Koala Man | Season 1 (2023) HONEST REVIEW

/ @thehorrorexchange
💀 UTG BRUTALLY HONEST SERIES REVIEW 💀
🎥 REACTIVE Honest Review
🍿 Koala Man | Season 1 (2023)
🎬 Connor jumps into the wild mind of Michael Cusack with his latest Hulu series Koala Man, starring big guest voice actors including Hugh Jackman, Hugo Weaving & Jemaine Clement!
👮🏼 Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use.
#Hulu #KoalaMan #MichaelCusack

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

Join our top secret upcoming project... kzbin.info/door/HrajuBG_V1mzJWv38lnoEA

[@OhWowThatsDumb]

I truly hope we get a season 2 of this show. I know it’s not insanely popular but I feel like it can be and truly should be. The Roiland situation might fuck it up though

[@bennywark3103]

It just needs a new producer, that's all. So I think it'll be alright.

[@theforgetfulalchemist]

Allison's coming out scene was so fucking touching. How Vicky doesn't question it for a second and switches gears on a dime to showing her daughter love and support. How Allison who normally acts like she doesn't care about anything is almost in tears at just being accepted. It was short and sweet, emotionally intelligent and treated as completely normal.

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

That was a really nice scene!

[@PurH662]

I knew there was something going on with Allison I just knew it on the 7th episode

[@amazingspiderlad]

This show is honestly one of the best recent examples of lgbt representation in a cartoon, it's just treated like any other teen relationship would be in a show like this.

[@moxxiedemongamer3019]

here's hoping we get a season 2 of Smiling Friends

[@nolives]

Its already confirmed and the first episode already dropped early. Pretty sure the brazil vacatation is considered s2e1

[@OhWowThatsDumb]

I want season 2 of koala man

[@nolives]

@@OhWowThatsDumb also a good show. I hope they show darren and "cigg butt brain" damo more in season 2.

[@thegamerz285]

I loved Liam's arc of feeling out of place and finding his passion. His moments with the Gift were great. I'm very interested to see how he does in Hollywood.

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

Delighted you loved those Liam arcs!

[@Stand_By_For_Mind_Control]

Looks like a fun show and I'm more than interested in watching adult animated comedy with commonwealth sensibilities. There's a lot of untapped cultural exchange that we still have to play with :)

[@nolives]

Its was very enjoyable. Definitely worth a watch.

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

Yes absolutely worth a watch Hitchens!

[@Breezwayman]

I'd like to compliment the show on the especially good job it did with the daughter Alison's story. For most Family guy clones the teenage daughter is basically a few steps away from being a background character who gets a handful of weak side stories at best. But here her drive to be top bitch at school makes for a compelling villain origin story.

[@shybzrk]

Completely agree about your point on the family. I think they're too boring and predictable. Unfortunately it drags the show too much for me personally. I'm not sure I'll watch the next season. The humor of Koala Man is he's a silly middle-aged man doing mundane things politely -- it's enjoyable. As an animated show there needs to be a family of interesting characters to back it up. I have a feeling Hulu played a part in this

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

[@monarchofvegetables960]

The Tall Poppy is named after "Tall Poppy Syndrome" which is an old Australian saying about the nations inclination to dislike those that stick out. e.g. the tall poppy that sticks out gets mowed off first.

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

That's a great bit of trivia!!

[@danielstockley5631]

Yeah it's similar to the American "too big for his britches" or when someone is on their high horse and needs to be taken down a peg.

[@carpevinum8645]

@@UnleashTheGhouls The show is full of Australian cultural references.

[@kevinsmithfan37]

I'm from the Wollongong area which dapto is apart of. Dapto used to be a really sketch area say 10 years ago when Michael first made the "ciggybutt brain" video. Darren and Damo were very true to the area. If you were near the station or the shopping centre you would without a doubt run into a Damo/Darren or heaven forbid you run into one of their kids. The thing is with housing in Sydney being so expensive over the last 10 years a lot of people priced out of Sydney have made there way to wollongong and as a result have priced out a lot of these locals. You still have some rough around the edges people in dapto (me for one) but im not gonna stab ya or take your wallet. I just wanna get drunk, eat pizza and watch tv, but as for most of the full blown smackheads they just aren't there anymore Or they are living in Wollongong car park like most of the homeless area atm

[@chibuezedike900]

I didn’t expect it to be this crazy tbh, I felt like it has a lot of stuff to build up on and get crazier but the story itself was really nice , it’s no Rick and morty but it’s something I want to see more of

[@nolives]

Please... rick and morty hasnt been good since like season 2 or 3. It went from having underlying social messages and witty jokes to pushing out sex fueled incest ridden mess with no real thoughtful social commentary. Koala man is 10x better than anything rick and morty put out in the last couple years. And Im not even saying its the best adult animation show, just def better than r&m

[@SWVNGGVNG]

@@nolives I’ll have to check this out but yes, Rick and Morty fell off quick.

