Sonic Boom, Episode 2.31: Lightning Bowler Society

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.31: Lightning Bowler Society

Original Air Date: June 10th, 2017

If I was able to do any project without falling horribly behind schedule, I probably would've wrapped up my "Sonic Boom" reviews months ago. Instead, my serial tendency to miss updates means this retrospective has dragged on and on. But maybe some things are meant to be. If I had finished discussing "Boom" on time, it probably would've been before the "Knuckles" streaming series started. Which means I would've discovered, only after the fact, how that show's much-contested focus on bowling wasn't even a new addition to the "Sonic" franchise! Yes, defying the odds, Wade Whipple's desire to best his absentee father at a bowling tournament isn't the first time the game of ten pins found its way into a piece of official "Sonic" media. The thirty-first episode of "Boom's" second season was all about rolling on the lanes, introducing Fred Flintstone and Homer Simpson's favorite athletic contest into the blue hedgehog universe. Assuming there isn't some shitty mobile "Sonic Bowling" game I've overlooked... 

[Update: There is, in fact, a shitty mobile "Sonic Bowling" game. Two actually: An original in 2002 and a remake in 2009. However, both were Japanese exclusives, so this episode is still the first English-language piece of official "Sonic" media about bowling. Hoo-ray for highly specific superlatives!]

The episode begins with the Lightning Bolt Society attempting another ineffectual and easily defeated feat of villainy against Sonic and the gang. Feeling discouraged afterwards, the wannabe supervillains decide to shift their focus entirely. From now on, they will be the Lightning Bowler Society, putting on ugly shirts and rolling balls down the lanes. This turns out to be much more successful for the group than their villainy careers ever were. All four of them quickly become local celebrities. This infuriates Sonic, who apparently also has a bowling team with his friends. After being bested by the new stars in town, Sonic becomes obsessed with topping them at their own game. Soon, in-fighting among the Lighting Bolters sees them breaking up, robbing Sonic of his chance at victory. He then dispatches his friends to convince Dave, Willy Walrus, and the rest to regroup, strictly so he'll be able to defeat them at the alley. 

I've talked before about how the "Sonic Boom" writing team managed to take some of the show's minor background players – who wouldn't amount to anything but running gags otherwise – and turn them into actual supporting cast members. Dave the Intern is the most obvious example of this. However, his involvement with the Lightning Bolt Society truly is nothing but a running gag. The wheezy teen's status as an apathetic fast food worker has long since eclipsed his pathetic desires for supervillain status as his defining characteristics. While Dave is reasonably well developed – by the standards of a reoccurring guest star in a children's sitcom anyway – the rest of the Lightning Bolt Society are one-note jokes. Two of them don't even have real names, being known only as Weasel Bandit and Tree Spy. (Or Tree Guy, as I usually call him.) Willy Walrus is a character that was created simply to pay-off a goofy sight-gag in the tenth episode, his name being the first name you'd think of for a walrus character. That he's reappeared probably has more to do with the "Boom" animators wanting to reuse CGI assets than anything else. 

With this in mind, the idea of "Sonic Boom" devoting nearly an entire episode to the Lightning Bolt Society seems like an act of utter hubris on the writers' behalf. Kids are here to watch Sonic and his pals have adventures, not to see your stupid O.C.s bitch about their lives, maaaaaan. As ill-conceived as this premise seems, "Lightning Bowler Society" actually manages to work pretty well. I praised Peter Saisselen's earlier episode, "Do Not Disturb," for being surprisingly dense and narrarively complete despite the short runtime of "Sonic Boom" episodes. "Lighting Bowler Society" has this same feature. In only ten minutes, Saisselen squeezes in a complete story that contains multiple dramatic turns and twists. Like all good narrative, the protagonists are different people at the end of this journey than they were at the beginning. Dave and the gang decided they didn't want to be supervillains, changed directions, became stars, broke-up, and then remember why they all became friends in the first place, rekindling their bond. They went on a journey and learned something about themselves. That this is done within such a short runtime is all the more impressive. 

