The Freak Brothers

The Freak Brothers is an American adult animated sitcom based on the underground comic The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, by Gilbert Shelton. The first season aired from November 14 to December 26, 2021 on the streaming service Tubi, and featured the voices of Pete Davidson, Woody Harrelson, and John Goodman as the titular Freak Brothers, with Tiffany Haddish voicing the brothers' cat. In May 2022, the show was renewed for a second season, which aired on June 25, 2023.

Synopsis
In 1969, during Woodstock and the "Summer of Love", three stoners living in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, Phineas, Franklin, and Fat Freddy, manage to obtain a chemical that will supposedly bring them to a new and ultimate high. The resulting high leaves them in stasis for just over fifty years, and they wake up in the year 2020.

The current homeowners (Harper and Noah Switzerland) are initially startled to discover that the three had been living under their home, but they allow the Freak Brothers to remain and acclimate themselves to the vast changes that have occurred over the years. During this time, Franklin slowly develops a romance with Gretchen, Harper's sister who also lives on the property.

Cast

 * Pete Davidson as Phineas T. Phreakears
 * Woody Harrelson as Freewheelin' Franklin Freek
 * John Goodman as Fat Freddy Freekowtski
 * Tiffany Haddish as Kitty
 * Liza Del Mundo as Camille Switzer
 * Andrea Savage as Harper Switzer
 * La La Anthony as Gretchen Switzer
 * Phil LaMarr as Noah Switzer
 * Adam Devine as Chuck
 * Blake Anderson as Charlie
 * ScHoolboy Q as himself

Development and release
Plans to create a series based on Gilbert Shelton's underground comic The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers were first announced at Comic-Con in 2019, where it was also announced that Davidson, Harrelson, and Goodman would voice the titular characters. The series, greenlit by WTG Enterprises, was slated for eight 22-minute episodes. The series was shopped around to various networks before it was picked up by Tubi, making it the first original animated series released by the platform. The show's theme was composed and performed by Ray Vaughn. In April 2021, it was announced that Lionsgate Television had picked up the series, with Savage and Anthony joining the cast.

While developing the first seasons, writers and crew noted there were elements of the original comic book series that needed to be toned down for the modern day. They used the "fish out of water" concept to comment on "'what's actually more screwed up now than it even was back then,' and vice versa," as executive producer Courtney Solomon put it in a 2022 interview with Animation World Nation. Solomon also noted that they treated some topics with caution in the first season, something that they planned on changing with future seasons. In May 2022, the show was renewed for a second season.

Release
The first two episodes premiered on Tubi on November 14, 2021. The remaining six episodes were then released on a weekly basis every Sunday.

Shorts
Prior to Tubi picking up the series, three mini episodes written by Daniel and Jeremy Lehrer were released starting on May 6, 2020. Scenes from the mini episodes can be seen in the opening credits for the series, and the song featured in the third mini episode was reused for the pilot.

Future seasons
In an interview with Animation World News Solomon and Mark Canton stated that there were plans for a second and third season of the show, and that the second season would introduce new characters. On May 2, 2022, Tubi announced that they had officially renewed the show for a second season, marking the first series renewal for the service. The second season is to be made up of eight episodes. It was originally slated to be released in December 2022 but the first four episodes of season 2 were released on June 25, 2023. The remaining episodes were released on September 24, 2023.

Viewership
Tubi has reported that the pilot episode was the most heavily watched episode on their platform, based on total viewer time, and that the show as a whole was the second most popular series on Tubi during the first seven weeks of release.

Critical reception
Upon release the show was reviewed by multiple outlets. Decider praised the decision to cast Davidson, Harrelson, and Goodman as the show's titular Freak Brothers, a sentiment shared by Den of Geek. CBR also had praise for the voice acting and the chemistry between the cast, while also noting that the cast helped elevate the show "from being just a cartoonish, drug-oriented sitcom."

Common elements of criticism centered upon humor and animation. Den of Geek felt that the animation was "a little too slick for what The Freak Brothers is trying to capture" and that lower quality animation "would have worked better, giving the series more of an alternative entertainment glow over the easy-to-visually-digest clean lines." Texas Monthly was critical of the series, advising readers to skip the series and read the original comics instead as they wrote that "There’s something lazy about the show, a sense that all you need to do is roll out the boys, tell a few weed jokes, and get some easy laughs." In a review for a Fantagraphics Books published collection of the original comics, The Comics Journal expressed a similar statement that the animated series was inferior to the original works.

Per Solomon and Canton, they showed the episodes to Shelton, noting his response that "What he said was, "I'm mostly happy." And that was a big compliment. Somebody who's worked with him for 50 years told us, "That's as big as it gets with Gilbert. That's it." So, Mark and I are sort of the same way. We're mostly happy, but we're never going to get too entirely happy. We just keep trying to make it better."