Review: The Awesomes ‘Awesomes for Hire’

Spoilers Below:

After last week’s musical disaster, it should be pretty easy for The Awesomes to make an improvement. If there’s no singing, it’s already better by far. But enough about the past, let’s get to the present episode, “Awesomes for Hire.”

This week, the public turned on the Awesomes after their trip to Paris allowed the city to fall apart, leading Mandrake to declare the end of the current lineup, with Mr. Awesome (still evil, unbeknownst to almost everyone) leading the new squad. They will, however, be under increased scrutiny due to the miscues of the pervious gang.

Although most of the members were suspicious of the noticeable change in Mr. Awesomes’s personality, they moved out, and into the home of Prock’s mom. (Did I mention Prock’s mom hates superheroes? Because that’s kind of important. Although, despite having a new boyfriend, she still clearly has a thing for her ex-husband.)

The old Awesomes began an unofficial “Awesomes for Hire” business, and their first task was tracking down a missing bike – which was actually stolen by a gang of bicycle-stealing supervillains called “The Spokesmen.” Our superhero friends tracked them down, and after a battle, bested the bike beings – with some help from Perfect Man, unfortunately.

At the end, Mr. Awesome declared his intent to run for president.

In Case You Missed It:

1) During the opening newscasts, the headlines read, “Catastrophic Chaos in Awesomes’ Absence” and “Awesomes more awesome with Mr. Awesome!”

2) In the background of the scene mentioned in #1, signs could be seen that said, “If you like France so much, why don’t you just MARRY IT!”, “Dumb Prock!”, “Prock is stupid!” and “We are protesting AGAIN!”

3) Prock’s mom’s book was called: “Superdummies: Why the World Needs Superheroes Like a Hole in the Head.”

4) The new Awesomes consisted of: Hot Wings, a ninja, an ice cube maker, a centaur, a human sphinx, and a lady with robot boobs. Also, possibly a guy named Marco. I hope that joke gets a callback later.

5) The Awesomes’s poster for the little girl’s missing bike said: “MISSING – The bike, not the girl.”

6) The missing bike newspaper headlines read: “Pedal Peril,” “Heels on Wheels,” and “Vicious Cycle.”

[Insert applause here.] Well done, The Awesomes. You didn’t suck nearly as much as last time. Although I must say, I was a bit worried. The beginning of this week’s episode was quite weak, in both plot and dialogue. But in something rarely seen in cartoon TV, the installment actually got better as it went along.

First a few good jokes landed, like the ‘90s music/Columbia Record Club references, which, like the episode got funnier upon repetition. As did the cat in the fan comments, and the throwback to the Seaman episode of two weeks ago.

Heck, the improvements even applied to characters. I always enjoy Fred Armisen, but was skeptical of his role at first. After getting more lines though, his character became one of the best parts of “Awesomes for Hire.” (Cough cough.)

Speaking of characters, it was nice to see Bobby Moynihan back with a semi-major role (as opposed to a random line here or there) which I think was supposed to be a spoof of Kevin Spacey in House of Cards, or something.

As for the plot…it was forgettable. The bike thing was a bit silly and lame, and the side story – Mr. Awesome and his new team – was actually the more important one. However, the bicycle theme gave Mr. Armisen the opportunity for more jokes, just like the unspectacular episode as a whole provided chances to chuckle as well. In both instances, the laugh became more frequent, and more hearty.

For a while this one was seeming like another dud, but I’m happy to say it ended successful and solid. I bet the ice cube-making superhero can relate.