The biggest evidence that "Lightning Bowler Society" had actually won me over by the end is that I found myself, against all odds, invested in the story of Tree Guy. The most one-note of the Lighting Bolt Society manages to use his low level of celebrity to win over a hot girlfriend. That would be Staci, the identical twin sister – even down to wearing the same outfit – of Perci. And while Perci seems like a chill person, her sister fancies herself a starfucking Lady MacBeth. She talks Tree Guy – now self-seriously calling himself "Chameleon" – into wildly overvaluing his own worth and going solo. And this is such a stupid subplot. I'm more invested in Old Monkey than I am Tree Guy! 

Yet, somehow, this story turn is compelling. Seeing perpetual underdogs like the Lightning Bolters actually win some success is... Nice? They then have it broken up by ego and petty squabbling, in a classic tale familiar to anyone who has read a book about a big rock group. Narratives like this are compelling for a reason and, even one this dumb, gets you caught up. Who doesn't love a tale about a beloved group of talented individuals, coming together to make something beautiful, only to be torn apart by their own flaws? Did I just compare a bowling team to The Beatles? I guess that makes Staci the Yoko in this story, the subplot about her and Tree Guy making an art film about his penis presumably being cut for time. 

Many times, while writing for this blog, I've found myself thinking "Isn't this cartoon/comic/movie supposed to be about Sonic the Hedgehog?" Saisselen's script keeps the blue hedgehog in the story by essentially shifting him into the antagonist role. Sonic and his bowling team provides the rivals the Lightning Bolters need to bring themselves back together. While Sonic having a newfound interest in bowling feels like a stretch, this set-up does return to one of my favorite moods of "Boom" Sonic. Having him want to beat Dave/Willy/etc because he wants to win a trophy is boring. Having Sonic want to beat these guys because their popularity is a threat to his ego is interesting. Especially since it results in him doing the right thing – helping some friends patch up their separation – for totally selfish reason. Even the most heroic versions of Sonic tend to be a little full of themselves. "Boom" sometimes exaggerating that into Sonic acting in petty, immature ways whenever his status as the village's top hero is threatened is a good gag. Especially since it allows Roger Craig Smith to really ham it up in amusing ways. 

The result is overall a funny episode. The rest of Team Sonic doesn't have much to do in this one. However, a montage of them bowling does, amusingly, reflect their personalities. Knuckles drops the ball before even throwing it, because he's a doofus. Tails slowly and exactly rolls it down the lane on the way to a perfect strike, because he's a detail-orientated techy. Sticks misses a roll and then violently lunches at the standing pins, because she's insane. The episode manages to make a lame-seeming gag about fruitcake funny by pushing the absurdity even further, Sonic and the gang actually deciding to dine on the weaponized dessert. Overall, there's some inspired gaggery here. Such as Willy trying to sell bowling ball earrings on a home-shopping channel, Tree Guy being applauded for his collection of tree suits, or taking his hot date out to Meh Burger. That last one involves a bit about the bowling team getting a tie-ins meal at the fast food place, composed of meat slurry slopped onto a plate. That's not the best joke but I do applaud the animation team for making those Beef Bowls look truly disgusting. 

It's an episode that shouldn't work but ends up being a good time, largely because it's well written and packs its set-up with plenty of surprisingly weird japes. And, who knows, maybe bowling will find its way into more "Sonic" stuff in the future. Someday, they might make more of those "Sonic & Mario at the Olympics Games" titles that I've never actually seen anyone play. The bowling industry lobby – something that apparently exists! – keeps trying to convince the Olympic Committee to make the sport a regular part of the games. Perhaps these two threads of history will converge. Perhaps we'll see Sonic knock over some pins again and for Knuckles to angrily declare that he doesn't roll on Shabbos. Stranger things, like this episode being good, have happened. [7/10]