‘Knuckles’ is a limited series that began streaming on Paramount Plus in April and serves as a spin-off for the ‘Sonic’ theatrical movies. This limited series also takes place between ‘Sonic 2’ and the recently released ‘Sonic 3’ (which I recently saw).
And, since I will also be checking out ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (and enjoy the series so far), I wanted to give ‘Knuckles’ a shot. So, let’s talk about the Paramount Plus series ‘Knuckles.’
Set in the cinematic universe of ‘Sonic the Hedgehog,’ the ‘Knuckles’ series follows an action-packed journey of self-discovery. While struggling to adjust to life on Earth, Knuckles the Echidna takes on Wade Whipple to help him prepare for a bowling tournament in Reno, where his estranged father is competing.
During their journey, Wade reunites with his mother and sister, while Knuckles is pursued by a former agent of Robotnik, who now seeks to take his power for himself.
The ‘Knuckles’ limited series does a fine job striking the balance between comedy, heart and action within its short amount of episodes and a roughly half-hour run time for each episode. Throughout the series, we get to see the characters of Knuckles (who’s still trying to get used to Earth) and Wade Whipple (who’s mainly the comic relief of the first two movies) go on their own little journey together.
This limited series can be quite humorous at times, even though the humor can be a little sillier than the movies during a few moments. Most of the humor comes from the Wade character as he goes on his journey to eventually see his estranged father (and possibly become a bowling champion). The show actually did a good job fleshing out his character, who, like I said, pretty much served as the goofball comic relief in the prior movies.
The action in the series is actually not bad and each episode has at least one action scene (probably due to budgetary constraints). A bit of the action involving Wade can also be fun to watch, but can also tend to get a little silly at times as well (which is okay for a show like this).
I actually was expecting to see the Knuckles character in a lot of scenes. But, while going through the six episodes, it seemed like he was missing for a good chunk of the series. But, they likely did that for a couple reasons - 1.) the budget and 2.) so that they can focus on the Wade sub-plot.
Overall, ‘Knuckles’ can be rather entertaining and a fun watch for the whole family. It may not be nearly as great as the first two movies, but kids will like it! And, even though it takes place between the second and third movies, it’s not necessary to see the series to get ready for the third movie!
‘Knuckles’ marks the first live action TV/streaming series to be based on the ‘Sonic’ franchise. The series debuted as the most-watched Paramount Plus original series. It also became the service’s most watched kids and family title ever, with more than four million hours streamed over the first weekend of streaming.
You can currently stream ‘Knuckles’ and the first two ‘Sonic’ movies on Paramount Plus.
Comments