Review: The Awesomes ‘The Awesomes Reloaded’

Spoilers Below:

The Awesomes Oosomes for Hire (name change ordered by Mr. Awesome) had just finished another minor case when they were all suddenly gassed.

When they awoke, it appeared to be several months later, and everyone was living different lives. Prock was a police officer married to a very pregnant Hotwire, Concierge was a librarian, Frantic was a high school track coach, Tim was a gifted but rebellious student, Impresario was a Bob Ross-style art teacher, Gadget Girl was a doctor (Hotwire’s doctor), and Muscle Man was a construction worker. It was then revealed that this new reality was really only virtual, with the mysterious men behind it aiming to download the Awesomes’ brain waves.

Later, Perfect Man stumbled into the empty control room of the virtual world and took over, believing it to be an Awesomes video game. The other New Awesomes soon joined him, and unintentionally wreaked havoc on the virtual townspeople. In the end, Prock (or “Sheriff Jeremy”) sacrificed himself to save the town from the ignorant video game-playing New Awesomes. Just as he was about to die in the simulation (which would cause him to die in real life) the plug was pulled.

The Awesomes for Hire awoke back in the house, as if nothing had happened. However, the currently evil Mr. Awesome now had their brain waves downloaded, and a list of each member’s biggest weakness, and appeared ready to use Prock’s fear (his dad’s disappointment) against him.

In Case You Missed It:

1) Of course Prock was the first one to pass out from the gas.

2) The little boy at the library was checking out the book Dennis the Choo Choo Contemplates His Existence.

3) Signs in the library read “READ you IDIOT” and “Pleasure yourself with books.”

4) The brainwave download rate appeared to be directly related to the member’s intelligence. Muscle Man’s was fastest, Hotwire’s was slowest. Makes sense.

5) Perfect Man has a picture of himself on his cell phone case.

6) Impresario exclaimed, “The rent is too damn high!” in a reference to the political party of the same name.

7) When envisioning the happy future they could miss out on, Muscle Man’s involved him getting run over by a forklift.

8) Impresario’s biggest weakness? Birds. Concierge’s? Tickling.

Few shows are capable of successfully accomplishing so little while doing so much. For instance, I always pointed this out with Red vs. Blue. They would spend a whole episode (which for RvB is only five or ten minutes, on average) goofing off or accomplishing some seemingly meaningful task, and the episode only inched slightly toward its eventual climax and resolution. For a traditional serial series, this would be annoying, as the plot possibilities are generally endless, and thus there’s no need for feet dragging. For shows like The Awesomes or Red vs. Blue, the conclusion is predictable – the good guys will eventually face their foes, and likely win – so there’s really no rush. We can have throwaway episodes or ones where a lot is done to accomplish a little.

“The Awesomes Reloaded” was a good example of the latter.

Again, this isn’t a bad thing, if properly executed. In this case, we saw our superhero friends get incapacitated and placed into a whole virtual world where they had plenty of time to explore their new surroundings and try to make sense of things. Back in the real world, the only goal was to steal their brain info. In fact, they didn’t even need to be rescued. The bad guys were going to let them go afterward (why Mr. Awesome & his cronies didn’t just eliminate them immediately after subduing them is beyond me) and they only needed to be saved when the ignorant New Awesomes stormed into the world and began destroying everything & everyone, believing it to simply be a video game.

In the meantime, we were also treated to another fantastic voice performance by Bobby Moynihan – a completely underrated member of the cast – and some amusing video game spoofs. I really enjoyed whenever someone’s virtual reality helmet was removed in real life, and their virtual characters turned into a mindless, drooling zombie. Also, the final “battle” between the members of the New Awesomes and Perfect Man (and SBD, kind of) was the highlight of the episode. Actually, Perfect Man’s whole journey into the game was pretty hilarious.

The episode needed an abundance of humor to keep things interesting and moving, and thankfully there was enough to cover the runtime. This wasn’t a non-stop joke-fest like the Indiana Jones installment a few weeks ago, but it was a solid effort all around. We got to see new civilian lives for almost every character, which led to a new set of jokes for each. We got to see Perfect Man almost mess everything up. And, as I stated before, we got to witness the tiniest bit of plot progression.

The only thing missing? Dr. Malocchio.