Sonic Prime, Episode 2.05: A Madness to Their Methods

Sonic Prime, Episode 2.05: A Madness to Their Methods

Original Release Date: July 13th, 2023

With the fifth episode of the second season, "Sonic Prime" returns to its first alternate universe of New Yolk City. Without the Chaos Council to rule the city, Rebel Rouge and her resistance fighter have largely liberated the city. As the Council returns with three Prism shards, they build powerful new weapons and attempt to refasten their iron grip on the city. With Sonic arriving alongside the Eggmen, he helps the rebels defend their newly liberated home and fight his way back to the shards. 

The "Sonic Prime" creative staff can't seem to decide how creditable a threat the Chaos Council is. They are the primary antagonists of the series after all, ostensibly the biggest danger to the ShatterVerse. Yet, on a personal level, these guys aren't much more than technically proficient buffoons. I'm not just talking about how they spend so much time bickering amongst themselves nor how they seem to loose every one-on-one fight they have with the good guys. I mean, they just aren't very observant or clever villains. This episode marks seemingly the first time the Council is aware of Nine secretly communicating with Sonic. I think the show is trying to play it as the bad guys knowing about his deception and just waiting for the right time to capitalize on it. But the actual evidence doesn't seem to back that up. You can see their lack of cunning in what the gang does once they've got all the Prism Shards together. They... Build bigger, tougher Eggforcers. This massive lack of creativity is even called out by Nine. These are the guys who are threatening the multiverse?!

The Council quarrel among themselves constantly. They talk about conquering multiverse and yet, when gifted a reality-altering power source, all they can think to do is build a bigger gun to point at the rebels in their own city. Despite their displayed incompetence, the show is still treating these guys like serious villains. They have basically come out on-top every episode this season, including this one. Without little actual skill being shown, it just seems like these five are dangerous purely through luck and contrivance. I don't mind Sonic's archenemy being goofy – I like Long John Baldry's Robotnik – but I'm just consistently underwhelmed by these guys. They aren't serious enough to be threatening villains and they aren't absurd enough to be likable nut jobs. 

And, once again, the most frustrating part of this is that it doesn't have to be this way. There's a scene in this episode that is quite good. The toupeed Mr. Dr. Eggman confronts Nine, suspecting his treachery. He uses the boy's own cockiness against him to not only reveal his secret but also to provide the Council with a better idea. At least one of the Eggmen is capable of being a threat that can observe his opponents and plan accordingly. This shows that "Prime's" writers and directors could have given us a halfway decent villain. Instead, they decided to just latch lame gimmicks to the character and have them stumble their way towards ShatterVerse-wide domination.

Even if that individual moment is good, what is the brilliant idea that Nine unknowingly gives the doctors? As the final minute of the episode reveals, it's to build their own version of Metal Sonic. The episode treats this like a big reveal. And I guess it is. Yet it really is just another example of the Council's total lack of ingenuity. When pushed to use their massive new power source to create a tide-turning weapon, they simply create a robot double of Sonic. Sure, Metal Sonic and all his variants are a proud, reoccurring part of the blue hedgehog's rogue gallery. Yet it doesn't seem like that big of a deal, on a practical level. There's still three episodes in season two to go, so presumably the Council will eventually cook up a proper doomsday device to put all of these different realities in peril. I don't foresee one (1) robot hedgehog accomplishing that. This makes the final scene of "A Madness to Their Method" seem more like a nod to long-time "Sonic" fans, instead of a proper cliffhanger in its own right. 

That's exactly what it is, isn't it? Because, once again, I have to remember that "Prime" has never been meant to stand alone as its own narrative. This show is simply all about getting mildly altered versions of Sonic's friends and enemies on-screen and having them doing stuff. This episode certainly provides that. By returning to New Yolk City, we get to see a lot more of Rebel Rouge and her resistance fighters. Yes, once again, there are quite a few action scenes. Though none of them are as elaborate at the tracking shots and helicopter kicks we saw in the last few episodes. Seems to mostly boil down to Eggforcers exploding in a handful of ways. Via spin-dashes, punches, and bazookas. Once again, "Prime" seems to indecisively place these new, heavily armored Eggforcers as both a perilous new threat to our heroes and robot goons that can easily be clipped through.

This is a me problem. I'm one of those people who demand character depth and consistent narratives from TV shows. "Prime" isn't that kind of rodeo. Yet I have to bring up the nagging fact that this program is giving me a suggestion that it could be more than just Sonic's friends in different hats, smashing robots. Before the Council arrives back in New Yolk, there's a scene of Rebel and Knocks watching kids play with the remains of Eggforcers. They talk about how the city is peaceful now, how there might be hope for the future. I guess this is ultimately exposition. To establish that the Resistance have dismantled the Council's defenses while they are gone. Yet it gives us a peek at the interior lives of these two, what they believe in and fight for. Similarly, there are occasional interactions between the heroes that suggest they do have more going on behind their eyes, that they are more than just action figures to smash together. Rebel is a passionate and compassionate person. Knocks' rough-and-tumble exterior hides a goofier inside. They all care about their teammates. It's something.

