TheOdd1sOut's Netflix Show is Oddly Underwhelming 

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It’s weird that James didn’t draw himself with a propeller beanie. That’s what he usually does to convey his lil blob sona is a child

I think the biggest issue with the show is that James is trying to seem to be hip cool and relatable but in reality it just fails to do that

Also to bring up the random character designs, another show that does this very well is the Amazing World of Gumball. Gumball’s premise is that it’s a universe full of rejected cartoon characters, so it makes sense why all the characters look completely different from eachother, but the characters also have their own stories and life that help fit their designs, a character like Tina is supposed to be the school bully, so she’s made into a giant T-Rex. Here in Oddballs, like you said, most of the character designs are made to be eye Candy.

The thing is, a city run by scientists in the middle-of-nowhere desert where all the kids and teens are living experiments is a phenomenal premise for a show. I can see a lot of potential there, both for intrigue and comedy. Like you mentioned, Max the Crocodile is a good example of this; an experiment that his parents see only as an experiment and nothing more would make for great drama and some funny jokes. I would love to watch a show about that, but it's obvious that's not what this show is about. It definitely feels like an afterthought, James thinking "hey I wanna make a show with a ton of clashing characters" first and then the setting second, which makes everything come off as boring and a wasted opportunity.

What I love about Smiling friends is that the humor, charm, aesthetic, and even the character designs all feel unique yet still screams Psychicpebbles. It is it’s own thing and it doesn’t try to pander to anyone, yet it somehow gains an audience. This show feels like it’s suffering from an identity crisis.

I think the main problem I have with Oddballs is that it’s just too… kiddie. Usually I don’t mind watching cartoons, but it’s so obvious that this show is only geared towards one demographic, and that’s James’ kid fans. And while there’s nothing wrong with kids liking the show, I just can’t bring myself to watch it because it’s nothing like James’ original content. What I love about James’ content is that it’s relatable to not only younger audiences, but older ones as well. If the show wasn’t linked to James so much or had him as the main character, I probably wouldn’t mind, but it’s just not for me.

James no longer feels like this relatable guy who used to tell stories for fun and talk about how fun life can be just by telling some of his own stories Nowadays he feels like a brand, with new toys, games, plushies etc. It all feels so artificial and Oddballs is a good example of what i mean

The best way I can describe Oddballs is this: James got asked to make a show, he has no idea, he looks through his old comics and videos, takes a bunch of the character designs from them along with his avatar, he crams them into a default town setting, steals plots from other cartoons, does nothing else, and calls it a day.

OddBall isn't odd enough to stand out, but it's so odd that begins to hurt the show itself.

It's pretty odd that Odds1out finally moved his mouth when he's fully animated compared to his storytime videos. The _Oddballs_ show is pretty much like a standard 2010s Cartoon Network show but with James' avatar being the star.

James = James but with less personality Max = an actual character with an actual backstory Echo = the most annoying excuse for a plot device this show could've come up with

Echo is probably my biggest complaint in the show. I absoutely have no problem at all with Kim Brooks, her voice actress, she does fine for the role and gives it her all. As a character though, she’s very unlikable in my opinion. She’s the kind of person who will only do something helpful if the main characters basically admit she’s right about whatever argument they’re disputing. That seems to be her character as a whole. The episode where she moves in with James…God, that was hard to sit through without wanting to punch something.

I really think James shot himself in the foot by making his persona the main character of the show. It really should have been someone else. It makes no since seeing someone who talks about mundane life stuff go through wacky adventures like it's normal for him. Also WHY IS HE THE ONLY ONE WHO LOOKS LIKE THAT! All the other human characters look completely different than him, it really feels like James only put his persona in because it was recognizable.

My main problem with this show is that it plays things too safe.

Honestly, to make him actually seem younger, should've added the rainbow propeller hat.

The storytime animation era peaked when SrPelo roasted every single one of them in a single video. Now only a fraction of them still make videos, and a fraction of those are still relevant enough to consistently get views.

It’s a pretty good show for kids and non fans but if you’re a fan of James’ other works you’ll likely be disappointed. Odd1sout just kinda feels like a brand now that makes content

I think there’s kinda a core lack of identity. It feels like it was made without a pilot. The first episode also isn’t that good at introducing the show. The second episode would work way better as a first imo. It introduces basically everything the first did but the additional things it also introduces adds a lot more context.

