Review: President Curtis “Synths”

Posted on by

Review: President Curtis S01E09 “Synths” — A September Christmas Miracle Packed with Hallmark Satire

Dropping a full-blown holiday episode in the middle of September is an inherently unhinged move, but President Curtis Season 1, Episode 9, “Synths,” proves that Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty spin-off thrives when leaning completely into seasonal absurdity.

When Christmas spirit hits an all-time national crisis point on Black Friday, President Andre Curtis (voiced with booming authority by Keith David) takes extreme executive action: deploying synthetic humanoids engineered by Dr. Finch to forcefully spread cheer like weaponized Hallmark movie protagonists. What follows is a pitch-black satire of holiday tropes, corporate greed, and sci-fi tropes.

Hallmark Sci-Fi and Bad Santa Warfare

The core strength of “Synths” lies in its aggressive parody of Hallmark Channel holiday formulas. The synths—programmed purely with wholesome tropes like saving small-town bakeries and falling in love with cynical big-city architects—are both hilarious and strangely endearing. Rather than turning into violent Blade Runner rogues, their limitation to G-rated Christmas programming makes them so pure that even their built-in “Dick Bomb” fail-safes feel ridiculously mean-spirited.

The main plot escalates into top-tier mayhem once it’s revealed that Ed Carol, the CEO of Hallmark, is actually the real Santa Claus running a cartel-style monopoly on holiday cheer. The episode flips Santa into a formidable villain equipped with bloodthirsty, carnivorous reindeer. The action set-pieces deliver big—most notably Curtis going one-on-one with a monstrous Rudolph and O’Doyle exploiting the reindeer’s cannibalistic love of carrots.

Character Lore and Meta Humor

Beyond the holiday gore, “Synths” slips in sharp character work and fourth-wall winks. Agent Banks’ attempt to extract her long-hidden backstory from Santa only to get stonewalled is a fantastic meta-joke about squeezing canonical reveals into holiday filler episodes. Meanwhile, the resolution to the synths’ dilemma—Curtis illegally dropping them in a snowy field outside Montreal because they’ll effortlessly blend into Canadian politeness stereotypes—is one of the sharpest sight gags of the season.

The Verdict

“Synths” is the plot of Elf only with a Rick and Morty sinew but not like the early seasons 1-6 of Rick and Morty with the better voice actors.