Review: Universal Basic Guys “Shorty Hoagies”

Overview 

Mark and Tammy get adventurous on a date night at the Philadelphia Flower Show; Darren and JD prank David.

Our Take

For my money the definitive king of doing an animated take on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is by far Solar Opposites and all of the adventures that happen in “The Wall” which could really pass as a whole series on it’s own without having to piggyback on the series about aliens trying to escape Earth. Unfortunately, with only a half an episode to really work with,there was no chance Universal Basic Guys would’ve come close to even matching the brevity of Solar Opposites in either size nor scope. Though I will say the Praying Mantis getting beat up by a security guard was pretty damn good.

Personally, I thought Darren and JD pranking David was a bit more fun if for no other reason that Jon Glaser in the role of the Jersey Devil is one of the best recurring roles the series has going for it and quite honestly Jon should get to do more work on the show as the dude is supremely multi-talented and can really put in some good work for a still fledgling franchise. It’s also super rare that we get any Darren episodes as it is, especially episodes where he’s most of the focus of the plot so the fact that he gets some much-needed screen time is a welcome sight to see.

Overall, Universal Basic Guys comes in with a split effort. I’m not sure the producers should have tussled with tiny in such a shortened capacity but on the other hand we got Jon Glaser this week so you win some you lose some.