The clashing styles feels like it's trying to do what Amazing World of Gumball did, but each character in that show had so much personality and it just worked.

for me the big problem was that it felt like it was trying too hard to be a kids show. it obviously is, but it just seemed too "googoo gaga" if that makes sense. it's almost manic in how many jokes and slapstick they try to cram in a single episode to make people laugh

I definitely agree with the inconsistent art style. For Season 2, the show should definitely borrow from Drawn Together or The Amazing World of Gumball.

Thank you, it feels like every youtuber talking about this series is being weirdly postive about it, nothing wrong in liking this show, but i feel like people kinda being too... genrous with this show

Haven't gotten super far into the video yet but the Don't Hug Me I'm Scared TV show that came out recently is another great example of stuff from youtube making the jump to TV and actually being really good.

I had NO idea the main character was supposed to be a kid, I thought it was literally just Odd1sOut himself in his mid-20s. Rather odd change to make lmao.

In all fairness, James Rolfe has always been more of a film enthusiast than a videogame fan. He loves old Horror movies and Kaiju films, and made many short movies when he was younger. I can understand why he would use his most popular character as a platform to make his own feature-lenght film. It honestly makes the fact that the AVGN movie turned out so underwhelming all the more dissappointing.

I did use to quite like TheOddOnesOut, mostly when I was a child and his videos were less refined. But as the videos become more produced and streamlined they kinda.. lost their flavor, James was never *super* expressive either way

Another good example on how to mix varying art styles is the Amazing World of Gumball.

Ive watched James since 2016, and i gotta say i miss his old, under produced animation style. It fit with the "everyday relatable style" that people look for in the stories that he shared.

I wanna say Dick Figures the Movie was another great example of how you up the ante because the people behind the show were actual animators and made the movie more epic and actually character driven

My conspiracy theory without a lot of basis is that James wanted to brand himself more or with a strong punch he didn't change anything about him so he would be more recognizable within a certain demographic, so it was a decision that'd benefit him rather than the show

I think what makes me most uncomfortable is how it feels like an adult running around with imaginary friends. Like, maybe it's just a problem as one of his viewers from back in the day, but I completely associate the James character with James the adult due to his storytelling online. And now I'm supposed to believe that the James from the show is a child in school? Idk, it makes me feel weird watching the show.

Honestly the best way I could describe watching this was that it's Great Value Amazing world of Gumball Having a setting with a ton of random characters and telling an entirely different thing each episode just without any of the heart gumball had

I'm surprised you didn't mention how terrible Echo is besides that one line. Like she does whatever she wants and gets almost no consequences for it. Even though I still enjoyed the show for what is some of my least favorite moments in the whole show usually involved her.

I feel like this show kinda encapsulates James' content as a whole: safe, bland, and marketable.

Oddballs looks like every other cartoon just with Odd1sOut slapped on at the last minute, would’ve intrigued me more if all the other characters shared the same art style.

It’s a shame that James dumbed down his show to only suit his kid audience. If I were James, I would have made a show that bridged a middle ground between appealing to kids and appealing to adults simultaneously.

Honestly this was most OK/Harmless Show that it can be

It’s a shame that due to the chaos at Netflix this show probably won’t get a chance to grow and become an actor that’s better suited to the tv format and be able to diversify from his RU-vid self

It's obvious Netflix wanted this to be their Gumball and I agree Max should've been the star, but the show isn't that bad. Let's see what happens in season 2 when the plot picks up.

Every single time I see Just Stop’s character in his room, I can’t stop looking at the window. The sun rises every single time and it is super distracting once you notice it. The more I look at it, the more it bothers me. It would be a cool little Easter egg to have the position of the sun indicate how far into the video you are without bothering to tap the mouse or screen to see instead of a repetitive aesthetic choice.

The only thing I learned about this show thanks to Spilling the Milk watching it so I don't have to is that james has a fascination for giving himself the cake of all time.

maybe this show would have worked better if it was similar to Midnight Golspel, have the people voicing the characters going on rants that would obviously call back to how he's a story time animator, and then have the animation be it's own story, I think this approach could have worked better

The biggest issue with James overall is that hes just become so corporate, he's basically his own brand now, instead of making one or just posting merch once in a while, he is practically ryans world but for a little more mature audiences

In defense of AVGN Movie: From what I could gather, James of AVGN grew up and was influenced by legacy media, so building his way to a movie always seemed to be a goal of his. It should be noted the Angry Video Game Nerd persona pre dates RU-vid itself.

I used to really enjoy how he took seemingly mundane situations that average unassuming people like me could relate to and made them entertaining. Like his subway videos, grade school class books, PE, or annoying roommates. The show really lacks that relatability and that why I feel so meh.

I think the biggest problem is that so many of these guys aren't creatives, they aren't storytellers, they get the chance to create in ahead of people who have something to say or a story to tell just because they're the cash cow of the day.

