The Aquabats! Super Show! - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Critical response to Super Show! has been positive, with most reviewers praising the series' intentionally campy tone and offbeat humor. The Onion's The A.V. Club gave the series premiere an A- rating, describing it as "a loving homage to basically everything ever done by the brothers Krofft": "the show adeptly flips from humor to melodrama to action, providing some awesomely cheap special effects, goofy songs, and gags that range from slapstick to sublime", summarizing "there’s so much here that both kids and parents will be able to enjoy the proceedings on their own respective levels and rarely find themselves bored".

Brian Lowry of Variety wrote "you don't have to laugh at everything to admire the effort and sheer silliness, down to the name, costumes and opening theme song", calling the show a "goofy and nostalgic" throwback to the "children's TV of baby boomers' youth, down to crappy production values and awful-looking 'monsters' that work to its advantage". He summarized "Although this Hub series at times feels like an SNL skit stretched to a half-hour, its sly mix of music, live-action crime-fighting, cartoons and mock ads ought to develop a cult following – and might be more popular with parents, at least those with the geek gene, than their kids".

Common Sense Media, who review shows based on age-appropriate content, gave Super Show! a rating of 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "demented and manic...fun by sheer dint of how many jokes, visual and otherwise, are thrown at the screen, both those calculated to appeal to kids and adults". The site praised the series for its lighter and sillier tone in comparison to more violent live-action superhero fare, and considered the "kind-hearted" Aquabats to be relatively positive role models. However, the reviewer suggested the show's violence and creatures may be too intense for very young children, and pointed out a distinct lack of central female characters.

Technology magazine Wired has been consistently positive towards the series, calling it both "wonderfully strange" and "delightfully deranged", writing "illed with self-deprecating music videos, toon interludes and ludicrous villains, The Aquabats! Super! Show! has become one of television's strangely comforting finds".

Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times offered a more indifferent opinion, calling The Aquabats "indescribably odd" and the series "frenetic, semicoherent and generally harmless. Also somewhat hallucinogenic", noting Super Show!'s writing "may be over the heads of the 2-to-12 set", suggesting its most receptive audience might be "the college drinking-game crowd".