[@beatasiewierska7604]

Kind of like Regular Show or Close Enough. The day starts sort-of normal then gets crazy.

[@Lovicide]

I see too many adult cartoons with the same "family" tropes. I wish they would take risks with their main characters, not grouping them into a "family" for the sake of familiarity.

[@Dr.Mlieko]

while Vicky may have been a bit of a Marge Simpson clone, I did greatly enjoy Liam's and Alison'a sub-plots. Notably Liam's relentless positivity in the face of all the utter insanity going on around him, and how uncompromisingly evil Alison could get in her pursuit of power, almost coming off as a super-villain in her own right at times

[@mayateeemm5728]

the show got some laughs out of me, not as many as smiling friends, but the character dynamics & development made up for it. alison & liam's arcs interested me the most, i hope we get a 2nd season to see where they go

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

Definitely down for an S2!

[@lachlanfarthing4009]

as a fellow daptoian, this show is like 95 percent accurate

[@Z0N1IN_0UT]

i feel like you missed the most important part of the season the finally ik you said none of the family was interesting but the fact that alison's potential love intrest for the show one of the only couples in the show i routed for died brought me to actual tears and brought depth to her.

[@akimqka]

big lez show, YOLO, smiling friends really awesome shows. This show like Simpsons/family guy/etc idk. mb i can give that 2nd chance

[@bartholomewfuozo8497]

bushworld adventures is my favourite show

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

I need that as a full series, WE'RE GOING TO WENDIGO MORTY

[@bartholomewfuozo8497]

@@UnleashTheGhouls i will sell my soul to the devil for another episode

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

@@bartholomewfuozo8497 A worthy transaction for the benefit of humanity

[@bartholomewfuozo8497]

@@UnleashTheGhouls if we have bushworld adventures ep2 we will find a way to travel at the speed of light

[@DaltonUber]

Okay I like really liked this. This was my get stoned and bige a show show. I need to watch it again sober.

[@oledshwfgk3068]

I'm really learning a lot about Australian culture in this one

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

A lot of great stuff to learn!

[@zoro_the_navigator8822]

More to come in season 2

[@thestrangah9690]

I haven’t completely finish the series yet, but I always enjoyed Michael Cusack‘s work in general. This one seems very tame compared to his adult swim world but I like it a lot. It feels more Saturday morning versus Saturday night

[@allyemeraart]

1:58 the old mask was supposed to represent his older mindsets pre pissy crissy reveal, new mask is post some revelations/ shift in his attitude towards somethings and the new mask reflects that (as the old mask's taunting was playing on his insecurities and trauma). that's why the new mask is like "hey i'm nicer than the old one!" because it's supposed to represent some kind of growth.

[@catinthehat906]

The most dangerous thing about Dapto is having to be treated at Shellharbour Hospital.

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

A fate worse than death one assumes?

[@bargearseonlyfans2444]

Better than waiting in the wollongong ED for 8 hours

[@victorm152]

Had this series gone more the angle of What We Do In The Shadows and Wellington Paranormal, it could have been a comedic masterpiece. There’s some of that in here but I would have preferred more of it.

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

Both of those shows are fantastic, especially Shadows!

[@witerunguard1737]

As someone who lives in Dapto seeing places that I know and visit regularly is so weird. By the way the show definitely exaggerates Dapto. There are a few Bogans but you should probably just leave them in the natural environment.

