Can Smiling Friends Stick the Landing?
Can Smiling Friends Stick The Landing?
Written By Lucy Latorre
Photographed By Emma Sabau
When it originally aired its first episode in April of 2020, Smiling Friends seemed like a breath of fresh air. A full first season from Adult Swim in January 2022 solidified the show as a hit, with a second season in 2024 and a third season premiering this fall. Created by Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel, Smiling Friends follows Pim and Charlie, two employees of the Smiling Friends Inc., a company dedicated to making people smile. Complete with strange looking characters such as humanoid frogs who swallow people whole and off-putting creatures threatening jumpscares at any second, every episode of Smiling Friends promised a rollercoaster of a story all in the span of 12 minutes.
The audience heralded the show's unpredictability as its trademark, and the creators listened. This unpredictability saw a boom in the second season, where the show became more comfortable exploring different animation mediums such as 3D, claymation, and even motion capture to elevate their side characters and settings. There were even more jokes, colors, jumpscares, and, with a surprise appearance from the Nostalgia Critic, even more references to internet culture. Season three promises that Smiling Friends will be back to it’s old tricks with the volume turned even higher, but at what point does this trademark unpredictability become predictable, and at what point does it rob the show of its charm?
The concept of “flanderization” is thrown around the world of television writing, but it’s most notably associated with animation. Stemming from The Simpson’s Ned Flanders, flanderization involves taking one main trait of a character and oversimplifying it to the point the character becomes one note. Ned Flanders, who began The Simpsons as a kind, godly neighbor, devolved into a moral extremist and evangelist as the show progressed to the point where it became noticeable. As audiences compared this new Ned to the depictions of him in the earlier episodes, this term was born, and more examples seemed to pop up left and right. Family Guy premiered with Peter Griffin being a misguided but loving husband and father, but modern episodes see him go out of his way to relentlessly bully his family. Patrick Star wasn’t the brightest in early episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants, but he is undeniably dumber in the more recent seasons.
In terms of Smiling Friends, there are definitely ways in which the characters could become Flanderized: Pim’s optimism could turn into tunnel vision and Charlie’s nonchalance could turn into genuine carelessness. Although this would be a huge hit to the loveable characters, the show’s insanity might be able to balance out these simplifications. The real threat of Flanderization is the world of the show, which could easily fall into a wasteland of forgotten internet references and animation masterpieces to the point where the rest of the show is sitting in the shadows.
The best parts of Smiling Friends are when Pim and Charlie succeed. It’s rewarding to hear the little jingle as each client finally smiles. That sense of heart was what really grounded Smiling Friends’s first episode, “Desmond’s Big Day Out.” As much as the client Desmond’s loaded gun next to his head was shockingly funny, it was the satisfaction of seeing him smile that kept the audience watching. Any show can make an audience laugh, but not all shows can make them genuinely smile. Newer episodes seem to have forgotten what made this basic formula so special, trading out real heart with shock value and meme material. Season three’s premier episode, “Silly Samuel,” didn’t make me smile as much as the pilot did. I didn’t find myself caring about the character, instead being surprised by how big and bold he, the side characters, and the world itself looked. The supporting elements of the show seemed to have more thought put in them than the real heart of the story, which was what made the show so special. My eyes were so peeled for references, wackiness, and boundary pushes that by the time Silly Samuel smiled, I had stopped caring.
I’m not saying that the show should become formulaic and simple. Some of the best episodes are the ones that play with the formula. Instead, the show needs to find a way to control its desire to be uncontrollable. As funny as the kooky side characters, random meme moments, and genuine scares are, if the show wants to push a boundary, they need to make sure they have a boundary to push. Smiling Friends has an opportunity to solidify its status as a hit. Can they stay true to their mission statement, or will their greatest strength become their fatal flaw?