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It makes sense that the Solar Opposites aliens’ love-it, hate-it embrace of Earth culture includes a variety of human holidays, and the Hulu series has had a lot of fun applying its signature blend of raunchy humor and teaching moments to standalone specials dedicated to Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Halloween. The latter gets another go-round in “The Solar Opposites Halloween Special Part 2: The Hunt for Brown October,” which is now streaming.
While the new special is ostensibly a sequel to the first Halloween one-off, you need not be familiar with that 2022 episode (“A Sinister Halloween Scary Opposites Solar Special”). The plot point that carries over gets a clear explanation, complete with flashback: after he was kidnapped by his Halloween-crazed neighbor, Korvo called upon the Great Pumpkin for help—then stomped all over any Peanuts-type goodwill by mutilating the Great Pumpkin as part of his escape plan. As a consequence, in an acknowledged nod to The Santa Clause, Korvo is now on the hook as the new Great Pumpkin.
Being pressed into service as the Great Pumpkin would be an annoyance no matter what, but the situation is made urgently dire because the Solars are dead-set on joining the local country club, a place far too snooty to celebrate such a “low-brow nitwit holiday.” They’ll never get to be members with Korvo spewing spooky-season chaos all over the place! With the encouragement of their suspiciously pushy membership liaison, the aliens weave a magic spell that sucks every ounce of Halloween spirit from their minds and bodies. Inevitably, this backfires, and the Solars must work together to figure out what really matters to them to set things right.
© Disney The “let’s pretend we’re normal” theme is one we’ve seen before; most recently, in season five, the makeshift family desperately tried to hide their “extra” tendencies in order to blend in on a bland planet they thought might become their new home. There’s also some familiar messaging about getting revenge on snobs—though the cameos by a certain pair of famous aliens are particularly clever. But really, the driving force here is just drenching everything in Halloween and being as silly as possible.
It feels a bit gentler than the Valentine’s Day special, which gleefully pushed the boundaries of good taste, but it definitely goes harder than Charlie Brown. Fully represented is that Solar Opposites trademark sprinkling of goopy violence and prurient innuendos—not to mention pop-culture references that make you feel like you’re sharing an in-joke with its writers. Hey, Hellbound: Hellraiser II is totally worthy of the spotlight, in any context!
The Solar Opposites cast includes Dan Stevens, Thomas Middleditch, Sean Giambrone, and Mary Mack; it’s executive produced by Mike McMahan, Josh Bycel, and Sydney Ryan. “The Solar Opposites Halloween Special Part 2: The Hunt for Brown October” is now streaming on Hulu, where you can also catch the other holiday specials and seasons 1-5 of the show. Season six is on the way.
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