Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Knuckles’ On Paramount+, Where Sonic The Hedgehog’s Warrior Friend Trains The Schlubby Wade Whipple

After some very big bumps, the Sonic The Hedgehog film series has been a success since the first film was released in 2020. It comes from just the right combination of writing and casting that gave the films just enough edge for parents to latch onto while the kids watched the colorful CGI characters do battle with the evil Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey). Now, there is a live-action/animated limited series spinoff, featuring Idris Elba’s warrior Knuckles the Echidna.

KNUCKLES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Over the strains of the song “Warrior”, we see Knuckles the Echidna (Idris Elba) running and training in the woods.

The Gist: As we watch Knuckles jump high, bash rocks, and all sorts of superpower activity, we get a summary from his friend Sonic the Hedgehog (Ben Schwartz) about how he came to Earth, helped save humanity and eventually became friends with Sonic and Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey).

Now, all three live in Green Hills with Maddie Wachowski (Tika Sumpter) and her husband Tom (James Mardsen, not in this series), and Knuckles is getting restless. He’s a warrior, after all, so he’s an echidna that’s incapable of kicking back. He battles crews doing work on the house. He builds an iron throne made of pieces of Maddie’s car, and he creates a fighting space with the dog as his apprentice. Maddie is so tired of it that she grounds Knuckles, even though he doesn’t know what that means. Sonic tries to help his friend by telling him that there are plenty of things he can do while he’s grounded.

In the meantime, Maddie’s friend, deputy sheriff Wally Whipple (Adam Pally), is getting psyched out at the local bowling alley by an 8-year-old in a Girl Scout uniform. He blows his team’s match against the girls and his team’s captain, a bounty hunter named Jack Sinclair (Julian Barratt), tosses him off the team in favor of the Girl Scout, just before the Tournament of Champions in Reno.

While he’s grounded, Knuckles sees the ghost of Chief Pachacamac (Christopher Lloyd) come to him in the attic. Pachacamac knows that Knuckles just needs someone to train in the ways of the Echidna for a great battle, and tells him he should seek out Wade. Why Wade? “He’s special in here” says Pachacamac, pointing to his heart.

It doesn’t take much for Knuckles to convince Wade that he can help him be the warrior he’s always wanted to be. Wade just wants to make his dad, a big-time bowler in his own right, proud. On the road to Reno, they stop at a bowling alley so Wade can show Knuckles how he’s in his element with a ball in his hands.

But when agents Mason (Kid Cudi) and Willoughby (Ellie Taylor find out that Knuckles has left Green Hills, they think it’s the perfect opportunity to capture him for The Buyer (Rory McCann), who is looking to sap the powers of Knuckles and other aliens like him.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Knuckles is a spin-off of the recent Sonic The Hedgehog movies, supposedly taking place between the second and upcoming third films.

Our Take: Knuckles is silly and self-aware and even a bit sweet and goofy, but it’s never sappy and never too goofy for its own good. Perhaps it’s the writing of John Whittington, Toby Ascher and their staff, or maybe it’s because any show where Idris Elba is playing an Echidna warrior and Adam Pally his schlubby buddy is going to have a tiny bit of edge. But the series is setting up a fun buddy story without while playing its humor pretty much right down the middle.

Sure, there are lots of pop culture references, most of which we can take or leave. But it’s the relationship between Knuckles and Wally that’s going to be the key to the show. We eventually meet Wally’s family — his father “Pistol” Pete (Cary Elwes), mother Wendy (Stockard Channing) and sister Edi (Edi Patterson) — and it’ll be fun to see Knuckles interact with them. But even in the first episode we already see this mismatched pair work as friends, especially when they battle the agents for The Buyer at the bowling alley. We’re looking forward to seeing how Wally saves Knuckles as much as Knuckles saves Wally.

What Age Group Is This For?: There’s mild cartoon violence and some hinky language, but Knuckles is pretty safe for kids 7 and up.

Parting Shot: After Knuckles is captured by the agents, Wally sees that Agent Mason has left one of his power gloves behind. “I have an incredibly dumb idea,” Wally says as he eyes the glove.

Sleeper Star: We thought it was funny that Christopher Lloyd’s Pachacamac still can’t navigate being a ghost; he falls through the floor of the attic, but for some reason couldn’t go through the closed window.

Most Pilot-y Line: Whenever we see Sonic on the screen we think of the scary version of the character in the original movie’s trailer back in 2019 and how he needed to be remade in a hurry due to the negative reaction. The huge teeth and beady eyes on the original movie Sonic still give us nightmares.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Knuckles is a fun, light show that has just enough edge to keep parents engaged, but is completely suitable for the whole family.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.