Season Review: Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared Season One

Any time an adult-puppet series like this comes to pass, the obvious comparisons to Wonder Showzen are going to come about. Like Wonder Showzen, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared does a children’s show bit featuring puppets and bits that are geared towards older audiences. However, whereas Wonder Showzen is probably closer to the South Park levels of proficiency as it pertains to it’s comedic prowess, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared leans closer to puppet-horror movies, and it’s a ride that I’m here for.

For those that don’t know, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared follows Yellow guy, Duck, and Red Guy typically just hanging out at home waiting for something to happen to which it always does and it comes from Brit-trio Becky Sloan, Joe Pelling, and Baker Terry exploring the depths of every day simple things that may be foreign to some like jobs, leaving the house, friendship, and other seemingly easy tasks that soon turn horrifying. Episodes kick off with some sort of song or jingle that seems like it’s a children’s nursery rhyme at first until the melody turns on a dime and we get a more sinister, potentially ulterior, motive to the episode. The climaxes range from typically extremely violent to downright creepy. Then the ending typically wraps everything up in a bow, but not before we get a questionable lesson out of the entire charade.

Every episode of the first season of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is stronger than the last, but “Family” is an astonishing standout that I would put up against anything produced anywhere else, no question. Various animation sequences in a number of different styles are also used throughout the series on-top of puppetry that gives the show a mixed-reality take that is so damn good it makes me angry, but I get hugs, so I don’t get scared.

Queen Elizabeth just died and I didn’t care to watch any of the processions because I really don’t care about the British Monarchy, like, not even a little bit. Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared was supposed to be released a week earlier than it did in favor of the extensive coverage that came by way of the Queen’s passing and I’m not sure that was the right move. This franchise, along with Spitting Image, is UK’s official answer to the dozens of American-produced adult animation that can be found anywhere, and really, this series should find an American streaming/TV home as well so that we can get additional seasons and episodes.