Netflix Comedy Series Based On Popular YouTuber Is Appropriately Odd
YouTube is an odd duck when it comes to the entertainment world. For the most part, it remains its own thing, with some YouTubers putting out videos that are more popular than primetime TV shows but remain unknown to the average person. Occasionally, though, a YouTuber will have crossover appeal and attempt to break into a medium outside of YouTube. One such creator is TheOdd1sOut, whose foray into Netflix animation, Oddballs, is as weird as his name would suggest.
Oddballs
TheOdd1sOut, real name James Rallison, got big on YouTube doing storytime animations. These are a genre of autobiographical YouTube videos where the creator animates a funny anecdote from their past—often using simple animations with little movement.
Animators like James will narrate the videos using a unique animated avatar they’ve created for themselves. Netflix’s Oddballs acts as a spinoff of TheOdd1sOut’s YouTube videos and stars the same depiction of James as a white, cartoon balloon person.
James
Picture Disney’s Baymax, but smaller and thinner, and that’s pretty much James’s avatar. The show revolves around this “marshmallow person,” as Rallison describes him, also named James, and the wacky shenanigans he gets up to. A typical Oddballs plot might see James creating a sentient AI toaster with his best friend, Max, a talking crocodile.
The Stories
What separates Oddballs from every other purposely “weird” cartoon out there are James’s observations about social norms and society in general.
Oddballs often feels a little bit like a kid’s Seinfeld if Seinfeld also tackled aliens and time travelers. Despite the absurdist backdrop many of the show’s plots are typical cartoon fare.
One episode has James preparing to fight a bully after school, while another has him lamenting that he’s no longer young enough to eat off of the kid’s menu at his favorite restaurant.
Yet another plot involves the toaster from Episode 1 evolving and creating a future without processed food. Okay, so Oddballs isn’t all stale cartoon plots. How would it live up to its name otherwise?
The Response
James and writer Ethan Banville pitched Oddballs to Netflix in early 2020. The streamer picked up the series later that year, but COVID-19 had other plans.
Lockdowns resulting from the pandemic caused the entire first season to be produced remotely. If you thought you hated Zoom meetings, imagine how the Oddballs crew felt trying to produce a show with them!
Despite the complications, James and Co. completed the first season of Odballs in time for its October 7, 2022, release.
Oddly enough, the show doesn’t have a critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, but 76 percent of the audience enjoyed the first season. There was enough of a positive response for Netflix to renew Oddballs for a second season.
Stream It Now
GFR SCORE
Sadly, Season 2’s viewership wasn’t as strong. Oddballs was quietly canceled in 2023, and James subsequently released an Oddballs graphic novel with five stories that were written for the Netflix series but never produced.
While the series wasn’t the best Netflix original, it was certainly better than some cartoons that continue to get more seasons despite their mediocrity. I’m looking at you, Boss Baby.
If you’re looking for something on the weirder side to watch with your kids, I would definitely recommend giving Oddballs a shot. You can stream all 20 episodes right now on Netflix.
