out, with his short temper and overall grouchy demeanor, he's a much better choice for the straight man. 

Proving once again that making it in the entertainment industry is based entirely on who you know because Hollywood runs on nepotism, "Inn Sanity" was written by Sam Friedberger. That's the son of Bill Friedberger, "Sonic Boom's" executive producer and co-showrunner. This is actually the fourth episode of "Boom" Sam has worked on, having previously written "No Robots Allowed," "Nut Work," and the aforementioned "Eggman the Auteur." (He also wrote the last issue of the "Sonic Boom" comic.) If we can attribute "Boom's" overall tendency towards self-aware, fourth wall breaking jokes to Bill, then Sam clearly inherited a fondness for that style of comedy from his dad. "Inn Sanity" sees a reappearance of the Doomsday Machine from "Double Doomsday," which Orbot points out Eggman hasn't used "since the beginning of season one." Upon hearing Eggman's scheme, Sonic says "the writers are just phoning it in." When the person Eggman assumes is the secret reviewer appears, he is literally a red heron. 

As always, all writers are writers, at least until we get replaced totally by A.I. And writers love to draw attention to being writers, which is why humor like this can skirt up against annoying and smug if you aren't careful. However, "Inn Sanity" is a funny, wacky enough episode to make up for that. In fact, Friedberger clearly has a good time cooking up increasingly bizarre guests for Eggman to be hassled with, such as an epically clueless Admiral Beaverton or a guy who demands a different room every night. This episode also features two nicely absurd gags about birds, both of which come out of nowhere, and makes good use of Cubot's enthusiastic idiocy. I guess the point I'm making is... Maybe Sam got this job just because he is the boss's son but he's decently funny in his own right. 

Another sign that Sam knows what he's doing is that all the wacky shit Sonic and the heroes do early in the episode end up becoming important in the last act. Ah yes, I do love that satisfying feeling of something minor set-up earlier reappearing by the end. This results in a fun action sequence too, the good guys using props from around the hotel to fight off Eggman's robots. The episode opens with an above-decent action scene too, featuring some dynamic angles as Knuckles and Sticks punch and parry around Badniks. Maybe there was some money in the animation budget left over after "Robots from the Sky" after all. So, yeah, good episode! And that's all I have to say about that. [7/10]