The success ofRick and Mortycannot be understated. It is one of the most popular animated television series tocome out this century. The pairing ofDan Harmon (of Community fame)andJustin Roiland with a teamof talented artists, writers, and voice actors is consistently epic. It has earned several awards over the last few years and has even pulled a fewimpressive pranks on its fanbase. It is no wonder, then, why Hulu would turn to Roiland to take on an original animated production. The two main characters ofSolar Oppositesare Korvo and Terry, voiced by Roiland and Thomas Middleditch, respectively. The show’s premise is about an alien family, Korvo, Terry, and their two replicants, Yumyulack and Jesse (basically their clones/kids), who crashed landed on Earth after their home planet Shlorp was destroyed by a comet.
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The aliens want to both fit in and be liked by their neighbors and escape the oddities and backwardness of human life at the same time. Additionally, there are two subplots. One is about shrunk people living in a terrarium in Yumyulacks Wall, which is basically a second show. The second follows the mischievous exploits of the Pupa, the “baby” of the show who is a lifeform designed to one day grow and terraform planet Earth into a replacement Shlorp.
WhereRick and Mortyplays with philosophy, existentialism, and meta-comedy,Solar Oppositesplays withsocial topics such as gender roles, racism, the immigrant experience, and the insecurities of humanity. Most of its episodes revolve around the characters desiring to be liked by humanity, whether in high school or in the local homeowner association, for example, and then using sci-fi rigmarole to cheat at their problem only for it to backfire and cause mass destruction and death.Solar Oppositesdoes not shy away from profanity, or gratuitous violence, or allowing the characters to regularly break the fourth wall. LikeRick and Morty,Solar Oppositesbreaks the fourth wall by directly addressing the elements of the plot occurring around them. The characters will say things like “character arc,” or “controversial episode,” and often refer to the Hulu streaming service itself. The show playfully hides Easter Eggs toRick and Mortyand shout outs toThe Simpsonsand Harmon’s ownCommunity.
Korvo has a lot of similarities to Rick in his intelligence and arrogance, but he, like the rest of his family, has an underlying desire to be liked by humans and included in their world. The source of, and the solution to,most of the sci-fi problems derivesfrom Korvo. He hates Earth and wants to go elsewhere, but at the same time is endeared by it and just wants to be liked by everyone. Terry serves as the outsider character for the audience. Whatever the complication of the episode, Terry asks Korvo all the questions the audience needs to know to understand what they are talking about.
It is unusual how little Terry knows about his own homeworld and culture. He is so obsessed with Earth culture that it is almost as if he lost all his knowledge of his previous life on Shlorp, except where it is convenient for the plot. Jesse is their daughter, sort of, who, like her replicant adult Terry, wants to fully participate in human activities. For her, its high school. Both Terry and Jesse love being on Earth and assimilated the fastest they could to its culture (to the best of their alien comprehensions). Yumyulack, their sort of son, is the replicant of Korvo and preserves the same seriousness and attachment to Shlorp as Korvo.He picks on his little sister, and, like his adult, has a desire to be liked by the humans around him. In his case, the popular group at high school. Yumyulack uses a shrink gun to capture humans and stick them in a massive wall-sized terrarium between his and Jesse’s bed.
Yumyulack’s Wall became a main arc inSolar Opposites, with the penultimate episode entirely devoted to it. Yumyulack’s Wall explores a microcosm of society, where all the shrunk people are ruled by a dictator known as The Duke, most worship a religion dedicated to Jesse known as the Bowinian Church, andwhere life is survival or obedience.
Solar Oppositesfeels like a long form version of something seen onRick and Morty’s Interdimensional Cable box. It takes some of the ingredients ofRick and Morty, the “sciencey” stuff, the meta comedy, the fourth wall breaking, and mixes it with sitcom tropes like a dysfunctional family and fitting in at high school or fitting in with the neighbors.
Season 2 ofSolar Oppositesis scheduled to stream on Hulu Jul 13, 2025.
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