You see this in regards to Sonic too. I return to the initial synopsis that was released for "Prime," this vague promise that Sonic would have to deal with the consequences of his own actions. A few things the blue hedgehog says suggest he is feeling guilty for causing this whole mess. He feels bad that Nine is endangered and that the Council has gotten this close to greater power. Every time it feels like "Prime" is starting to zoom in on Sonic's actual personality, it pulls back. He goes right back to quibbing during the fights and joking around with his pals. Yes, yes, I know, that's what Sonic does. He doesn't angst about his problems. He runs fast and slings one-liners. Those are his attributes, not his personality. This seems to be the biggest problem "Prime" has, mistaking the stuff a character does with the complicated thoughts that push them into action.

One of Knocks' attributes, we learn, is a hatred of pirates. Considering the last episode made a big deal about Dread stowing away on the Council's space craft, and we see him arrive in New Yolk here, you'd expect there to be some kind of conflict between these different versions of everyone's favorite red echidna. Not yet. Presumably this is something "Prime" intends to get to soon enough. Dread's one line of dialogue here is him obsessing over his "treasure" again – that seems to be his sole attribute – and that makes me suspect the pirate will inadvertently help the Resistance get the shards away from the Council. (His one scene also has him falling helplessly through the air, as if he forgot he can glide.) Still, with "Prime" being such a massively underwhelming program up to this point, that minor plot point can't help but seem like more wasted potential to me. It will be important later, it's not important now. Don't worry about it and enjoy the pyrotechnics. 

I'm tempted to give this episode a slightly higher grade than the last few, simply because I really did enjoy those very brief scenes between Rebel and Knocks, was well as Mr. Dr. Eggman's interrogation of Nine. Yet my main complaint with this show, its staggering refusal to try a little harder and include a little more depth in its wildly inconsistent and deeply underwritten plot, remains. Am I being too hard on "Prime?" Is it really this mediocre? Have I become too much of a nagging old man to enjoy a light-weight action cartoon for what it is? Or does Netflix intentionally sabotage its original programming so that they aren't too compelling and threaten the weird algorithm metrics that control our modern age of streaming? I don't know the answer to any of these questions, for sure, but I do know I've got three more installments of this season to gripe about. [5/10]

Sonic Prime, Episode 1.8: There’s No ARRGH in “Team”

Sonic Prime, Episode 1.8: There’s No ARRGH in “Team”

Original Release Date: December 15th, 2022

As the first half of “Sonic Prime’s” first season ends, the show only just now feels like it’s actually starting. Having traveled to the water-logged, pirate infested No Place zone, Rusty Rose and a submarine full of Eggforcers attacks Knuckles the Dread’s ship. After a drone scans Sonic’s magic shoes, the bad guys head off towards the Devil’s Lighthouse. Otherwise known as the latest Paradox Prism shard. Sonic manages to rally the pirates, including the reluctant captain, into taking chase after the villains. Lots of fighting and robot smashing ensues, as the good guys and the interdimensional invaders have a scuffle among the jagged rocks and water around the central plot device. 

As I've noted multiple times, "Sonic Prime" most excels at action sequences. Maybe the showrunners were aware of that too. Or maybe they just wanted to make the first batch of episodes ended on a fittingly action-packed note. Either way, "There's No ARRGH in Team" is composed almost entirely of action scenes. The entire last half has the heroes fighting off Rusty Rose and her army of Eggforcer robots. There's a pretty clever moment where Sonic uses his super speed and whatever random shit the crew has laying around to patch the hole the bad guys busted in the ship. Definitely my favorite action beat in the episode occurs halfway through, when Sonic uses his hovercraft shoes to pull the ship around the perilous rocks of the Devil's Lighthouse. This proceeds a moment so deliriously absurd that it made me laugh from sheer audacity. 

The episode is not purely action though. In a nice change of pace, some room is made for character development too. After Rusty and her robots fuck up his ship, Dread is ready to hightail it out of there. Sonic talks the pirate captain into coming back by appealing to that most masculine to tendencies: The need to look cool. He convinces the captain to come back by pointing out this adventure will finally provide a chance to conquer the Devil's Lighthouse. In a nice full circle touch, Sonic also has to be manipulated into helping later. His phobia of water makes him reluctant to skim over the ocean and tug the boat along. When his ability to go fast and win a race is questioned though, Sonic has no choice but to go along with the plan. Remember that, ladies: The masculine desire to appear tough, resourceful, successful, or macho can easily overpower our logical reasoning. 

