Adam Pally Steals the Show in Paramount+'s Knuckles

In the brief period between the end of Craig Ferguson’s tenure as the host of CBS’s Late Late Show and when James Corden picked up the reins as its host in early 2015, the Eye had a random smattering of guest hosts take over to avoid an extended period of reruns. Though many of those episodes were standard, unremarkable late-night fare, one of them still stands out nearly a decade later. Hosted by actor-comedian Adam Pally, with fellow comic and friend Ben Schwartz serving as his sidekick, the result was a hilarious and inexplicable hour of television that has to be seen to be believed. 

Though some of the recognizable tropes of late-night TV were present (such as having comedians like Eric Andre and the rock band Death Cab for Cutie appear), Pally and Schwartz seemed decidedly uninterested in turning the opportunity to host a late-night talk show into anything other than a playground for them to goof off. If others enjoyed themselves, so be it. 

Anyone familiar with Pally and Schwartz’s brand of alternative comedy, or just that specific hour of television, may walk away pleasantly surprised by the Paramount+ original series Knuckles, and not just because they both play pivotal roles. Here is a show that ought to be an unnecessary and shameless attempt at extending a franchise that winds up as a cheerfully weird outlier.

Schwartz, among his other credits, is the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog in the very popular but exhausting and manic film franchise co-headlined by Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik. The quality of the films aside, the Sonic franchise has done well enough at the box office to not only merit an upcoming third entry but also this spin-off that is ostensibly about his frenemy Knuckles the Echidna (Idris Elba) and his latest misadventure. 

But the operative word in that sentence is “ostensibly,” because Knuckles (title aside) is largely about Pally’s charming doofus of a Montana police officer and his quest to claim a national bowling victory with Knuckles as his friend and life coach of sorts. (Anyone who has seen the films will know that Pally’s character appears in both, but briefly.) Knuckles is surprisingly funny, silly, and very appealing to alt-comedy fans, even though it may yet baffle die-hard Sonic fans and the kids to whom the series is being marketed.

Pally reprises his supporting role from the Sonic films as Wade Whipple, a hapless deputy and friend of Tom Wachowski (James Marsden). Though Tom is conveniently out of town for the events of Knuckles, Sonic and Tails briefly show up in the first of six installments (all episodes are being released at once on Paramount+ starting April 26) to help Knuckles figure out his new purpose in life. Although the tough-as-nails echidna is a bit perplexed that his new purpose appears to be helping Wade become a more confident… competitive bowler, the two very different characters quickly become friends, even as they outrun mysterious agents (Scott Mescudi and Ellie Taylor) working for an even more terrifying figure (Rory McCann) who wants Knuckles for predictably nefarious purposes.

That synopsis may sound like a red-echidna-shaped version of the Sonic movies themselves, though perhaps without Carrey’s domineering and comically outsized presence. (Aside from Wade, the only human character to return from the films is Tom’s wife, played by Tika Sumpter.) Although Mescudi and Taylor are game enough as gleefully bad antagonists, Knuckles is vastly less interested in the traditional good vs. evil battle than in turning itself into a star vehicle for Pally, expanding Wade’s presence in the franchise. We already know that Knuckles is a fearsome warrior, and though there are brief gestures to his past (sometimes in the form of a wizened elder voiced by Christopher Lloyd), much of the series is dedicated to Wade Whipple becoming a little bit less of a doofus.

Perhaps the more accurate way to put it is that Knuckles – in spite of Elba being quite funny and deadpan in his voice performance – is at its best when Knuckles is a supporting character. The two funniest installments are the middle chapters, in which a) the bad guys are barely witnessed and b) Knuckles is just about a background player. The third episode largely focuses on Wade and the dysfunctional relationships he has with his mother (Stockard Channing) and sister (Edi Patterson), the latter of whom fashions herself a tough-as-nails FBI agent who also has delighted in tormenting her brother since they were kids, driving their quintessentially Jewish mother crazy. 

Who knows how many of the kids watching Knuckles will get a kick out of Wade’s mom asking if Knuckles is Jewish, and the embarrassed Wade saying that the echidna probably is on his mother’s side. Who knows how funny they’ll find it to watch a fight scene (with admittedly very iffy CGI) scored to “Hava Nagila.” Humor is subjective, and this critic can only acknowledge how much the third episode — fittingly called “The Shabbat Dinner” — and the subsequent episode featuring an extended musical-fantasy interlude, a goofy cameo from an ’80s pop icon, and lyrics that call to mind the Lonely Island made him laugh. (That fourth episode is, not coincidentally, directed by Lonely Island alum Jorma Taccone.) 

Even in the final two episodes, as series co-creator John Whittington inevitably has to give the audience a bit more action, a lot of the conflict boils down to a narrative between Wade and his bowling-icon father (Cary Elwes), and whether or not the son can supplant the father in a nationally televised competition. These set pieces feel heavily inspired by both the Farrelly Brothers’ ’90s comedy Kingpin as well as the mid-2000s comedy Dodgeball, the latter because the bowling competition is overseen by a pair of outlandish announcers played by Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel.

Binge-watching the six episodes as a whole is strangely breezier and more fast-paced than the two Sonic movies themselves, with one episode clocking in at just 24 minutes including the end credits. Though those films are successful, it’s easy to wonder how big of a hit Knuckles will be with its presumed target audience of die-hard fans of the Sonic video games, whether they’re nine years old now or whether they were nine years old when Sega released the first game in the early 1990s. Knuckles the Echidna is an active part of this show, but it’s as if Pally, Whittington, and the others involved in making this show smuggled in an alt-comedy version of the Sonic films to see how much they could get by their corporate overlords. 

With the third film around the corner this holiday season (and apparently adding to its voice cast with action icon Keanu Reeves), you don’t truly need to watch Knuckles to prepare yourself for the third feature entry in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. It’s just as true that people didn’t need to watch the guest-hosted episodes of The Late Late Show before the new host arrived in the spring of 2015. But just as was the case with the Pally/Schwartz guest episode, if you do end up watching Knuckles, you may find yourself surprised at its loopy and satiric bent.

Knuckles premieres April 26 on Paramount+ with all six episodes of Season 1. 

Josh Spiegel is a writer and critic who lives in Phoenix with his wife, two sons, and far too many cats. Follow him on Bluesky at @mousterpiece.