The Awesomes was one of Hulu’s first scripted series. The animated adult comedy was created by Seth Meyers and Mike Shoemaker, and ran for three seasons, from 2013-2015. The series follows the adventures of a group of superheroes known as The Awesomes. In the premiere, the founder of The Awesomes, Mr. Awesome (Steve Higgins), is turning 90 and has decided to retire. He reluctantly hands over control of the super-group to his son Jeremy (Seth Meyers), who goes by the name Prock, since he is both a Professor and a Doctor. Prock has always wanted to be a superhero like his father, but he lacks all the physical skills of his father, and is constantly finding himself with a broken arm. However, Prock secretly possesses the ability to stop time, though he’s been warned that if he uses this power too often, it will kill him. Once Prock takes over The Awesomes, all of the original members quit, and he must form a new team of superpowered individuals, or else the government will shut down his funding. So, with the help of the only remaining employee at the company, secretary “Concierge” (Emily Spivey), Prock desperately starts contacting superheroes from the list of past applicants who were rejected for one reason or another by his father.

Prock manages to assemble his team of misfits just before the deadline. The new members of The Awesomes include:

• “Muscleman” (Ike Barinholtz), Prock’s best friend from childhood and son of one of his father’s original teammates. Muscleman isn’t the sharpest guy, but he’s strong, invulnerable, and always has a positive outlook on life.
• “Frantic” (Taran Killam), a young southern hick and former circus performer with superhuman speed, and the ability to run 500 miles an hour.
• “Impresario” (Kenan Thompson), an adult man who still lives at home with his mother. He has the ability to conjure up anything he can imagine. However, everything he creates seems to have his mother’s face and voice attached to it.
• “Sumo” (Bobby Lee), an 11-year-old who transforms into a hulking sumo wrestler whenever he gets angry or hurt.
• “Gadget Gal” (Paula Pell), a retired original member of The Awesomes who decides to get back in the game after she is hit by a rejuvenation ray and turned 25 again. She has fast reflexes, and can turn anything into a weapon. While she may look 25, her personality, attitude, and manner of speaking is stuck in the 1940s.
• “Hotwire” (Rashida Jones), a young woman with the ability to manipulate electricity. The only new member of the team to actually apply for the job. Her background is a mystery, and Concierge doesn’t trust her, but Prock is smitten with her, despite the fact that she is currently dating Perfect Man (Josh Meyers).

The Awesomes is a heavily serialized show. While individual episodes may have a mission or villain of the week, there is also an overarching story to each season. And each season picks up pretty much right where the previous one left off. In the first season, The Awesomes are trying to stop the evil Dr. Giuseppe Malocchio (Bill Hader), who uses his mind control abilities to force superheroes to do his evil deeds. Fortunately for Prock, he inherited his father’s immunity from mind control.

The second season finds The Awesomes down a team member, and Concierge stepping in to fill the void. Prock accidentally convinces meek accountant Malocchio Jr. (Will Forte) to seek revenge for his father. Malocchio Jr. takes the same serum that turned his father evil and develops a powerful, deadly scream. He then starts assembling his own team of villains to take down The Awesomes. Junior’s mother, Lady Malocchio (Maya Rudolph), is just happy that her son is finally doing something with his life. Meanwhile, Prock falls for attorney Jaclyn Stone (Amy Poehler). And a mysterious new Iron-Man like superhero, Metal Fella, starts showing up around the city.

And in the third/final season, Mr. Awesome returns to Earth, but unbeknownst to the others, he was infected by Malocchio’s serum and is on his way to becoming fully evil. He takes back control of The Awesomes, and replaces all the members of the team. He also starts a campaign to become President. Prock and the others are forced to start their own Awesomes-For-Hire business in order to make a living. The only person who knows the truth about Mr. Awesome is stuck in space, and has amnesia. Will his memory return and will he find his way back to Earth before it’s too late?!

If I had to summarize this show in one word, well, it would be Awesome! I thoroughly enjoyed the series, binging all 30 episodes over the past few days. The series is cleverly written, with loads of snappy jokes, pop culture references and witty dialogue. Sometimes the humor can get a little low-brow, with bleeped and blurred out jokes, and the barrage of semen jokes when The Awesomes find themselves up against supervillain Seaman (Andy Samberg). However, the show is filled with some really fun characters—both superheroes and villains—who get themselves into some ridiculous situations, or try to implement some seriously flawed plans. The series not only follows these characters when they are out stopping or creating evil, but also when they are dealing with the normal mundane things that fill the time inbetween.

