Looking Back On..The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police
My knowledge of Sam and Max only came from an Easter egg found on Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire but when I found out there was an animated show on Fox Kids that many people don’t know much about I decided to give it a shot and check it out. Now I have never played any of the Lucasarts or Telltale video games or know anything of the characters personalities or universe so when I watched it I went in blank.
The premise of the show is of a dog and rabbit detectives who always end up in all kinds of weird situations and/or cases. This was way before the “oh it’s funny because it’s random” humor that became big and it’s better because of it. Yes, the show is extremely random and changes the rules all the time but it comes from a rather bizarre perspective that it’s genuinely interesting and you don’t see it as a cheap way to move the episode forward or end it, so it just works.
The show is 13 episodes with two different stories being told in each and both the pilot and final episodes are two part episodes or I guess a full length episode. This works in the favor of the show since many of the plots they have while rather odd are cool but had they stretched out the plot for a full length episode I’m not so sure that all episodes would’ve been winners. The way they did it I can honestly say that I enjoyed all episodes, sometimes it’s better to leave people wanting for more than giving it.
The voices are quite different from their game counterparts and they’re my favorite interpretation so far, now I guess you can say that since these were the first that I heard I might have some bias. The animation is what you’d expect from a decent Fox Kids budget in the late 90s. The show doesn’t feature too many recurring characters and it doesn’t need them. The ones that we have like the commissionaire and Darla Gugenheek are good but I’m glad they were only recurring characters.
I have to say the show is rather good and made me interested in checking more Sam and Max stuff out and I’d totally recommend it to anyone who want something a bit different since anything is game when it comes to this show. Don’t forget to also check out the three mini episodes: Vice Squad, Our Bewildering Universe! ‘Chock Full o’ Guts!'” and “Sam & Max’s Artsy Craftsy Bit of Time Wasting Nonsense”. Which are not part of the official episode count.
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