Obviously, the most frustrating thing about "Sonic Prime" for me is that this series is just never going to develop the variants of Sonic's friends into distinct characters. Batton Rouge, Black Rose, and Sails are not personable people in their own right. They are closer to sight gags, jokey combinations of beloved, established players with pirate stereotypes. This makes something Knuckles the Dread does in the last act harder to justify. Upon getting close to the red Prism Shard, the treasure he's sought for so long, greed seemingly overwhelms him. Sonic has to struggle with him over it. 

I guess the idea is that pirates are, like dragons, naturally inclined towards hoarding treasure. Yet the lack of detailing that's been done with Dread – who is still the most fleshed out of this gang! – makes his actions seem like they come out of the blue. "Prime" seems to want to derive some easy shock value from Sonic's friends acting in non-heroic manners. Without some time being taken to make Dread, Rose Thorn, and Rusty more than just palette swipes of the good guys, these moments really are nothing but shock value. At the very least, Dread seems a little more reasonable than the Amy variants I mentioned. 

Looking back on this episode, and the seven before it, "Prime" really has missed big opportunity. Sonic has treated each alternate version of his friends that he's met essentially as if they are his friends. Even after learning that Nine is a grouchy loner, Thorn is a violent eco-extremist, and Dread is a cowardly pirate, the hedgehog still acts like they are his old buddies. This show needed more of a big part of the multiverse premise's appeal: People reacting with confusion to alternate versions of their friends and themselves. I mean, say what you will about the Marvel Cinematic Universe but they knew that you gotta have Good Doctor Strange fight an Evil Doctor Strange or there's no point in doing this whole thing. 

Since there's no other Sonics in the Shatter Spaces, and the Chaos Council have just now gained the ability to travel to other realities, "Prime" can finally get around to this stuff. When Rusty Rose first gets a peek at the pirate of herself, it short-circuits her programming for a second. Later, Black Rose and the cyborg do another double-take at each other. That's all this idea amounts to here but, hopefully, future episodes will do a little more with that idea. Will being around other, heroic Amy Roses cause Rusty Rose to rebel against her programming? Or will the contrast between an evil version of Amy and her better-intentioned counterparts simply be used for dramatic, ironic tension? It remains to be seen. 

The former seems likelier but I'm kind of hoping the latter holds true. If only because Rusty is the best villain this cartoon has right now. There's not much to her, other than being a super-strong killborg determined to fulfill Priority #1: Hedgehog. But throwing a Terminator into the mix always makes for a decent bad guy. The Chaos Council, meanwhile, still seem too jokey for me to take seriously as antagonists. In fact, this episode features the very first time those guys have done anything intimidating at all, in my eyes. After capturing Nine, Dr. Don't threatens to dismember the fox if he refuses to help them conquer the multiverse. See, that's some good villain-ing right there. Leave the hipster and baby jokes to the sideline. Let these guys actually be evil. 

For what it's worth, there's actually a handful of jokes here that actually made me chuckle. A moment where Sonic is unable to decipher Batton's thick pirate speak is a solid, if inevitable, joke. Dread's ship – named the Angel's Voyage, apparently – being held together with Christmas lights and inflatable dinghies isn't bad. Probably the best gag here is one that's quickly thrown away. As they the gang sails into battle, Sails the Fox climbs into the crow's nest and plays a heavy metal riff on Catfish's little pirate banjo. I actually chuckle at that one. 

Despite being a relatively sturdy episode of a show that's still trying to find its footing, "There's No ARRGH in Team" still left me unsatisfied. The final moments return to the Shadow subplot. This has got to be the lamest of "Prime's" story threads. Shadow is floating out there in the ether, angry at Sonic for reasons he refuses to elaborate on because it's more dramatic that way, and has basically only popped up before this point to remind the viewer that he still exists. Honestly, if this episode was the first time Shadow appeared on this show, that would've been a good cliffhanger. That might've made me excited to head into the next batch of "Prime" episodes. Instead, Shadow has periodically appeared to bark vague statement and trade fisticuffs with Sonic. I don't care. 

Looking back at "Prime's" first half-season, I can't help but be frustrated. It doesn't have the character-based writing and lovable cast of "SatAM." It doesn't have "Sonic X's" quirky perspective or space opera grandeur. It doesn't reinvent "Sonic" lore in interesting ways, like the movies do. It's not even as funny as "Boom" or as nice looking as the OVA. (I must concede that I like it better than "AoStH" and "Underground.") There's so much potential here and the staff seem determined to explore it in as shallow and short-sighted a way as possible. Certainly, it is still technically plausible that "Prime" will finally pull itself together eventually. Maybe that'll be the case when the next batch of episodes drop on Netflix in six months or whatever. As of now, I have to say that "Sonic Prime" ranks as a disappointment for me. [6.5/10]