I've never been much of a fan of Adult Swim's general humour and library. I'm all for general weirdness and idiocy, in fact that's definitely my type of humour, but the Tim & Eric style of comedy is one that certainly doesn't quite land with me. I find humour is best done when there's still something intelligent done about it, rather than nonsensical silliness for the sake of nonsensical silliness.
Every now and then Adult Swim does actually release something that does appeal to me a bit more, though that tends to relate more to their animated lineup of shows, where the animation is heavily exaggerated and the writing a bit more smarter in the way it protrays events, characters, and its world as it attempts to get a few laughs from you.
Smiling Friends is one of these newer shows from Adult Swim, which tone down the weirdness but still use it in a wise manner to amplify the writing and situations. In fact, I wasn't surprised to see the series was made having seen the pilot episode that was released a few months prior; it was a refreshing surprise.
Smiling Friends
The show focuses itself around the lives of two friends and colleagues which work at an agency called Smiling Friends; an agency that aims to shed light on the world when people are feeling either down or facing some of type of issue that requires some emotional help to cheer them up a bit. It's through this concept in which the show can introduce many strange and silly concepts ranging from general depression to saving princesses from fantasy kingdoms.
It was through this that each episode actually felt unexpected. I never really knew what to expect from the next. Each episode is different to the last, and has no weight in how the next episode may play out, which helps keep the idea fresh without trying to cram in certain aspects of narrative and character development that could be told through other means.
Character development instead was injected into the particular theme by having the characters approach areas of life or events that they themselves are often oblivious to and fear, making them face their fears in a comedic way. I liked that we could still get more depth from the characters without a heavy focus being on them with the show's very small 12 minute runtime per episode.
This worked nicely alongside the show's animation style, which is nothing out of the ordinary in terms of modern animation. It's much alike the Rick and Morty style of animation that's mostly rather simple without significant detail. Though, in moments, similar to that of SpongeBob Squarepants, the animation goes into great detail and exaggeration of character's emotions and faces to heighten the bizarre nature of the show.
I really enjoyed these moments, since they're often enough without warning. They simply pop up with large emphasis and catch you off guard, typically carrying off some philosophical elements of writing and events.
Philosophy
It's not unusual for a production from Adult Swim to be weird but also feature elements of philosophy into its humour. And Smiling Friends does exactly that. There's often introductions of certain philosophical questions into its episodes and characters as the Smiling Friends are also introduced to these themes. While they're positive, they encounter individuals that ask what the meaning to life is, whether there's purpose and what constitutes to purpose.
What's nice is that often enough there's no particular conclusion in these discussions of philosophy, where sometimes nihilism is introduced and the characters don't quite know how to go forward into life with this new way of thought; and in other episodes they learn of ways to address the idea of nihilism into their lives without ultimately coming to the conclusion that nothing does in fact matter and that nothin is actually pointless if you can create reason yourself.
I found it both creative and important that these show actually considers these concepts into its narrative where characters are trying to introduce good into people's lives. And the contrast of these Smiling Friends being forever optimistic but often blindly optimistic with no real knowledge of the world helps make these moments feel more emotional and authentic. That the show is comedic and silly in parts but also has some interesting ideas to push forward to the audience.
I believe without these themes the show wouldn't be as interesting, even if such philosophical elements are not featured in every episode and only have a small portion of the episode's runtime. It helps split the show up from its comedy to something that's very much aware of the themes it's both featuring and joking about. After all, what good is humour if we do not use it to push ourselves forward?
Good, but unsure as to where it can go
Smiling Friends is a pretty fun show, and I've really enjoyed the first season. Though I'm left asking myself just where it could possibly go into a second season. There's certainly room left to explore many different themes and concepts, but how long until it needs to pursue some type of narrative and slow down?
At which point will the style of Smiling Friends begin to grow stale? I'm often left with such concerns with shows of a similar nature, given it's incredibly easy to completely lose the strength that has been built by introducing something very fresh and entertaining but also over-staying their welcome.
It's a safe bet to make that the show could've easily already exhausted its main strengths and concepts and may be incapable of maintaining its quality. However, I don't believe it's capable of doing so just yet, I do have faith that a second season, alongside a simple 12 minute runtime per episode, should allow for it to either end on a high rather than to over extend. I expect it to start establishing some type of narrative, however, and perhaps introduce a story that spans over several episodes to allow for the show to continue and last a bit longer.
Though I can't say I'd be much of a fan of this turn of events, where we see more of a narrative structured into the season; I find that I much prefer shows that stick to creating something different each episode and try new ideas and themes to stay original. I'd certainly prefer to see less episodes in total with quality rather than plenty of episodes which don't particularly offer much reason to exist other than to prop up numbers for the network.
While the philosophical elements are nice to see, I also hope they don't become too frequent. I wouldn't want the show to grow into something that's rather preaching; too much of one thing can become a negative thing. And I certainly struggle to enjoy any show or film that is overly preaching in its political and philosophical themes.
Despite these uncertainties, I can still recommend the show, even if the traditional Adult Swim style of humour doesn't particularly appeal to you, fortunately it's quite different while still holding many similarities to other animated series from other networks.
