The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police

Sam & Max is a totally different breed of comic than your standard "Captain America" superhero book or "Dilbert" newspaper strip. And Steve Purcell, the artist and thinker behind the madness, had a lot of guts making it into a Fox kids TV show, since it was more of an "adultish" comic duo. The sad part is that a lot of Sam & Max fans were dissatisfied with the more family-friendly atmosphere, since it introduced a brainy little girl called simply "Geek" that designed improbable and incredible gadgets for the duo.

But I'm here to allay your fears.

The sort of humor backing every episode is classic Sam & Max. No, maybe it's not exactly like the comic books. No, maybe it isn't a carbon copy of Lucasart's fantastic adventure game "Sam & Max: Hit the Road." But what you will find in here is Sam using a wide vocabulary and spouting off bombastic exclamations. Max is the same old hyperkinetic rabbity-thing that just wants to see justice served as violently as possible. And while the whole of the series is a bloodless affair, you'll find most of the humor in the banter that is volleyed between the two at a dizzying pace. The dialogue, the tasteful use of puns, and the voice work are impeccable.

It proves that you don't necessarily have to make something more edgy to make it good. While there are cheesy parts in places due to the sometimes-too-tame atmosphere, it's an overall very enjoyable romp through the world of Sam & Max. Besides, what kids these days are going to get jokes like a parodied Jerry Springer or the game show password? It's a little childish in spots, but it's definitely Sam & Max, and you're going to love it.

The writing in this show was phenomenal, and they jam-packed nearly every episode with some of the best jokes out there. Doesn't matter how many times you watch the series, you'll always find something new you didn't notice before.

Coming from playing just the 1993 "Sam & Max Hit The Road", I was SO pleased to find out the show was just as entertaining as the game was. As the game did, it pushes the limits of what can be possible on a show like this. To have great writing, great animation, and be entertaining at the same time? Few can nail it like Sam & Max: Freelance Police can!

I want the media I watch to keep me engaged, and be interesting to watch. This series more than accomplished that for me. This show is definitely one of my favorites ever, and I highly recommend you give it a watch!

Sam and Max is one of those multimedia franchises that not too many people are familiar with, but those who are familiar with the franchise tend really adore and appreciate the stuff that comes out of it.

The cartoon, much like the rest of the franchise, is one of those cartoons that people tend to not really know about, but those who have seen it generally consider it to be an underrated cartoon from an age that seemingly had a lot of underrated cartoon.

This cartoon takes the over-the-top wackiness and meta-humor of standard nineties cartoons and cranks it up to an 11. The sheer insanity of the cartoon alone, for me at least, is able to outclass similar over-the-top cartoons like Freakazoid or Animaniacs. This isn't even talking about the plethora of adult and meta humor. The writing of each episode is very close the the rest of the franchise, just with no profanities and a significantly less gratuitous violence as the show needed to appeal to a child audience. Despite this slight "watering down" from their standard formula, I would say about 85% to 90% of what makes Sam and Max so charming is kept in tact. The writing is filled to the brim with witty banter, clever jokes, and sometimes just plain good ol' silliness all meshing together with completely nonsensical, yet coherent story for each episode. The animation and style of each episode is also well done with each background being extremely well detailed and very reminiscent of the comic books the two originated from. The animation itself also does a great job of expressing the titular characters with a great variety of subtle and expressive animation. The musical score just kind of exists with nothing being truly exceptional or bad except the somewhat catchy theme song, and I know no one in their right mind would just a background composition for a cartoon, but I feel it is at least something to point out for everything. If there is one big problem with the show is that it is very much for a niche audience. The writing is constructed in a very complex and off way that tends to go against a majority of standard storytelling rules while still being a great product. The characters over-explain everything they do and also tend to lose focus on life-threatening situations which to a lot of people can seem very foreign, but the way it is executed here is actually brilliant. This even goes into the very hypocrisy of the cartoon as one second they are talking in an extremely sophisticated manner using language that I've had to look up on a few occasions or having situations that made me bust out laughing, while other times the humor is a plain and simple as the nose on my head. This strange execution of the cartoon may set off quite a few people and thus, I can't say this cartoon is for everyone. However, if you are already fans of the Sam and Max franchise or want to see a cartoon that is both extremely silly as it is intelligent, then this may just be the show for you.

I love this cartoon!

I first got introduced to Sam and Max thru their Lucasarts video games, and when I heard about this cartoon, I HAD to see it :)

It was everything I expected, even though it was a kid's show, it still had the same "adult" humour present in the video game. The stories are funny, the gags are funny and the relationship between Sam and Max is just special.

If you loved the game, you KNOW you'll love this. If you haven't seen the game, watch this, love it, THEN get the game.

No, I am not a Lucasarts employee, this show really rules :)

I got into Sam & Max through the videogame by lucasarts which although 8 or 9 years old now is still one of the funniest things i have ever seen. So i was pretty excited to hear a t.v. show was going to be made. After a few episodes though you start to realise that although somewhat interesting this series isn't half as funny as the game or the few sam and max comics ive read. It has it's moments though, although most jokes will produce wry smiles at best rather than the rolling on the floor laughing state that the game frequently put you into. I think the cartoon was heavily censored to prevent sam & max getting too sadistic or p**s-taking in their humour, unfortunately this makes the whole show feel watered-down. Sam & Max would've worked out better as a show aimed towards adults with no censorship then this censored version aimed at kids. Also the voices aren't as good in the cartoon as in the game,sam's is o.k. but Max's is pretty poor in comparison and his voice grates on the ear a lot, overall though there are worse ways to waste a 1/2 hour , the show is ok it just couldve been a lot better,if you want an example of how good it should have been go buy the game.which had lines like.

Sam: (after throwing a bomb he discovered out the window) I hope there was no-one on that bus. Max: No-one we knew at least.

One of the most disappointing aspects of the show is how none of the characters from the game (except obviously Sam & Max) reappear