Sonic Boom, Episode 1.02: Can an Evil Genius Crash on Your Couch for a Few Days?

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.02: Can an Evil Genius Crash on Your Couch for a Few Days?

Original Air Date: November 8th, 2014

The second episode of "Sonic Boom" basically sets up its entire premise within its title, assuming you can deduce who the "evil genius" might be. In the middle of a rainy night, Sonic is awoken by someone knocking on his door. It's Eggman, who has apparently been rendered homeless following the destruction of his villainous lair. He pleads with the hedgehog to let him stay there for a few days, until his base is rebuilt. Sonic reluctantly agrees, a decision he soon comes to regret. Eggman's obnoxious behavior makes Sonic and Tails miserable. Despite Amy's pleading to give the villain a chance, it all turns up to be a scheme: Eggman intended to make the heroes exhausted so they would be defenseless against his latest kill-bot. However, following a malfunction where the robot targets Eggman's HQ, the heroes have to team up with Eggman or they actually will be forced to be roommates. 

In my review of the very first issue of Archie's "Sonic Boom" comic, I referred to this version of Eggman as Sonic's Sitcom Arch-Nemesis. That's a common comedic trope where two characters hate each other in a way that usually doesn't involve murderous scheming or world-conquering machinations. Eggman actually does try to kill Sonic, in the last episode and this one, but he otherwise perfect fits the role. Obviously, only the ridiculous structure of the sitcom would ever allow a scenario where Sonic and Eggman would be roomies. (Though I guess Archie did this premise eventually too...) During their time together, Eggman never tries to poison or murderize Sonic or Tails. Instead, he's just incredibly annoying. This makes the difference between the superheroic archenemy and its more mundane counterpart clear. 

The morning after Eggman moves in, there's a joke where Tails fixes him a fancy breakfast which Eggman then picks apart in an overly critical fashion. I was concerned that would be the sole joke in this episode, that Sonic and Tails give Eggman a lot of rope and he's just a petty prick to them the whole time. Thankfully, this quickly bends in a more absurd direction. Eggman does shit like randomly declare pillow fights or cackle villainously in his sleep. Even after deciding he'll be a better roommate, his antics include bizarre behavior like singing loudly while washing dishes or playing a kazoo at random moments. He does do some typical bad roommate behavior – putting padlocks on his food in the fridge – but he's just a massive weirdo. And that is way funnier. 

That Eggman fits into such an easily understood comedic archetype is fitting, as "Sonic Boom" applies this approach to all of the core "Sonic" cast. This is most evident in the character of Amy. Here, Sonic's obsessive fangirl is re-characterized as the straight woman. This is a pretty common trope in comedy itself, where the guys get to have all the wacky fun while the women stand back and scowl. Luckily, "Sonic Boom" mutates the premise further, as Amy is so reasonable that she cycles back around to being unreasonable. The pop-psychology method she deploys just ends up placating Eggman's obvious evil plan, in addition to making her seem a little nutty herself. I like that, even if it's so far from Amy's usual personality so as to be a totally different character. (Which is very evident in Cindy Robinson's vocal performance, where she makes Amy sound like a swinging twenty-something instead of a squeeing teenage girl.)

Meanwhile, Sonic's standard snark makes him a good fit for the traditional role of smart aleck sitcom protagonist. Tails' youth allows him to be the character whose naivety gets plots rolling. We haven't seen much of Knuckles yet but I already know he's the comedic buffoon. And then there's Sticks... Oh, by the way, meet Sticks everybody. The new addition to the core "Sonic" cast that "Boom" made, the show makes no attempt to give the eccentric badger a proper introduction. She just shows up here, hanging out with the heroes as if she's always been there. I guess we'll just have to extrapolate why this paranoid conspiracy theorist is part of the superhero's crew for now. Either way, episode two does establish Sticks' personality, even if her natural suspicion of everything actually makes her right in this episode. Mika Futterman's manic vocal performance just about matches the voice I heard in my head when I first saw Sticks' character design, give or take a Long Island accent or two. 

In the first episode, I noted how "Sonic Boom" seemed to have a fairly clear divide between its zany bits and its action-packed parts. This episode seems to do something similar. 85% of it is devoted to the comedic scenario of Sonic and Eggman cohabiting. After the Obliterator Bot turns on Eggman, it seems the episode is settling into its action-y half. Yet the jokes keep coming, owing to Sonic and Tails being so exhausted from the doctor's antics that they fall asleep in the middle of crime-fighting. That’s a decent gag that the show really commits to, with Sonic passing out even in the middle of doing a spin-dash and his unconscious body sliding to safety under some hazards. That made me chuckle. 

Overall, "Can an Evil a Genius..." is a lot funnier and smoother than the premiere of "Sonic Boom." It has more of an air of exaggerated absurdity to it than the mediocre quip-a-minute style that is more common to modern sitcoms. Granted, there's definitely still some of that. Sonic notes dryly that Eggman's smells in the first scene, a joke so hoary it barely reads as humor. The minute Tails mentioned that Eggman's constant pillow fights have given him short term memory loss, I knew there'd be a joke about how he really does have short term memory loss. Eggman being mean to Cubot and Orbot, because "robots have no souls" just struck me as kind of mean-spirited instead of amusing. While it's not much better than those asides, I did find the moment where Sticks' mangles the pronunciation of "Unobliteratable" mildly amusing. More-so because of Futterman's delivery than the joke itself. 

But I still laughed a decent amount and was impressed with this episode doing more with its goofy premise than I initially expected. I think that's worth a [6.5/10] or so.