I feel like James has gone in that weird area a lot of popular indie games go (bendy and the ink machine, fnaf, ect) where they just take and do every single merchandise or deal possible, plushies, card game, mobile game, board game, figures, toys, shirts, hats, and now a tv show. It’s just overwhelming, it feels like the entire channel has became this strange brand that just exists to profit off an audience, he rarely even makes videos anymore because he doesn’t have to

“Definitely one of the netflix shows of all time” type energy

Smiling Friends and Don't Hug Me I'm Scared are two great recent examples of RU-vidrs jumping to mainstream television. When ecelebs were doing it 10+ years ago it was brand new territory, and they would give in completely to companies to make creative decisions for them, using their name and face to draw in viewers which is why self-inserts were so common.

I think oddballs was a show packed full to the brim with potential, however ultimately fell short due to it wanting to market entertainment to the 5-9 year old's that watch James's channel. I think that having James play himself in the show was definitely more than just James thinking it would be cool if he was in a TV show, and I wouldn't be surprised if when creating the concept of oddballs, the team couldn't think of a main character that could work well for the shows dynamic (because it's so chaotic, but not in an "organized chaos" like The Amazing World of Gumball, the earlier seasons of Spongebob Squarepants, or Adventure time), or they were torn between two character concepts, being James and an entertaining character, but the team wanted to do something that was safe for marketing, so they chose to have James be the main character, which from a marketing prospective is smart, since most kids just want to see their favorite RU-vidr bounce around on their TV screen, with a more fluid animation, but isn't conceptually or visually entertaining unfortunately for anyone else. I think that episode 1 alone had some of the best set ups for jokes in kids television I've ever seen, honestly rivaling (though not surpassing) Spongebob, however they completely destroyed execution by making it easy for children to digest and understand, instead of being clever. In my opinion, Oddballs should have made James's (the character) animation more fluid to compensate for his visual staleness, and use captivating animation to intrigue kids, their primary consumer audience, because most kids just watch TV shows for entertaining visuals, and maybe a bit of the story, however used witty, clever, and even a bit crass jokes to captivate older audiences. I know I would have been a lot more entertained if in the first episode when Max got impaled by toast for example, if him and James had a whole panic attack and started acting mildly irrational, while in the background we saw some clever visual comedy that wasn't shoved in our faces, like maybe someone just kicks Toasty over, killing it, and it was just that easy. A lot of their jokes had me rolling my eyes, but there were a few good ones that made watching the episodes mildly worth it, but overall I think the show was very weird and many choices were certainly made for marketing purposes, and kind of ruined the shows integrity. I do think that James (the person) is clever and funny in his RU-vid video's, and could definitely produce something better than Oddballs if he actually tried to make a witty show, because I did see (as stated before) great comedic setups, but the execution was poor and designed for children

In defense of the Angry Video Game Nerd Movie, James is an actual enthusiast of cinema and, even if not amazingly good, it actually had a vision.

Odd1sout truly stood out with this show

I hope james watches this and takes the constructive criticism to improve season 2

“Too old to order of the kids menu” was the best part of the series

Yeahhhh... My original thought upon seeing the trailer was "Damn, that's cool, I'm happy for James. It looks really bad and I will not be watching it."

This seemed like he was trying to be like Amazing World of Gumball but wasn’t able to accomplish that

You know, it’d actually be pretty funny if LS mark’s cartoon turn out better the Jame’s show.

It kinda feels like they tried to make The Amazing World of Gumball, but didn’t really understand what made that show work. Edit: It’d be cool if the premise was that James and his family (or just James) is considered to be odd, since they themselves are ‘normal’ from our perspective, while the world around them is ‘odd’ since it’s not like ours. It’d allow them to go for crazy ideas; allow a dynamic where his best friend follows the “odd world” culture, while James follows his own culture that’s much like ours. Maybe he could be the conflict for most or some episodes, where his culture clashes with the “odd world” and vice versa. Probably a god awful idea, but it’s better than what looks to be a copy of Gumball.

my biggest issue is that this cartoon is just..a series of stereotypes and events from other cartoons. it offers me nothing new at all.

All I’ll say is it’s not bad for a first attempt, like a 6 out of ten, something to watch once, enjoy it somewhat, and then forget about it for a while

I found the show to be... meh. It'll probably pass into obscurity. My main complaint is they used the crappy "Annoying House Guest that Won't Leave" trope that most cartoons have.

I think Don't Hug Me I'm Scared is a solid example of a youtube thing getting its own show. Shits good.

