The Freak Brothers
Directors: Dominic Polcino, Joe Ekers, Jeanette Moreno King & Juan Jose Meza-Leon
Cast:
John Goodman Fat Freddy Freekowtski
Pete Davidson Phineas T. Phreakears
Tiffany Haddish Fat Freddy’s Cat (renamed and regendered “Kitty” for the series)
Woody Harrelson Freewheelin’ Franklin Freek
Also: Adam Devine, Alan Freedland, Alan R. Cohen, Andrea Savage, Blake Anderson, Carrie Lynn Certa. Danny Gendron. John Di Domenico, La La Anthony, Liza Del Mundo, Phil LaMarr, Schoolboy Q
As just about any boomer who wasn’t a narc or in the ROTC in 1970 knows, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers was an underground comic that showed up in the late 60’s and stuck around for a decade before times moved on. A creation of Gilbert Shelton, the three main characters, Fat Freddy, Phineas Freeloader and Freewheelin’ Frank (plus Fat Freddy’s Cat), were the best known and best loved of all the underground comics that both enriched and debased that era.
The humor and general tone is carried over into the streaming series, which means a lot of people are going to be hideously offended.
The Brothers smoke some magic dope in 1969 which is suffused with the tears of a holy man they found eating the brown acid at Woodstock, and it throws them into a 50 year slumber. When they wake up, they find the house over their basement flop has been renovated and rebuilt several times, and San Francisco has changed a bit since the Summer-of-Love-Hangover days. The brothers find themselves amongst the very people who are most likely to be offended by their very existence–’woke’, PC, and strongly in favor of frequent bathing and toilet training. (Fat Freddy’s Cat is somewhat more reliably toilet-trained than is Fat Freddy himself.)
The horrifying news for people who consider the series to be an utter desecration of all that is good and decent and holy is that it’s actually a bit cleaned up from the Shelton originals. The good news for people who consider the series to be an utter desecration of all that is good and decent and holy is that it’s actually just as funny as the original.
Yes, the Freak Brothers are completely out of step and lost in 2020 AD, but that’s OK—they were completely out of step and lost in 1969, too. But now they are utterly out of step in a world the modern viewers can relate to. They have no redeeming features because that would ruin the whole freakin’ thing.
In one hilarious scene, the brothers are whispering “Mary Jane” and “Boo” at passers-by on a sidewalk, totally oblivious to the fact that they are standing in front of something called a “Marijuana Dispensary.” While very reluctantly job-hunting, they find the notion of a lady manager utterly hilarious, and they managed to get entangled with Jeff Bezos and his phallic phantasies, much to the chagrin of old Jeff. Not his Prime moment.
The creators of the show have done a fine job of making it relatable, not only to all us dregs of the counter culture, but to the kids of today. And so another generation is defiled and debased! My work here is done.
Now streaming for free on Tubi, and all over YouTube until someone there figures out what it’s about.