Recently Paramount Pictures released a new show, Knuckles, streaming exclusively on Paramount+. The show has been highly anticipated by Sonic fans but ended up being way past lame. It was still a good show, but it wasn’t great.  

The show is about Knuckles the Echidna, hence why it’s called Knuckles, and it is about Knuckles training a character named Wade Whipple (introduced in the first Sonic movie) to become a warrior. Wade has a bowling championship in Reno, Nevada, so Knuckles helps him prepare for that; however, agents of G.U.N are hunting Knuckles to turn him into an ex-employee of Eggman.

Each episode is around 30 minutes long with six episodes in total. It is hard sitting through an entire 30-minute episode when they are snoozefests. The first three episodes tackle Wade and Knuckles going out of state so Knux can train Wade to be a “warrior” AKA training him for his bowling tournament. Eventually, the G.U.N agents capture Knuckles. That was a cool fight scene; they showed off the weapons from the old Eggman goon. Then another more epic fight scene. As the show progresses, we get more into Wade’s bowling tournament and it’s hard to watch. The stakes are high, but this was supposed to be about knuckles and my guy hasn’t been present IN HIS SHOW for a while now.  That’s my only complaint. As far as the plot goes everything else is spectacular.  

Now one thing that I admire about the show is the comedy. This show is surprisingly hilarious. Most of the comedic aspect is from Knuckles. The funniest Knuckles moment is in the third episode when he and Wade escape because Knuckles can glide, but then as soon as Wade asks about him flying Knuckles says, “Only for short distances.” Then they fall, and Wade gets thrown in a dumpster. Also, in the second episode, during the fight to rescue Knuckles, the G.U.N agent is BEATING Wade, and then his mother calls him mid-way through the fight.  In the 4th episode, (this episode is a musical) Wade plays the part of Knuckles and looks ridiculous as they explain Knuckles’ backstory. Overall it has excellent comedy. I had to pause to laugh several times. 

However, the spectacular comedy can’t distract from the worst aspect of the show, the villains. There are quite a few antagonistic forces within the show, the main two being the G.U.N agents hired by an ex-Eggman-employee named “The Buyer.” They work fine as villains, but the main issue is the agent who Kid Cudi plays. He isn’t a good actor and I strongly believe he should stick to making music because he is much better at that. The villains are supposed to be serious but Kid Cudi doesn’t display that well. The other agent is alright, she isn’t a bad actor, but she isn’t that cool, neither of them is cool, they are just generic villains that aren’t that good at their job. Another villain is Wade’s dad. He isn’t a good villain. He is a villain because he chose bowling over his family, but he is so odd. His whole costume is the British flag, but he isn’t even British? Also, he betrays Wade but it’s obvious he planned to do that from the start. He just sucks honestly. The Buyer is the only good villain in the show, he has a threatening aura and takes his job seriously.

Another aspect that makes the show tolerable is the soundtrack. It includes hit songs such as “Can I Kick It”? by A Tribe Called Quest, “All the Small Things” by Blink-182, “Rock You Like a Hurricane” by Scorpion, “Holding Out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler, and many more songs. The songs they picked were fun and fit the scenes perfectly. 

There are more issues with the show, such as the obvious advertisements/sponsors. In the first episode, Knuckles is talking about Cool Ranch Doritos, and he said that because it was a necessary product placement. In the second episode, Wade says the line “Let’s do this Spotify”. Very clear advertising. Also, they mention Facebook Marketplace a few times throughout the show and it’s painfully clear that it’s an ad.  

Along with ads, there is one character that drags down the entire show. That character is Wade’s sister Wanda. She is supposed to be hate-able, which is done well, and then she gets a redemption arc at the end. However, it does nothing for her because she is just annoying.  

Even with all these negatives, there were still some cute moments that made the show great. Such as getting some Maddie, Sonic, and Tails screentime. It’s nice seeing Maddie without Tom. Seeing Sonic and Tails is also nice, they changed the designs showing that they’ve done some growing. They gave Tails a cute little haircut so that was nice.

Also, the references are important! Very few references existed within the show, but when they did appear joy consumed my being. Such as the ski resort being named after IceCap zone from Sonic 3. Plus the sign in the first episode that Knuckles spins to reveal his face, referencing the iconic signs in the classic Sonic games that show you’ve beaten the level. Also, Knuckles hat is a reference to the very obscure Sonic OVA movie. The best reference was the inclusion of the character Pachacamac from Sonic Adventure. He was voiced by Christopher Lloyd and was an amazing reference that made Sonic fans leap for joy!!  The least obvious reference comes from the title. The show is called “Knuckles” and it’s because the new Sonic movie (Sonic 3) is coming out. This references the combined games that made “Sonic 3 & Knuckles.” A very clever reference on Paramount’s part. 

The takeaway from this is that The Knuckles show was good, but could’ve been way better. A few tweaks with the plot and characters would’ve made this show amazing. Sadly we didn’t get that, but Paramount should consider this as they work on the new Sonic movie.