Thanks for making this video. I remember watching James back when he was pretty niche back in middle school but something about this show seemed so off, but I couldn't bring myself to watch it, so having someone sit down and give commentary while I can do something else in the foreground is pretty helpful.

If remember correctly, FRED had a cameo in iCarly before getting his own movie. Useless facts aside, I knew exactly what to expect as soon as James showed this on his channel.

One thing I've noticed, as an active fan of the Odds1out for a while, is it feels like he's gotten more. . .immature, almost. I don't know fi that's the right word for it, but it feels like he's forcing a lot of his jokes to be wilder and wackier then the situations they're in. I mean, compare one of his original soobway video with one of his newer ones. And I don't think it's necessarily bad for his youtube channel, but I don't think it works really well with the show. Maybe a fun way he could've taken the show to be inline with his channel is voicing all of the characters related to his family (doing the mom and dad voice). Focus more on the science bits, and perhaps have his friendship with Max make him question if he is an experiment or not. There are so many ideas, but hearing about the episodes, it feels like it's meant for a much younger audience then those who grew up watching him.

If he really wanted to portray the fact that he's a kid in this show, he should have added that propeller hat to the design like he does on his channel whenever he talks about himself as a kid.

What made me think that Oddballs are weird is the cast and the fact that James is in it. It's very weird to see James, who we associate with an actual artist, with a talking crocodile, giant cactus and an evil toaster. It's like James's dream or self insert fan fiction. It just feels odd. (pun intended)

I honestly found Oddballs harmless fun. Though it is feels very safe. Like the tone and performances feel like another episode of Odd1sOut's RU-vid videos. Also the slime guy isnt a literal demon. He is a slime. Thats it

Let's just face it. TheOdd1Out was never that entertaining. Relatablity can take you far, but not enough for a standalone TV show.

2017: I can meet james at subway 2023: I can meet james at a 2000 dollar fee at a event!

It just feels random for the sake of random. The character designs don't really feel right. They feel like clip-art and not main characters in a show. You can't tell anything about them based on their designs.

We lost the Bone and Wings of Fire adaptations for this. Two adaptations that could've been like Arcane in terms of quality while also offering something to tween-teen audiences. But, nah, gotta get that kiddie show money I guess...

TBH i would have preferred James having the little propeller hat that he usually wears in his videos when talking about childhood stories

On the topic of not having an art style, smiling friends pulls that off way better, mostly because Zach and Mike weren’t afraid to go their own ways for it but you can still tell what was drawn by who. Smiling friends looks like a mish mash of two people’s ideas that works bc their styles are complimentary. Oddballs looks like everyone on the team was told to do whatever they want, and while some compliment each other, most clash.

18:51 Ah yes, my favorite oddballs character LS Mark

watching this review reminds me of back in junior high, when I asked my writing teacher, "if there's such a thing as first person and third person, is there such a thing as second person?" and she told me no. this show would've been interesting if it were from James' perspective, but he were just a sidekick witnessing what happens to Max.

Honestly outside of having James himself in the cartoon, this overall feels like a generic show you’d find on Nickelodeon aimed at younger audiences like Sanjay and Craig or Breadwinners. There’s nothing remotely interesting or memorable about it, and it feels like it just feels like it completes an arbitrary checklist of what to include in a kid’s show instead of being a great cartoon in its own right. I’m admittedly not familiar with James’s content, so I’m sure he’s a good guy, but this just goes to show that just because you want to do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Since while I can commend him for getting this series greenlit and made in the first place, something many peeps nowadays find it very hard to do (especially with how terrible animation has been treated by the executives at HBO Max and even Netflix as of late), this overall just feels like, as I said, any generic kid’s show instead of an actual passion project.

I "enjoyed" his show. But your break down makes me understand why I didn't love it lol. Hopefully he sees this and can use this video to make a better storyline

As soon as I heard the bread song, I fell out of it

It felt like James was trying to make The Amazing World of Gumball but missing everything that makes Gumball great

I maintain that the best RU-vid to TV show is DHMIS

“And when everyone is the odd 1 out……no one will be.”

Easily the best example of RU-vid to TV is one of my new favourite shows: Don’t hug me I’m scared. The production value and writing is amazing!

Yuh it’s a little Underwhelming, but everything looks adorable and some of the jokes like when it showed a hyper realistic shot of a Max would get me exhaling through my nose

The worst part about this video is the comments saying "oh james netflix show is pretty… *odd* HAHAHA get it.. ge- guys you get it?"