[@elchorict]

I found the family the same way! I think it was oddly paced - They don’t develop the characters enough to have anything to be interested in until so far into the series that the time you do see them have goals or backstories or interesting draws is intensely short so it has very little impact (Allison and her girlfriend in particular. We don’t get enough of a character to Allison for her to be interesting or memorable so everything that happens between her and Rosie isn’t as engaging - Also very condensed and moves very quickly from wanting to kill her to being in love with her to her being dead. It didn’t give the audience long enough to develop interest in their dynamic before shifting it multiple times and then ending it.) I even had a similar issue with Kevin, I wasn’t very interested in him and found him obnoxious for the majority of the series. With him being annoying to watch for me, his family being very underdeveloped, and every other character being very brief, I didn’t really click with anything in the show and found it dragged a lot. The last half of the show is much stronger but feels very cramped because they tried to do everything they wanted in 8 episodes without cutting enough out. The first half is too drawn out, and the last half is more engaging but too short and cramped. I think the lighter serialisation in YOLO Silver Destiny worked very well for Cusack’s work, but he isn’t as strong in more serious, serialised continual plots like Koala Man. It felt like a rough pass of a series that could have been much, much more than it was and didn’t really know what it wanted out of itself yet. Had bits I enjoyed, but was very lacklustre Definitely not something you go into expecting anything like what Cusack has done before. I don’t feel like he was given enough of his very wonderful bizarre edge of humour for this show to be as good as it could’ve been (The animation particularly bugged me as it felt so stiff and uninspired. Had some phenomenal design and great animated sections - Emu war stuff was great - but was so visually bland). Just didn't land for me but I can see the audience it was trying to go for

[@MattboyGenius]

I liked it. A kinda boring but good. I dont think Id be in a hurry to watch another season but good for Michael Cusack if it does get one

[@traviscue2099]

After seeing the trailer I got worried that it was a toned down version of his work. You can always tell when an Australian gets free reign to do what they want in comedy, since the dialogue flows and people commonly say cunt.

[@nickferry7796]

I do wish it was a little more rough around the edges like his KZbin stuff

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

Here here!

[@psyke_out]

Don't let the Roiland situation cancel the show

[@acWeishan]

It is weird how Aussie and nsw this show is.. Brings me back to the days of living in the Gong.

[@carpevinum8645]

I enjoyed the rest of the family as well, but I am a mother and Australian, giving me a lot to relate to them through.

[@noaht8592]

I would say the son and Vicky werentas strong, but allison seemed pretty well developed as. character, getting a full character arc, a season wide b plot, a love interest, she seemed as well developed a side character could be in a 8 episode season

[@these.are.my.things]

Dapto is a suburb of Wollongong. I live in a different Wollongong suburb. Dapto has a rep of being a shit town but really it's just another suburb like any other. Used to be a poorer suburb but not really anymore, hence the rep. We used to have a lot of fun calling Dapto "a hole"(as in there is nothing there, short for shit hole meaning it was a crappy suburb with nothing in it). If you are from Wollongong there are lots of Jokes in this show just for us. Very refreshing and strange to see in an animated series.

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

You had me at Wollongong - Connor

[@these.are.my.things]

@UnleashTheGhouls yeah was on the phone to someone in California the other day he asked we where I live. I said Wollongong... Awkward silence. Then I was like do you need me to spell that lol.

[@Texshy]

Friendly Jordies also did some voice work as well.

[@lawrencemichalski4578]

Mate, as an aussie. Only got one complaint. Everytime you said red sauce i felt the roo in my heart hop! Because we say tomato sauce here mate

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

In the show, red sauce is said

[@megamodpod8731]

I'd say probably the best characters in the show are probably Kevin big Greg spider and the kookaburra

[@vegasvanga5442]

Unpopular opinion: I enjoyed this and YOLO way, way more than the likes of Smiling Friends

[@justtwobrotherspokemon]

This is a truly endearing show very sweet and pretty funny. Can't wait for season 2

[@twotamatos]

I genuinely enjoyed it! My only problems idk the daughter n some of the slurs was just that millennial humor that sucks stuff about selfies insert dads a cuck joke the ad lib/songs were better then previous attempts but still had some moments that I’m like how do they have bad ad lib or songs for high production shows like this? All the minor gripes aside I really enjoyed all the episodes thoe and the big mystery build up even thoe I saw the plot twist coming from the start I laughed so hard when the kookaburra revealed the big twist genuinely laughed like a maniac when I saw he was driving the car I am happy to start seeing cartoons from the U.K like dhmis & Australia because I’ve wanted to see what cartoons would be like around the world that was a big gripe like why are cartoons only made by U.S and Japan so I’m happy to see some content from good hearted Australians and a few jokes that I wanted to make in my show once again got swooped up by this show n I couldn’t really be mad cuz I genuinely enjoyed it for the most part but yah genuinely micheals idea of making America a war zone for a mummy President was kinda spasticy and although I did enjoy the time change thing I just know in my heart when I go to make fun of things like the Middle East Nazis global warming etc it’ll be a lot more informed that whole thing with President mummy woulda been hilarious if it was the sons report that he didn’t get done and he was just making up what happened to the titanic then it turned out to be real woulda been way better that bit was just too random for me to throw in real tragedy events like the titanic just felt like nonsense n hope he can get better at making jokes like that cuz where it stands South Park n maybe Simpsons are the only ones who really do real event parodies n ripping on tragedies well

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

Thank you for sharing your breakdown and thoughts!

