Two years ago, Adult Swim aired the pilot for Adele “Supreme” Williams’ animated series Oh My God… Yes! It must have done well, because they ordered it to series. That series is finally here (animation takes a long time, there were two strikes, yadda yadda), and it shows what Williams’ vision of a futuristic South Central looks like, and three friends who are living their lives in it. Oh, it also involves demon babies and venomous rapping spiders.
Opening Shot: On a live chat, Sunny Green (Adele “Supreme” Williams) says she’s awaiting “the arrival of the Savior.”
The Gist: In reality, the surrogate she’s using, Claire (Cree Summer), who’s about to give birth in a pool in the middle of Sunny’s apartment, had a “Bring 2 Wombs Get 1 Demon Baby FREE!” coupon from the pop-up sperm bank she went to. Claire’s being soothed by Sunny’s friend Tulip (DomiNque Perry). Their other friend, Ladi (Xosha Roquemore), who warned of the coming apocalypse if this baby was born, has shrunk herself down to the size of a cell and inserted herself into Claire’s body in order to kill the fetus before it even emerges.
Ladi battles combative sperm, but they are too strong and organized for her, so she shoots down the birth canal. But she’s too late; the baby is born, with a red head and robot spider legs. The demon child (Bill Lobley) immediately vows he’s going to end humanity. Sunny, annoyed that the baby’s pinchers took out chunks of her carefully-coiffed hair, punts him out the window, much to the horror of Tulip.
The demon baby lands on a man being interviewed by a reporter and immediately sets the man on fire, then starts to wreak havoc on Los Angeles. Tulip thinks that Sunny should have validated her child, but all Tulip wants to do is give him some old-fashioned discipline with a wooden spoon. Meanwhile, Ladi tries to get her sizing device to work and restore her to the right size.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Oh My God… Yes! is sort of like Futurama, except that it takes place in South Central Los Angeles.
Our Take: Adele “Supreme” Williams created the comic Oh My God… Yes! is based on, and Adult Swim aired a pilot for the show in 2023. The pilot from two years ago might be the reason why the first episode of this run drops viewers into the blender, so to speak: We’re in a near-future version of South Central, where people might be part demon, or part robot, or part-something else. But Sunny, Tulip and Ladi navigate life in this odd environment the same way any three friends in any era would have, with friendship, a sense of humor and supreme friend ball-busting.
The situations that Williams and the writers put the friends in are always going to be extreme, and at times sexually-charged. In the second episode, for instance, Tulip gets dumped by her live-in girlfriend and falls for a deadly rapping spider called an FIEH (Fervent Idealist Eating Hornswoggle) who abandons his baby niece and calls her a “bitch.”
Every 15-minute episode is designed to be absurd, with rapid-fire dialogue that is certainly geared toward whatever demographic actually watches Adult Swim these days — though we think most people will find this show on Max. It’s occasionally funny; it’s definitely not as funny as it thinks it is. But the imaginative stories and visuals make up for the lines that didn’t quite hit us the way Williams and company thought it might.
Sex and Skin: There’s sexual references, and lots of f-bombs, but it’s still a basic cable show (albeit basic cable after 11:30 PM).
Parting Shot: The group flies away in Sunny’s levitating car, with downtown LA on fire. Sunny thanks Ladi for saving the world.
Sleeper Star: Gary Anthony Williams and Cree Summer do a number of various voices in this series, and they fill in the gaps nicely. Summer, who occasionally pops up on Abbott Elementary but has become an all-time-great voice actor since her days on A Different World, is also the show’s voice director.
Most Pilot-y Line: As Tulip, Claire and Sunny fly to destroy the demon baby, Claire says, “I’m hungry.” “I don’t know why. You ain’t done shit all day.” replies Sunny. Claire’s retort: “I just gave birth, man.” Wow, that’s cold on Sunny’s part.
Our Call: STREAM IT. While Oh My God…Yes! A Series of Extremely Relatable Circumstances isn’t quite as funny as it should be, we like Williams’ vision of a near-future South Central and the really crazy friendship that the main trio has forged.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.