[Non-Spoiler Review] One of the Best Reboots Ever — But the Animation & Voice Casting Need Work

I just want to preface first by saying this is my opinion, and like all opinions, it's subject to my own personal exposure and beliefs, and yours might differ from the points I am going to make here. Please try to be civil, and not harass for having a different opinion.

For starters,
This has to be one of the best seasons or “reboots” I've genuinely ever seen. It's very hard for some reason for shows to recapture the energy and story and life of old shows. Star Wars tried, it flopped. So did others... Networks tend to greenlight stuff and just hire abysmal writers who have no care or consideration for the source material or what came before (ahem Witcher writers, I'm looking at you), but here at least, you know what you're getting. Mike Judge and Greg Daniels return with a great set of writers. The stories are incredible, each episode is pretty good, and you really see and feel that time has passed, not just in a lot of the characters’ faces.

I'm not going to spoil anything. But the story opening up and exposing our main character, Hank, and kind of showing how the direction of this show will go because of how sensitized everything has become, you do see it, first in Hank's eyes and Peggy's, and later. If you've seen the trailers and read the synopsis, I'm not spoiling anything. You see that Hank basically left to work at Aramco with his wife in Saudi Arabia and returns to find out how politically sanitized the environment has become. I do like that, because it's showing how someone from outside of the USA might also interpret all of this change the last few years.

The episodes that follow are pretty freaking awesome. It was great to see the cast back together, although I do have some complaints, which I'll get to down below. If you don't really crack with any of the parodies or the embracing of political correctness (which is a big theme this season), then I don't think this season, or the direction moving forward, is for you. They really lean into what people might call "woke stuff," and there are some subtle, albeit not-so-subtle, politically correct elements. Sometimes, while watching, I did find myself getting a bit tired of it. That’s kind of what I’m getting at here. It very much dives into this space, and I'm trying to keep it spoiler-free so normal people can read this, but basically, it tries to stay very PC while also mocking it (sort of?).

It's a late reintroduction, but done right, because South Park already did it with PC Principal and mocked all of it, but here it works well because it's Hank returning to a new America and grappling with the new reality of what America has become, where it used to basically be the Wild West with what you could say and believe in (you can argue it has become less sensitized after 2021–22, which is when this show went into production). That said, this season is definitely really funny. It feels like they didn’t dial back the humor at all. In fact, since the characters are older now, they’re leaning into it more. There’s a lot of “fck you, fck that” (LITERALLY) energy, and it works. It’s not trying to shock for the sake of it, it just feels like they’re having fun and not playing it safe, which is honestly refreshing.

Another plus I want to say, which again isn't a spoiler, is the inclusion of a new main character named Brian Robertson, who is the new Black character, and his VA could not have been better picked. He's voiced by the guy who voices the president in Rick and Morty, and if you've watched Community, he played Elroy Patashnik and did some Disney movies. Great guy, great actor. Again, I do want to keep this non-spoiler, so I won't reveal more about character arcs or things like that, but just know that the characters are paid the respects they are owed, and well. But also remember that this is a new America, at least for this show...

As for cons, and oof, there are a few.
First, the animation. I don't know what it is, if the transition to tablets for animating has changed the fluidity of the animation, but it is jittery at times and feels very rough, and many, many times it looks very cheap and not good at all. It's not all the time, but there are a handful of times where I got pulled out of the show's story because of how cheap the animation looks. I hope future seasons fix this. It just looks very jittery and looks to be on a budget. That's not exactly good for a reintroduction to a show, but I understand Hulu likely didn't want to take a huge gamble on this show, especially since modern audiences are unpredictable and might just end up hating it.

Another thing is some of the voice acting decisions.
Now, I understand that there was significant backlash against Toby Huss voicing Khan because he's a white man. I'm sorry to say, but if you thought him getting recast with an Asian actor, who isn't even Laotian, by the way (stupid pick by the network), was going to enhance the show or at least keep the voice similar to Khan's, well, you're surely mistaken. It is bad. It is very freaking bad. I gave a lot of positives about this new season, I think it's great in a lot more ways than I was expecting, but this was a really stupid choice. I think, unless they found someone else to replace Toby who sounded better, this change was not necessary and shouldn’t have been made. Khan sounds nothing like himself. Absolutely nothing like himself. I don't want to include any bits because of spoilers and things, but I urge you to head to just watch for yourself and see.

Speaking of someone who sounds nothing like himself, Toby Huss replacing Johnny Hardwick, who passed away. Hardwick's reintroduction as Dale in the first few episodes doesn't really sound like Dale (I get that the characters have aged, but it’s too slow and... just, I don’t know, it sounds really off). I thought Toby Huss was voicing him at the start, but it wasn’t, it was Johnny Hardwick. It also doesn't really get much better once Toby Huss's voice comes in either. It just really pulls me out of the show. It doesn't work. I get that Mike Judge and the team felt bad they had to cut Toby out of Khan, but this change just doesn't work. I think they could've just given him supporting character voices for each episode, something like that, I don't know.

I don't know if this is reversible, I don't think they will enact this change, but I think either Toby or someone else needs to voice Khan. This new actor is terrible. It sounds nothing like him. I genuinely thought it was a new character. And Dale also sounds really off. Everyone else sounds great, IMO.

Let me know your thoughts guys! Again, this is my opinion, so take it as you will.