'Crossing Swords' Review: Hulu's animated comedy series impresses with great writing and medieval fantasy humor
Spoilers for 'Crossing Swords' Season 1
One look at the trailer is really all you need to know about what to expect from Hulu's raunchy animated stop-motion comedy series about a squire seeking to become a knight. Its random humor throws just about everything at the wall in order to get a laugh, but to its credit, more than half of it sticks. Patrick (Nicholas Hoult) plays the soldier of wounded pride, playing the victim as the only good, sensible person in a cynical world of selfish bullies. With perverted royalty, a trio of gleefully terrible siblings, and an airheaded princess to protect, Patrick is the underdog constantly fighting to make a terrible world a better place, with expectedly disastrous results. From the makers of 'Robot Chicken' comes a show that is very much like 'Robot Chicken,' meaning that it's impossible to get through a single quest without a dick joke being thrown in to remind audiences exactly what kind of show it is.
Throughout all of it, there's a sense that this show has a genuinely interesting story to be told that could be a lot more fun to watch if it wasn't constantly undercutting itself to stay on brand. There are moments of sincerity, character, and intriguing plots written in, but they're never given enough time to breathe as the next joke comes in. The humor comes at a mile a minute, and while there are a number of hilarious moments, a lot of the jokes feel like a fever dream of ideas crammed in just to see how many dumb jokes could fit.
The series boasts of a stellar voice cast, all of whom seem to be having a lot of fun with the series' fast-paced, raunchy humor. There's a wealth of instantly memorable characters on the show, which works in its favor. Moreover, there are enough different personality types to keep the humor from getting too stale, despite its consistency in terms of how juvenile it is. There are about as many memorable characters on the show as there are truly random ideas -- 'Crossing Swords' just about avoids being a medieval fantasy sketch show. Say what you will about the show's humor, it does an admirable job of keeping things fresh.
One particularly noteworthy aspect of the show is its soundtrack, which complements the comedy by playing things completely straight. The music would not be out of place in a non-comedic series: it is thrilling, it is fun, it instills a sense of heroic adventure that livens up every single scene. The music, in fact, might be the best part about the show. While the show quickly goes off the rails with complete randomness, it's exactly what you would expect from the makers of 'Robot Chicken.' It is aggressively on-brand, and though there is some very clever writing going on beneath the surface, there are just a bit too many fart jokes to be able to appreciate any of it.
All episodes of 'Crossing Swords' are now available to stream on Hulu.