The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has been such a success on the big screen that many fans likely don’t associate it with television, let alone see any comparisons to entirely live-action network TV sitcoms. There is one TV show that manages to combine the best of the Sonic franchise with some of the best parts of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Knuckles is still worth watching, more than two years after premiering on Paramount+.
Set between Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Knuckles was billed as a “streaming event” with all six episodes available when it premiered on April 26, 2024. Knuckles, once again voiced by Idris Elba, agrees to train Wade (Happy Endings‘ Adam Pally) as his protégé in learning the ways of the Echidna warrior. While delivering the same kinds of action and humor as the movies, the TV show also takes Knuckles on a wild ride of self-discovery.
In addition to Elba returning as Knuckles and Pally returning as Wade, the show also included notable guest stars from the movies. Ben Schwartz voiced the one and only Sonic the Hedgehog for the Paramount+ series, while Colleen O’Shaughnessey once again voiced Tails, and Tika Sumpter was back as Maddie. Considering that Knuckles was spanning the time between the end of Sonic 2 and the beginning of Sonic 3, Sonic himself missing the action would have felt odd, even with the focus primarily on Knuckles and Wade.
For any doubters who might have thought that Knuckles leading a series of his own, in between two movies, wouldn’t work, the finished product proved that the films’ version of the Sonic the Hedgehog world could also work on the small screen.
Knuckles admittedly isn’t the first Sonic the Hedgehog-adjacent TV show in the history of the franchise, and the echidna had prominent roles in all three of the series that released within the last quarter century. What sets the Paramount+ show apart (other than focusing on a side character in the franchise) from Sonic X, Sonic Boom, and Sonic Prime is the live-action production. Add on the fact that all six episodes ran around 30 minutes each, and Knuckles felt more like a sitcom than another movie.
It didn’t hurt that Adam Pally was back as Wade. Years before he first appeared in the first Sonic movie, Pally established himself as a sitcom star with main roles in The Mindy Project and Happy Endings. Knuckles was reminiscent of Brooklyn Nine-Nine in some surprising ways, and that’s certainly not a bad thing. It didn’t hurt that one of the similarities is how Knuckles cast established TV and movie stars for main roles.
Like how Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher were major draws to Brooklyn Nine-Nine in the early days, Knuckles brought some star power both in live action and animated characters. Recurring actors included Rory McCann, Christopher Lloyd, Stockard Channing, Cary Elwes, Paul Sheer, and Stockard Channing, among others. As it turned out, Sonic the Hedgehog characters could definitely work for a live-action sitcom, arguably even better than all of the animated series that came before.
Knuckles Is Better Than It Has Any Right To Be
Knuckles ran the risk of coming across as a show that only existed to profit off of the success of the movies, and there’s no denying that it truly did just span from the end of Sonic 2 to the beginning of Sonic 3. That said, Knuckles turned out to also be a great show, and one of the best to release on Paramount+ in 2024. The action-packed comedy was even a hit on Rotten Tomatoes, although not quite as successful as the two films that had premiered to that point.
Still, considering the challenges of a six-part series (which amounts to approximately three hours of television) compared to movies, Knuckles was a winner. In fact, of the four installments that have released in the franchise so far, Knuckles ranks only behind Sonic 3 among Rotten Tomatoes critics.
|
Release |
Critics Score |
Audience Score |
|---|---|---|
|
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) |
64% |
93% |
|
Sonic the Hedgehoig 2 (2022) |
69% |
96% |
|
Knuckles (2024) |
75% |
63% |
|
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) |
85% |
95% |
The show is also immensely binge-able, with just six episodes. Coming in between two movies meant that there was no cliffhanger ending that would never be resolved. Adam Pally’s comments about season 2 aren’t particularly surprising, even with Sonic the Hedgehog 4 slated to arrive in 2027. Plus, all three Sonic films are available streaming on Paramount+ as well, so it’s easy to watch the movies that set up and then pay off on Knuckles‘ first and only season.
- Release Date
-
2024 – 2024-00-00
- Network
-
Paramount+
- Directors
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Carol Banker, Jeff Fowler, Jorma Taccone
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
