Season Review: Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head Season Two

The year 2023 is chockful of reboots and news about reboots for adult animated series. Still to come this year alone is a reboot of Futurama, and we only just finished up the return season of Clone High a few weeks ago. Hell, even Mike Judge’s King of the Hill has a reboot in the works with new episodes coming to Hulu next year. For my money, I think there are some elements of reboots that are working and some aren’t. For example, most producers are seemingly focusing on what’s “accepted” now as opposed to remembering what made that franchise special in the first place. Fortunately, Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head doesn’t have that problem, but it DOES have a slight identity crisis we need to talk about.

Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head has now completed its rebooted two-season order for what was originally supposed to be for Comedy Central. After a second full-length feature film for the franchise followed by two original seasons of the season, nothing for this franchise feels tired or worn out. The premises are simplistic enough that you don’t need to go back to prior seasons of the franchise to figure everything out, everything’s laid right out in front of you. That’s not to say there isn’t a bunch to be found for the die-hards, but watching a series about two guys who say and do dumb shit should be enough of a description for you to get along just fine. Whether the titular characters are their present-day selves, middle-aged, or even “smart”, you get a good amount of variety to go along with the tried-and-true formula that has helped this franchise be successful for over 30 years and ten seasons.

That said, I’m not so sure Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head features a format conducive for streaming. For my money, we’re getting the series that was ordered for Comedy Central in its presentation. You don’t have to expect heavy-hard “R” deliveries from any Cartman types, instead you get two quarter-hours worth of new Beavis and Butt-Head with the occasional gift of a Tom Anderson bit thrown in there for good measure. And when the titular characters aren’t finding themselves playing in a dump or beating the shit out of each other, Beavis and Butt-Head can be found on their iconic couch offerings lambasting ridicule of YouTubers and today’s pop music stars.

The result is a fun romp that doesn’t give up. You really can’t go wrong with whatever version of Beavis and Butt-Head you’re going to get from the series and we even got a quick Daria cameo for the show’s season finale that was a bunch of fun. Personally, Paramount should order more seasons of the series and if the show is going to premiere new episodes on the streamer I’d like to see if the writers would be able to stretch the boundaries a bit. It doesn’t require a ton of voice actors or writers and Titmouse lovingly treats the series with such respect for the early seasons that used to air on MTV. Mike Judge is still in a league of his own and if he wants to do more of this show, he should get a chance to do it until he’s a hundred years old.