Review: The Freak Brothers “Pilot” ; “Squatters’ Rights”

Stoner animated series can be a hard nut to crack. For decades we’ve had to deal with cliched rip offs of Cheech & Chong up until recently went black produced efforts like Lazor Wulf and The Jellies showed the world how to do a contemporary stoner series. But what if you threw a Futurama premise blended in with Cheech & Chong so the point WAS the cliches that no longer apply to far-friendlier cannabis country. Well, if you do, you get The Freak Brothers.

Inspired by the legendary comics series of the same name, The Freak Brothers takes the characters from the comics and transports them to 2020 in San Francisco. Once a hotbed for anti-corporate rhetoric from the likes of Rolling Stone or Berkeley College, today’s version of San Fran is now devoid of anything resembling planet Earth and in it’s stead is a utopia built on user data. The culture clash makes for a hilarious premise and with a cavalcade of upper-echelon acting talent, one could see how this could completely crash and burn, but if the first two episodes are any indication, this thing’s gonna be fun.

Let me just say, the voice cast is top notch and they DELIVER. The Freak Brothers feature Freewheelin’ Franklin Freek (Woody Harrelson), man-child Fat Freddy Freekowtski (John Goodman), paranoid Phineas T. Phreakers (Pete Davidson) and their sardonic cat, Kitty (Tiffany Haddish). Yes, like Family Guy, the series features talking animals, and Haddish is having a strong year in voice acting having just been featured in the second season of the critically-acclaimed Tuca & Bertie for Adult Swim and she’s just as strong here. But, the real surprises of excellence are in the initial trio. Long-standing cannabis advocate Woody Harrelson brings his Midland, Texas draw and nestles it firmly between the more up-tempo deliveries from Goodman and Davidson. Goodman’s Fat Freddy is an idiot, but the voice is unrecognizable, and just adds another notch on the already impressive belt of one of the greatest living actors of all-time. And then there’s Pete Davidson. I’ll be honest, going into this, I thought Pete would just play another character that’s more or less an extension of himself. I am happy to admit, I was wrong, and Pete is FANTASTIC int he role of Phineas. Possibly his best work yet, and another example of a character that is almost unrecognizable as the star playing him.

The rest of the cast features the who’s who of additional voices. Maurice LaMarche and Phil LaMarr are here and are excellent. Andrea Savage, and here’s another shocker, La La Anthony (!!!!). Andrea (“Harper”) is always solid no matter what role she’s in, she’s one of my favorite comedy actresses. But, where the hell did La La come from to give us a solid “Gretchen”?  We don’t get to see much of Schoolboy Q just yet, and the duo of Blake Andersen/Adam Devine more-or-less cameo as “Charlie” and “Chuck” thus far, but really there isn’t a bad performance from the bunch.

Starburns Industries finally gets another original series on the air and the results aren’t disappointing. Their brush meshes well with the Lehrer cartoon grittiness spliced with the classic comic series giving us something that looks like it should be on Adult Swim, but is instead on Tubi who rightly picks up a winner to help shepherd in what I hope is more original series coming down the pike sooner, rather than later. For those wanting a straight adaptation of the comics, that’s not this, but I actually think this is leagues better than I thought would’ve happened. The cast demands your recognition.