I previously wrote an article singing the praises of the cult classic adult swim show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The comedy, writing, characters, and overall sense of non sequitur absurdity made it the defining show of the network before Rick and Morty premiered. After 8 years since the end of the original show, it has come back for a brief 5 episode season following the relative success of last year’s direct-to-video film Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm.

I will admit upfront that I was not a viewer of the show during its original run. I got attached to the show in 2015 when the presumed last season was airing. What’s funny about the initial cancelation of the show is that it wasn’t by choice of the creators, but by the then-president of adult swim, Mike Lazzo. He stated he was personally done with the show while the creators wanted to keep making it. They didn’t even know of the decision until they were halfway into production on the 11th season. With Lazzo’s departure from the network in 2019 though, the possibility of a return was open since the creators were still eager. This was helped by how another adult swim show, 12 oz Mouse, got a new season in 2020, years after it originally ended meaning that a revival was not an unprecedented possibility.

With a new season and a new lease on life, comes some big change. Particularly, this regards the show’s animation. One of the defining elements of Aqua Teen in its original run was how cheaply it was produced. Rather than typical animation software, the show was made with Photoshop and After Effects. The stiffness and limitations this created did end up becoming a positive though both in how charming the cheapness was and how it contributed to the bizarre atmosphere the show thrived on. With the new season, however, the show built upon the improved animation in Plantasm and uses Flash animation instead. It looks more fluid and varied than anything the show has done before in a lot of ways. There are far more movements with the character animation with more subtleties and more individual drawings. The intro alone signifies this change by going all out in showing off the detail with everything through re-animating the first opening of the show. However, even with the improvements, the show is still made with relatively cheaper animation by television standards. Even when it looks impressive, it is still in service to the same old dumb plots. In that regard, it still keeps the spirit of Aqua Teen because even when there’s effort, it’s in service of something stupid. 

Moving on to the episodes themselves, two of the five new episodes premiered on November 26th. The first, Shaketopia, is about Shake wearing a VR headset for months because he uses it to rule a virtual kingdom and turns it into a dictator-led paradise for himself. That is until Meatwad intrudes much to his irritation. The second, A Quiet Shake, is a parody of A Quiet Place where Shake gets irritated about not being able to talk due to ear monsters invading the planet and shenanigans ensue.

Both of these episodes don’t miss a beat from the original run. Even with the improved animation, the plots and writing are still the same in terms of structure and logic. Shaketopia is a great highlight of just how hilariously unlikeable Shake is as a character as well as showcasing the overall dynamics between all main characters. A Quiet Place is a match made in heaven for the show since they have done episodes about monsters and the planet being taken over before. It’s also a great fit since, if there is one thing defining about Shake, it’s that he will never shut up. The moment Shake went on a rant about having to stay quiet in the second episode, it felt like the show had never left. The nonsensical and brazen humor is also present. The first episode has Shake showing off to his digital subjects by playing a game where he just makes a rectangle from two squares and kills one of them for pointing the simplicity of this out. The second has Shake uses his middle fingers to communicate sign language and the ear monsters mistake Earth for their planet because it has the word ear in it. The episodes still thrive on nonsensical situations and interactions and it feels like classic Aqua Teen.

The characters are also the same and their dynamics are as great as ever. Shake is still the world’s greatest jerk both in how he treats the subjects of his digital domain and his complete disregard for the situation in episode two. Meatwad is still endearing but shows his aggressive side when he challenges Shake and forces him to make him a co-ruler of the virtual world. Carl is still the same cynical and sleazy opportunist as well as being an everyman commenter on the situations around him. And, of course, Frylock is still the only voice of reason and is so tired of dealing with everything in his life. 


I feel that the best thing about these episodes is that it feels like nothing has changed. This does feel like the show had never ended and honestly, there’s a part of me that wishes it doesn’t from now on. There are plenty of reboots of beloved cartoons nowadays and many of them feel like they are missing something that made the original so great. Whether it’s a feeling that a core dynamic is not right or that a show had run its course before so bringing it back feels redundant, there’s a lot that has and can go wrong when reviving a beloved cartoon. With Aqua Teen, however, the foundation was so simple and effective beforehand that bringing it back made sense and there isn’t much to mess up. Long-running animated adult shows tend to either fall into a state of decline or never really match up with what they used to be. While Aqua Teen had always evolved, it never strayed away from its simplicity and formula, and it is no different here. In all, these episodes were great and I do hope that the demand and response to these episodes means adult swim will greenlight more seasons because, at this point, I am on board the whole way.