[@victorm152]

I honestly think it should have gone more of the Wellington Paranormal and What We Do In The Shadows angle comedy-wise

[@devilpupbear09]

I'm the Kookaburra 😆 🕊️

[@ynnos8885]

Had low expectations but really enjoyed it

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

Really happy you enjoyed it!

[@jasongreen6826]

Omg it’s fuckin damo and darren

[@jasongreen6826]

This review made me start watching the show btw so great job

[@dazedandconfused5711]

Imagine how good this would be if roiland wasnt involved and it was just Cusack

[@annabellslife6571]

Can confirm, Dapto is slay

[@ozzybloke4830]

The accents sound closer to kiwi than aussie.

[@brentonconner9654]

More people should be talking about decent stuff like this instead of the shitshow animation that has just came out lol.

[@themindelectricdemo4]

You can just say Velma

[@MaJuice209]

it's not red sauce, it's tomato sauce mate!!

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

I say red sauce here in reference to them saying red sauce in the series

[@oofjeff3735]

Honestly I loved koala man

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

Happy you love it Jeff!

[@themindelectricdemo4]

samee

[@twunt9688]

I injoy most than I expected

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

What things did you enjoy most about the show?

[@twunt9688]

@@UnleashTheGhouls it reminds of regular show / the theme song

[@m.y1152]

I enjoyed it

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

Glad you enjoyed it friend! - Connor

[@michaelw4755]

Tomato sause... wtf is red sause. Great series.

[@Sneggers]

It's not red sauce. It's tomato sauce!

[@themindelectricdemo4]

I love this show

[@BOBINDUN]

I just watched the first episode and it was absolutely not good. I just didn't like it. But I love smiling friends still c:

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

That's a shame, but good that you gave it a go! - Connor

[@jonq5380]

I did enjoy this show.

[@GNAWalker1992]

It’s still better than Velma. What are your thoughts on Velma?

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

I did a full Honest Review of Velma on the channel! ☺️

[@gregsanford3848]

Very cool man

[@moxxiedemongamer3019]

I really like this show

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

Really glad you liked it Moxxie!

[@PhilDaBank]

A season 1 review with spoilers ?

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

0:30

[@RemingtonRowland]

I like redheads

[@jimbojones247]

da faq is red sauce.

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

Tomato ketchup. Red sauce is a nickname in some parts of the world

[@jackrock3978]

What the hell what do you mean the family is not the Son has psychic powers Oso travel the world discover himself and a daughter future dictator exterminating any girls in her way we kind most powerful girl in school but the last one antiphon love her and in the end died in her hands now her change poplar girl School to the next ruler in Australia the mom was very irritating her husband becoming some kind of superhero she got a lot option to divorce him but she truly committed to her the time comes you'll take action for just like her husband those two may be different but in the end they love their children and their selves

[@Garl_Vinland]

Cusack is a sellout. Hoping for season 2 of Smiling friends

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

I still need to get round to seeing Smiling Friends! Why do you think Cusack is a sellout? ☺️

[@Garl_Vinland]

@@UnleashTheGhouls Because his TV work is as you put it far more smooth around the edges. Like the difference between Season 1 of Rick and Morty and season 6. Smiling Friends and Bushworld adventure are probably the two animations that still feel true to the artists, and YOLO was a butchery compared to the original shorts. Koala Man's even worse. It looks like that Rick and Morty spinoff.

[@UnleashTheGhouls]

@@Garl_Vinland That makes sense actually!

[@Kookaburrow]

@@Garl_Vinland it’s because he is working with a team of writers and producers who have a lot of say in how the series plays out. Also animation can be streamlined for production too? So yes it’s gonna be different, but know that it’s not just his work but a whole team behind it.

[@Kookaburrow]

I get what you’re saying, and it does suck that there have to be creative compromises on studio projects, but I think the series still has quite a bit of charm, although I’m not that familiar with his other work. I did see the original koala man short and I do see what you’re saying? It’s different, definitely, but I wouldn’t say it’s worse (obviously that is subjective), I think they just built upon the original idea ?