General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

The Awesomes

The Awesomes is an American adult animated superhero comedy series created by Seth Meyers and Mike Shoemaker that streamed on Hulu from August 1, 2013 to November 3, 2015. It follows Prock, the son of the world's greatest superhero, as he assembles a team of second-string heroes after his father retires and the original squad disbands. The show ran for three seasons of ten episodes each and featured voice performances largely drawn from current and former Saturday Night Live cast members.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Created by	Seth Meyers and Mike Shoemaker, Saturday Night Live collaborators¹
Network and run	Hulu, August 1, 2013 to November 3, 2015; 3 seasons, 30 episodes¹
Premise	After Mr. Awesome retires and his A-team disbands, his son Prock (Professor Doctor Awesome) fields a new team from the original's rejects³
Lead voice	Seth Meyers as Professor Doctor Jeremy "Prock" Awesome, whose power is pausing time, at the cost of a nosebleed⁴^•⁵
Production	Hulu co-production with Broadway Video; animation by Bento Box Entertainment; Judd Winick as writer and consulting producer⁶
Reception	Season 1 Metascore 62 on Metacritic; 67% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer⁷^•⁸
Rating and format	TV-14; episodes of roughly 22 minutes⁹

Spoilers

Premise and characters

At the start of the series, Mr. Awesome, who heads the greatest superhero team in history, chooses to retire, and he is followed out by most of the key members. His son Prock, short for Professor Doctor Awesome, steps up to field his own team of crime fighters while trying to restore the team's name to its former glory.³ Prock is described as really smart, prone to injury, and hopelessly devoted to not disappointing his dad.¹⁰ His own superpower, the ability to pause time, is unspectacular and leaves him with a nosebleed, which has made him the scrawny disappointment of his father.⁵

Prock's roster is made up of Frantic, Earth's third-swiftest man; Gadget Gal, in fact an 85-year-old whose youthful appearance of 25 comes from a rejuvenation ray; and the Impresario, whose turban holds a jewel that animates whatever he pictures in his mind, though his imagination has its limits.³ The full principal cast, with their character names, ran as follows:⁴

Seth Meyers as Professor Doctor Jeremy "Prock" Awesome
Taran Killam as Zip "Frantic" Danger
Kenan Thompson as Austin "Impresario" Sullivan
Bobby Lee as Tim "Sumo"
Paula Pell as Arlene "Gadget Gal"
Ike Barinholtz as Harry "Muscleman" Strong
Emily Spivey as Connie "Concierge"
Rashida Jones as Katherine "Hotwire" Malocchio
Josh Meyers as Perfect Man Awesome
Bill Hader as Dr. Giuseppe Malocchio

The final episode, "The Final Showdown" (3x10, November 3, 2015), has Prock trying to put together the perfect plan to stop his father, who has been elected President and plans to sell humanity into alien slavery.¹

Content and audience

The series is rated TV-14 and is written for adults. Common Sense Media's review describes it as an adult-oriented cartoon with strong language and sexual undertones, and rates it appropriate for ages 16 and up, while noting that the show offers a funny spin on classic superhero stories and an underdog protagonist's coming of age.¹⁷ Guest voices included further SNL alumni such as Will Forte, Amy Poehler, Kate McKinnon, and Maya Rudolph.¹¹

Development and production

Meyers and Shoemaker first began plotting the series in 2006, when Meyers was ascending to the Weekend Update desk at Saturday Night Live. The two had met in 2001 when Meyers joined the cast, where Shoemaker had worked since 1990, and bonded over trips to a Midtown comic book store. Meyers described the show as their way to make sure they got to work together after SNL.⁵ The project "kicked around for a while at a couple of different networks" before settling at Hulu when the streaming service entered original content, and Meyers said Hulu "were willing to let us tell the kind of stories we wanted to tell."¹¹

Hulu announced the series at its April 2012 upfront presentation, describing it as an unassuming superhero and his cohorts battling diabolical villains, the ever-present paparazzi, and a less-than-ideal reputation as second-class crime fighters, with a debut expected in 2013.¹² The show was a Hulu co-production with Broadway Video, the production company behind Saturday Night Live, with Bento Box Entertainment, the studio behind Bob's Burgers, handling animation.⁶

Run and reception

In September 2013, before the two-part season 1 finale had finished airing, Hulu renewed the show for a 10-episode second season, reporting that it had regularly been one of Hulu's top 10 most-watched shows each week since its August 1 launch. Season two was executive produced by Meyers, Shoemaker, and Broadway Video's Andrew Singer, and returned in 2014 with new supervillains and superheroes.¹³

Critical response to the first season was moderately favorable. The season 1 Metascore on Metacritic was 62, based on 8 critic reviews, with 5 positive and 3 mixed and no negative reviews.⁷ Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 67% Tomatometer for season 1 from 15 reviews, with a critics consensus noting the show's "ragtag positivity" and "super heroic wit" while observing that its gags and satire could feel as slapdash as its low-budget animation.⁸ Individual reviews ranged from a 75 from the San Francisco Chronicle, which called the show charming, to a 40 from Variety, which found it visually uninspired and stiffly animated.¹⁴

The series ended after its third season, with no season 4 ordered; the TV Series Finale listing records its run as August 1, 2013 to November 3, 2015.¹⁵ In March 2016, producer Michael Shoemaker indicated on social media that the producers were shopping three more seasons and a movie.¹⁶ The show remains available to stream on Hulu and for purchase on Amazon Video.⁹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Animated television series (individual series) › Adult animated comedy series

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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