Review: President Curtis “Hollow”

Overview
The episode opens with President Curtis casually playing a video game with kids through his
headset when the power suddenly goes out. What initially seems like a minor outage quickly
becomes a national crisis when the Department of Defense warns that America’s overworked
power grid could eventually collapse.
Dr. Keel suggests restricting power usage, but Captain Boggs offers a much more ridiculous
solution: travel to Hollow Earth and take energy from its mysterious Life Tree. The plan is quickly
nicknamed “Avatar,” thanks to its obvious similarities to the 2009 film.
Curtis and his team travel underground, where they encounter Hollow Earth natives, strange
creatures, and a surprisingly familiar American influence. After discovering that the Hollow
Earth people actually receive their power from the Moss People, the group begins another round
of negotiations. Eventually, they discover that the true energy source is a group of puppy-like
creatures capable of reproducing through mitosis.
Unfortunately, their discovery attracts an alien harvester looking to steal a resource called
Cantgetium from Earth. Curtis calls on his new Hollow Earth and Moss People allies to help
defend America. During the battle, Roe confronts the harvester’s leader and learns that his
species destroyed its own planet searching for energy.
A puppy-like creature named Two Toes ultimately sacrifices himself to destroy the harvester.
Curtis keeps his promise and allows the remaining creatures to return home. However, America
still has an energy crisis. His solution? An AI porn tax, limiting every citizen to two AI-porn
keywords per day.

Our Take
This episode fully embraces the kind of absurd sci-fi comedy that makes President Curtis so
entertaining. The “Avatar” parody is obvious, but the episode has fun with it rather than simply
recreating the movie. Hollow Earth, the Life Tree, alien harvesters, and puppy-shaped energy
creatures all combine into one increasingly ridiculous adventure.
The episode’s funniest moments often come from the characters treating completely insane
situations as normal political negotiations. Roe offering Crocs and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos as a
peace offering, only to be forced to drink her own urine, is exactly the kind of bizarre political
satire the show does well.
Keith David continues to make Curtis work as a character because he approaches every
ridiculous situation with genuine presidential confidence. Roe also gets some of the episode’s
strongest moments, particularly when she confronts the harvester leader.
The discovery of the puppy creatures is easily the episode’s funniest concept. Their ability to
reproduce through mitosis makes the entire complicated energy crisis solution hilariously
simple.
The episode eventually becomes chaotic, but that chaos is part of its charm. From Avatar
references to alien invasions and an AI porn tax, “Hollow Earth” keeps escalating until its final
joke lands perfectly.