Squidbillies - Season 6

Another year goes by, and Squidbillies trucks along as strong as ever. It's hard to really compare different seasons of the show, because the division is meaningless. A new season just means another batch of episodes, and each episode is pretty much the same concept. Early will be an asshole, the people around him will be hurt because of it, and there will be some slight satire of certain cultural or political concepts involving the south. It's a basic formula, and it works because it's consistently funny and that's all it has to be. I'm coming to appreciate how good of a character Early is - he's possibly the most despicable television protagonist there is, hateful and ignorant and moronic and violent. And yet he's just so damn amusing that you love him anyway. It's partly the writing, which always finds new twists on some combination of those characteristics, and it's partly Unknown Hinson's consistently brilliant voice acting. I don't think there's a sentence in the English language he couldn't at least make partly amusing if he wanted to.

This was also a good season for the sheriff, although most of them probably are, because he tends to get the most good material besides Early and maybe Rusty. Granny definitely gets a lot more jokes, but they're usually pretty easy ones based on stuff we already know about her, while the sheriff's always optimistic take on things seems fresher for some reason. There's nothing much I particularly want to point out, other than this Sunday's season finale about transporting illicit cargo with high speed truck chases might have made me laugh out loud more than any other episode of the show, which I find consistently entertaining but rarely elicits actual chuckles for me. Mostly I just smile at the wordplay and cleverly deployed violence. For what it's worth, Squidbillies has been the better of the two shows that David Willis works on for a couple years now. It's a similar situation to Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy and American Dad! - the former is more popular with America and is maybe saddled with certain expectations, while the latter is able to do its own thing and is much more consistently funny for it. Squidbillies is not anything close to a world changing show, but it's a really enjoyable one, and that can be enough.

Squidbillies - Season 5

Squidbillies continues to be a funny show in its sixth year of existence. It also continues to be difficult to find images of online. These ten episodes continue to bring its combination of broad social satire, funny performances, some surprisingly clever touches and enjoyable animation, especially when something violent is happening. Some targets this season are polygamy, the holodeck from Star Trek, GPS units, and the Insane Clown Posse. Quite an eclectic group of subjects for humor. Early continues to be one of the biggest uninformed jerks on the planet, Granny is still addled but surprisingly horny for an ancient squid, and the Sheriff is still too easily bossed around. The final episode is half an hour again, and this time it's a musical extravaganza with a bunch of guest musicians. It honestly didn't start out that great, But the second half was stronger and I ended up enjoying it a lot despite the terrorism stuff being a bit too obvious. Squidbillies is the kind of show I wouldn't terribly miss if it ended, but it's definitely funny whenever it's on.

Squidbillies - Season 4

I'm pretty sure this season's over now? Yeah? Whatever.

You know, as time goes on the less sure I am that Matt Maiellaro really has anything to do with this show. I've seen him credited along with Aqua Teen Hunger Force co-creator Dave Willis and The Brak Show's Jim Fortier for something, but I'm not sure he's really involved. Anyway, at this point I think Squidbillies is more of a creative outlet for Dave at least, if not both of them, than Aqua Teen. The latter is still pretty enjoyable from time to time, but Squidbillies is just more consistently humorous week to week. The messy, simple art and abrasive characters make it seem like something that could be easily hated, but if you give it a chance it's actually secretly pretty clever and uniquely funny. It's not the kind of thing I'm always in the mood for, but it can be quite enjoyable when you are. There was some good stuff this season, including the first two part episode which I'm fairly certain was the finale. Squids. Hillbillies. Squidbillies.

Squidbillies - Season 3

Squidbillies is one of the strangest and most disturbing shows on Adult Swim. It came around about the same time as 12 Oz. Mouse and Perfect Hair Forever, but those shows have faded away while Squidbillies is still going pretty strong. It's written by the guys behind Aqua Teen Hunger Force and The Brak Show, and you can see the influence with the bizarre situations and characters, but the Cuyler family takes it way farther. Early is one of the most despicable main characters I've ever seen, a terrible father, son, and person in general. But that's usually what makes him funny, so you don't end up minding how awful he is. The rest of his family provides entertainment as well, especially the grandma played by Dana Snyder, most widely known as the voice of Master Shake.

The show focuses on them, but the sheriff is another funny character, who ends up getting killed nearly as frequently as Kenny used to, and this season in particular featured a lot of Dan Halen, an evil businessman with a gigantic mouth. Unlike some other shows, Squidbillies features very little recurring plot ideas, as it's not uncommon for everybody to end up dead or in terrible situations. The show's pretty violent, and combining that with the odd art style it would probably put off quite a few people. But it's often much cleverer than it appears at times, and always good for a few sick laughs. Not the kind of thing anyone should probably get too into, but it's funny.