The sad thing is, even as a fan of James, when I saw the first trailer, I thought “This doesn’t look like it’s going to be very good.” And unfortunately, I was right. :-( No hate towards him, because like you said, the fact that he even got a Netflix show is impressive, but still, it feels too much like one of those mediocre 2010s Cartoon Network shows.

TheOdd1sOut show was very Odd.

why didnt they just... give James' character the propeller hat that he usually adds to represent his younger/child self?

The show looks like someone hit the "make cartoon" button on a computer

Let’s remember that james did say Netflix took over *A LOT* Edit: forgot to say i was a bit upset he didn’t have many of his siblings in the show…..I believe he has a lot of siblings and i do too and as a kid i can say it would have been SO relatable if his parents were Busy with his siblings……a bit like “loud house” but I think that show went off the tracks and got boring

I'm probably the minority here, because despite Odd1sOut being a major content creator when I was a pre-teen, I never really was that big of a fan. However, there is a clear difference between his old and new content, and I think it corresponds to this show. For those who don't know, Duolingo is a business that posts videos on TikTok to gain relevancy and this has definitely worked in their favour. However, it does not work well as "promotion" for their brand in the long run because a huge part of their identity is now built on being relevant and current. Now people are associating Duolingo with less on what their business is about, and more on what they post online. It's promotion and advertising that completely defeats the purpose of what promotion and advertising is meant for. The reason why Duolingo is referenced is because it feels similar to what TheOdd1sOut is going through. Seeing success for a long time, it is expected that James would make this RU-vid content creator thing his own job aka a business. He has a lot more people to help him animate now - hell his older videos couldn't even be counted as animation. And you can feel that James has shifted his content appeal demographic towards the younger audiences, with more hip Internet meme references (for better or worse), exaggerated faces, fluid animation, over-stimulation, and even James' personality has changed from being overall introverted and less animated to...well extroverted. But again, his whole appeal thing isn't sustainable. Him trying to act cool and fit in with those Internet references isn't something a person can do long-term as a career, let alone being pressurized to pump out content on a frequent basis. At one point he will be too fatigued to continue at such a rate, and managing his merchandise, mobile game, board game, and going to RU-vid content creator conventions will only tire him further as long as his subscriber count continues to rise. Sorry not sorry to the immature fans, but your idol has sold himself out. What lingers is another Duolingo copycat trying to sustain its appeal by relevancy, but without a well-structured roadmap. Oddballs matches the condition of TheOdd1sOut now, a dangerously unsustainable solution to continue getting that sweet viewership to maintain relevancy. James is trying to act as someone he isn't. He started out as a RU-vid content creator telling stories for the sake of entertainment, now he's apparently going on wacky adventures in his new Netflix show. Oddballs in general feel too uninteresting for people who didn't grow up with TheOdd1sOut (it's another one of those "main character goes on wacky adventures per episode" kind of media), and too ingenuine for the people who actively watched his original content.

Out of all the animated TV shows out there, this is definitely one of them

From what I'm gathering the show is trying to be like Gumball without any of the effort.

This is like if the amazing world of gumball had zero talented people working on it

Honestly I feel like the show would have been better if it took more after his video style. James is funny on his channel mostly because of his portrayal of relatable moments in life. His writing make you go, "I never thought about it like that but that's so true lmao". In the show it just feels like another generic cartoon world with characters and tropes we have seen plenty of times. I notice most cartoons over the last decade having a heavy emphasis on "zaniness", and bizarre worlds. (Gumball, Steven universe, Cuphead, etc). It would be cool if James made a cartoon that was just kind of genuine and relatable, with that classic odd1sout style comedy.

It really felt like he created a TV show specifically because his manager told him to

People really thought this was going to be good? James couldn’t even be bothered to make a good board game or book something that requires infinitely less effort to get right.

As much as I agree with the point on how all the characters look like they come from completely different places I think The Amazing World of Gumball takes this critique and turns it into a huge plus in my opinion. The art styles are so different and distinct it’s obvious that all the characters are unique.

Here's a concept of how the series may have been improved at least story wise. Have James be basically an experiment of his own like a living animation. Make him materialize things based on the story's he tells in a loose wish like system. Make it so that it's James gaining the powers to eventually tie to the animation thing. Maybe not have him being able to maintain being human given he's a living animation. Have Echo (the line cutter referred to in the video) be a time traveler interested in the towns going's on as it's watching history happen that happens to be interested in food/maybe just being a snarky spectator until she tampers with stuff to make events happen. Have it to where there's an actual goal to the town. Like with Who Framed Rodger Rabbit or Clone High where there is a specific area literally made for oddities/scientific insanity. It may just be random spit balling but it's something that could combine things and make it interesting.