The series is one long story told over the course of three seasons, and comes to a satisfying conclusion. The backstories of the main characters are slowly revealed over time, each character getting at least one episode focused on him or her. In addition to the main story, each episode also brings new adventures or obstacles for the characters, and the series gets more and more creative with this over time. In “Euro-Awesomes”, we meet the European counterparts of our superheros; “Seaman’s Revenge” provides a Blackfish like story with the roles reversed; in “Les Miserawesomes”, the group is trapped in a Les Miserables-like musical; and in “The Dames of Danger”, we meet a Charlie’s Angels-like female group of superheroes. The show was unfortunately canceled after the third season, so there’s a bit of a cliffhanger at the end, but that shouldn’t deter anyone from checking it out.

There are a lot of recurring jokes throughout the series, such as the fact that everything is constantly getting charged to Impresario’s credit card, or the fact that Prock always manages to injure his arm. During the first season, there are some in-episode product placements during a few of the episodes, and a tag at the end of every episode involving Jack Links beef jerky in some way. Some of these were clever, while others were a bit tedious. Fortunately this was dropped after the first season. I will definitely be checking out these episodes again. The voice cast is great and the show is highly entertaining. It’s a shame that only three seasons were made!

Mill Creek has put together a nice Bu-ray release for the series. Each 10-episode season resides on its own disc, along with any bonus features related to that season. The bonus features pretty much only consist of trailers and promos for each season. It would have been great if they had included the Comic-Con panels as well as the Comic-Con trailers! Only one of the second season promos provides a slight behind-the-scenes look at the show. The video quality is excellent, with a clean, detailed picture. Lines were sharp and colors were bright—I can’t imagine the show looking any better. The audio track is more than sufficient, providing clear dialogue throughout the series. The first two seasons utilize a stereo track while the final season is upgraded to 5.1 audio, however, I never really noticed much use of the surround channel. The series comes packaged in an HD keep case along with a cardboard slipcover. The discs for first two seasons are stacked on the left side of the case, while the third season is on the right side. The case also contains an insert with the digital copy code/redemption instructions.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (11:06:39)

Blu-ray:

• All 30 episodes of the series:
  • Season 1: (3:44:30)
    “Pilot, Part 1”, “Pilot, Part 2”, “Baby Got Backstory”, “No Mo’ Sumo”, “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Parallel World”, “Robotherapy”, “Paternity”, “Pageant”, “The Super-Hero Awards, Part 1”, “The Super-Hero Awards, Part 2”
  • Season 2: (3:38:50)
    “Hotwire’s Funeral”, “People vs. Perfect Man”, “Destination Deading”, “Tim Goes to School”, “The Awesomes’ Awesome Show”, “Made Man”, “Secret Santa”, “Euro-Awesomes”, “Day of Awesomes, Part 1”, “Day of Awesomes, Part 2”
  • Season 3: (3:43:19)
    “Seaman’s Revenge”, “Villain-Tine’s Day”, “Les Miserawesomes”, “Awesomes for Hire”, “Indiana Johnson and the Nazi Granddaughters”, “The Dames of Danger”, “The Awesomes Reloaded”, “The GayFather”, “Super(hero) Tuesday”, “The Final Showdown”
• 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 (Seasons 1-2), English Dolby Digital 5.1 (Season 3)
• Subtitles: English

Digital (Redemption code subject to expiration):

• Digital copy of all episodes redeemable via Mill Creek’s streaming service. Playback appears to be SD.

Extras:
The bonus features for each season are included on the disc containing that season’s episodes.

• Season 1:
  Play All, or select from:
  • Series Trailer (2:17)
  • Original Promo (1:12)
  • Upfront Promo (:51)
  • ComicCon Trailer (1:48)
• Season 2:
  Play All, or select from:
  • Season Two Trailer (2:21)
  • ComicCon Promo — New Cast (3:17)
    Behind-the-Scenes look at the new cast/characters. Includes interviews with co-creators Mike Shoemaker and Seth Meyers, and actors Amy Poehler (“Jaclyn Stone”), Maya Rudolph (“Lady Malocchio”) and Will Forte (“Malocchio Jr.”).
  • Frantic Caught At SDCC 2014 (:10)
  • Promo — Greatest Names in Comedy (:32)
  • TV Spot (:31)
• Season 3:
  Play All, or select from:
  • Season Three Trailer (1:58)
  • Series Recap (1:49)
  • Season Three Teaser (:30)
  • ComicCon Teaser (1:37)
  • Promo — Fully Evil (:30)
  • Promo — Female Superheroes (:29)
  • Promo — Back in the Game (:15)

Final Thoughts:

Simply put, The Awesomes is awesome. This is a highly entertaining animated superhero series for adults. The show is cleverly written with lots of humor and pop culture references. It features a fun, diverse group of characters—voiced by some very talented actors. The series plays out like one long story that you just want to binge all the way through once you start watching. Mill Creek’s Blu-ray looks and sounds great. While the bonus features are limited to trailers and promos, the release also includes a digital copy of the series (viewable on Mill Creek’s streaming service). I had never seen the series before checking out this Blu-ray release, but I became a fan almost instantly. This release comes Highly Recommended…I just wish there were more seasons to watch!