‘Knuckles’ Limited Series Review – Sonic Spinoff Is A Huge, Hysterical Win

Knuckles is both everything you expected it to be and something wholly different; equal parts traditionally told and delivered in deviance. For a spinoff of the Sonic universe, there’s a surprising amount of flare here. Jeff Fowler forges a ludicrous brand of humor that not only goes further than the films, but that sets Knuckles apart from other short-form comedy releases.

Idris Elba’s vocal performance goes a long way in assisting those efforts. His casting as the titular echidna was a legitimate stroke of genius. He portrays the character with wholehearted earnestness on both the occasional heartfelt pit-stops and in the persistent comedic onslaughts that structure the series’ happenings.

There is an end goal in sight for the story, but Knuckles plays more like an episodic cartoon series, the type that puts characters up to new, detached shenanigans with each subsequent episode. It’s the “Saturday morning” archetype, sitting crisscross in front of the T.V. with a bowl of cereal and a huge smile on your face. Even if it’s a good bit more focused than shows like those, Knuckles provides the same warm comfort that they’re known for exuding.

The first episode reintroduces audiences to Knuckles the Echidna as he struggles to adjust to a tamer life on Earth. Where Sonic and Tails (who make short but fitting appearances) are reading comic books and speeding peacefully around town, Knuckles is pitting the family dog against the mailman in a living-room-turned-coliseum fight to the death. This, in tandem with plenty more mischief-making, leads to him being grounded like a child would be after talking back to his parents.

If you couldn’t guess it, Knucks doesn’t quite appreciate (or even understand) the idea of the punishment, leaving his home without warning and setting off with county clown and police officer Wade Whipple (Adam Pally) on a quest to win a vengeful bowling tournament in Reno. Detours include a mansion break-out mission, a Shabbat dinner, and a handful of super-powered fights and shenanigans in between.

Whipple and Knuckles, due greatly to the hilarious, keen chemistry between Elba and Pally, make for a fantastic set of leads for the series. Whipple is in the limelight more often than you’d expect, but Pally’s slapstick sensibilities make these segments exceptionally entertaining, even if they feel distracting in stints.

Much of the show toys with Knuckles’ earthly inexperience as he learns about music and car radios, old movies, and, more generally, basic manners. Knuckles ends up relatively inconsequential from a wider view of the Sonic-Verse (patent pending), but it goes a long way in furthering the Knucklehead’s development as a character, and not only serves as a proper set-up for the upcoming third film but is wholly fulfilling as a singular lighthearted affair of its own.

There are plenty of extra goodies for diehard fans to chew on here, too. Fowler, in his expansion of this cinematic Sonic universe based on the games that popularized the blue blur in the first place, has done extraordinarily well in earning the trust of a fanbase that is not to be underestimated. Sonic fans are passionate, attentive, and expectant, and Knuckles should easily check all their boxes. It’d be a shame to spoil any of the specific Easter eggs, but it’s a huge win worth mentioning for the series that they’re there at all.

Knuckles is just a huge win for all involved. The series maintains the consistent quality that the two films before it pioneered, whilst also doing more than enough to make a special name for itself in the process. Sonic has quickly become a household name under the Paramount umbrella, and with Knuckles, it may very well have claimed the IP throne. It’s the funniest show of the year, boasting relentless cleverness, tactful absurdity, and stupefying, even unexpected innovation behind the camera. You can’t miss Knuckles.

Knuckles will debut exclusively on Paramount+ on April 26, 2024. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kETt59yn6A]