Season Review: Major Lazer Season One

It’s rare that an animated TV series emanates a conviction and discipline that can be seen in feature films. One of those disciplines are musical scores, a concept of which Major Lazer has effectively mastered. Sure, it helps that the show is produced by Diplo, one of the most commercially successful artists of his genre as the executive producer which makes getting rights to music a cinch. But, the producers of the animated series still had to marry an existing soundtrack with that of an animated series. That can not be no easy task…but Friends Night pulled it off.

The show looks of the ilk of your 80’s G.I. Joe-esque action cartoons and, when they happened, the action sequences were directed beautifully. Yes, Major Lazer is set against a back drop of Jamaica’s leading agricultural export, but the writers are smarter than the prehistoric pot jokes of old that would better fit Jay and Silent Bob or Cheech & Chong. The characters took a bit to develop because the first few episodes of Major Lazer’s first season (not counting the sneak peek episode from back in October 2014) due to the fact that the show seemed to revel in the fact that it had an excellent soundtrack, so story lines, action scenes, and dialogue all suffered from the get go as a result.

As time went on, Major Lazer started to find itself and began showcasing some of the best in animated television money can buy. Our titular character voiced by the the fantastic Triple A, showed acting muscles that never needed to be too precocious and instead seemed to fit Major just right no matter what situation was presented. Triple A’s demure personality clashed just right with the more high-speed deliveries brought on by J.K. Simmons (Whitewall) and James Adomian (General Rubbish). John Boyega (Attack the Block) continues his hot streak as Blkmrkt whom along with Penny (Angela Trimbur) showed enough flash to warrant future episodes with more expensive screen time. Dash that in with a slew and I mean a SLEW of guest stars that helped introduce a litany of bit characters that I am dying to see more of (MORE GOOSH NOW!!!).

I actually think Major Lazer has so much going for it, that it can easily be turned into a 30-minute show. The characters are there, and the balance between music video and action and dialogue and all of the other ingredients you need to be good seemed to be figured out near the end of the run. For next season, I wouldn’t mind seeing more guest musical contributions with Diplo, and longer action sequences.