WARNING: The following contains minor spoilers for Final Space. Watch episodes Mondays at 10:30PM EST on the TBS Network. Final Space Chapter 3 airs tonight.
First thing’s first, the gore factor goes up a bit more this episode. It’s still cartoon gore and it’s colorful and a bit abstract given it’s alien entrails, but it is a bit graphic. My max gore tolerance is showcased in the amazing Deadpool film, so with that as your reference, I’ll say Final Space’s gore was maybe half of that. Intense and uncomfortable, but not overly realistic or traumatizing.
I wasn’t expecting Mooncake to get much beyond being a lovable, cuddly laser ball. The cute, unintelligible, marketable creatures don’t typically have character development, let alone a vital role in the plot. But when Mooncake has to fend for himself and show what he’s packing, we get a glimpse of… remorse. He isn’t just an adorable planet-killer, he has feelings. You might say, “of course he does, didn’t you see how scared he gets when the Lord Commander comes near him or how happy he is with Gary?” Sure, but those are things we see in animals. You don’t see a horse looking into the cosmos with regret. (I mean, I haven’t.) Gary has finally seen Mooncake in action and notices his little friend’s suffering, giving us another little moment of sincerity.
Avocato’s quest to save his son still proves in vain, but the feline father saves himself and Gary from certain death once more, only to have his human friend insist he saved them. While I understand this is a bit of a running gag, Gary messing up constantly and taking credit when things still work in his favor, I do hope to see this change over time. His obsession with Quinn is especially something that needs to be addressed, given it’s the main reason Gary almost met his end in this episode; the concept of “getting the girl” is old and tired, so I have a hard time not rolling my eyes, but given Quinn’s character, I get the sense our hero will learn a lot about that once they get more screen time together. I said in my coverage of the first two episodes of Final Space that our protagonist needs to grow and shows signs of doing just that, let’s hope I’m right.
Now, I’m a huge fan of Olan Rogers, you can probably tell by now if you’ve read my previous coverage of Final Space. Hilarious, inspirational, genuine. That said, I have one problem with Final Space so far and it’s how many times Olan’s voice is used. Creators do this all the time, see director Taika Waititi in Thor Ragnarok, but the thing is, the voice acting industry has a problem with hiring the same people over and over. I love the work of Tara Strong, Troy Baker, Steve Blum, Matt Mercer- that list goes on, but many of these people are used multiple times in a single franchise. That’s not a problem on the surface, provided the voice actor can make enough distinction between their roles. Olan Rogers himself can do different voices, but he hasn’t quite expanded his range enough that it isn’t a bit frustrating to hear the same guy as another side character. It’s noticeable, especially after hearing him narrate the episode recap on top of all of Gary’s lines. It takes you out of it when you hear the same voice on so many different people. Granted, the one in this particular episode got his head ripped off after about one sentence; but the other problem with recycling voice actors is that so many people are trying to expand their work. It made more sense to have Olan doing so many voices in the original proof of concept because it was a much smaller project. I understand hiring more people creates more cost for the show, but I do hope they find a way to give those small opportunities to other budding voice actors.
Overall, continuing on a fantastic trend with the series so far and I only want to keep watching. I felt like there wasn’t enough only because Final Space truly feels like a film I’m watching in chunks. (All the more reason to binge all 10 episodes when they’re released!)
