Smiling Friends Season Three: Funnier Than Ever!
Earlier this month, on October 5, the long-awaited third season of Adult Swim’s animated comedy Smiling Friends debuted to widespread acclaim. Created by internet personalities Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel in early 2022, the show centers around Smiling Friends Inc., which is a charity devoted to spreading happiness and making people smile. The episodes follow the company’s main employees, Charlie and Pim, in their day-to-day lives on the job, where their seemingly simple tasks always result in an insane turn, setting the tone for that episode.
One of the series’ many strengths is the mix of mediums, such as standard 2D animation, live action, stop motion, and rotoscoping which really adds to the depth of the world.
This season is no different. As of now, every episode is either on-par or better than the previous seasons, and this time, the animation quality has noticeably improved due to the success of the show, leading to the network increasing the creators’ budget.
This season has a slight shift in format, whereas previous episodes focused on the linear format of help troubled people find peace, this season is taking an opportunity to flesh out more of the world and shed some of the focus onto the secondary characters which has positively impacted the series.
Not that I thought the previous seasons were bad, but the increased quality of animation, good humor, and creative writing leads me to think that season three of Smiling Friends is the best one yet, and I’m excited to see what else it has in store.
