As soon as I saw the title of the Stuart Fails to Save the Universe Season 1 finale, I knew what to expect.

Spoiler: Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience was always going to be a nod to where Stuart Bloom and his friends were first spotted.

The Big Bang Theory was a standard sitcom, filmed in front of a live audience, following very specific comedic rules.

(Photograph by Colin Remas Brown/HBO Max)

That’s exactly what we got at first with Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, but the episode takes a dark turn and ends on a melancholy note.

Bringing Up the Many Highlights and Questions of Sitcoms

The characters of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe don’t know they’re in a sitcom. That’s the beauty of TV.

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Once you start breaking the fourth wall, you end up creating all sorts of meta elements that don’t always work.

And it wouldn’t work for a show like this. The series had to focus on the parallel worlds and the characters’ growth.

(Photograph by Colin Remas Brown/HBO Max)

This wasn’t a show where many storylines could reset and be forgotten, the way sitcoms do.

I did wonder how a live studio audience could be part of the finale.

I feared it would break apart all the growth the characters had had, especially Stuart.

The only way Stuart Fails to Save the Universe Season 2 can work is by Stuart taking more of a leadership role.

At least, that was my opinion at the start of the installment.

(Photograph by Colin Remas Brown/HBO Max)

What worked was how the show used the studio audience. 

At first, not everyone heard the laughter, and the half-hour had time to highlight the elements of sitcoms.

Where does the food come from? How do the characters get into a room? What happens between the scenes?

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Stuart couldn’t remember how he walked from the comic book store shop front to the back room.

Suddenly, Denise was annoyed because Stuart had forgotten her birthday. Yet, nobody knew it was her birthday.

(Photograph by Colin Remas Brown/HBO Max)

Bert was the first to put it together, and then Kripke followed suit.

Together, they worked out that something wasn’t right with the world they were in.

The more they realized, the more other elements of the sitcom world fell apart.

The wall behind the camera turned into a mass of clouds they had to walk through.

Nobody really knew what they were walking into, but it didn’t matter. They couldn’t just stay in this universe of nothingness.

(Photograph by Colin Remas Brown/HBO Max)

It continued the growth that we’ve had over the course of nine episodes so far. Each friend grew confident enough to walk through the clouds.

Before, they’d pushed the button on the machine to escape whatever hellish situation was coming.

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Their jumps into the unknown came from survival and a lack of choice.

This time, they had a choice. They could have stayed and accepted their fate, but they walked on with confidence.

(Courtesy of HBO Max) What’s Next for Stuart and His Friends?

However, the unknown they walk into raises many questions about their existence.

I started to wonder if they would find out they were in a universe where they became the characters on a sitcom.

That could have worked for an episode, but I think the writers opted for a brilliant twist to end Stuart Fails to Save the Universe Season 1.

Instead, the group watches as versions of themselves run out. They learn they are characters on a sitcom, and everything they’ve been through takes a turn.

(Colin Remas Brown/HBO Max)

They’ll face an existential crisis in Season 2.

What is the point of all the world jumping and danger if they’re just characters on a TV show?

Why should they keep fixing the machine if none of it is real?

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It’s surprising that they jump to this conclusion so quickly, rather than considering that they could have landed in a world where they are part of a TV show, but I think it speaks to a larger part of the show.

The four haven’t had a chance to really slow down.

(Photograph by Colin Remas Brown/HBO Max)

Sometimes they wanted to stay in that world and enjoy life, but they had to make the responsible decision to keep going.

All they want is to feel like they’re getting somewhere, and the time to think about the whole mess while in the world of nothingness has been playing on their minds.

They’re lost.

In the sitcom, they were lost in thought, trying to figure out how they’d gotten into a room or how the food turned up.

Now, they’re lost about the mission they’re on. Has it all been for nothing?

Has all the danger they’ve found themselves in been some sort of trick? Is someone watching them and having fun?

(Photograph by Colin Remas Brown/HBO Max)

I’m somewhat reminded of the Dungeon Crawler Carl books, with the aliens-turning-Earth-into-a-TV-show setting.

There’s even an element of The Hunger Games, as the tributes are just entertainment for the Capitol.

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Eventually, people break, and Stuart Fails to Save the Universe has put a dark, human twist on a funny show.

This opens the door to a new adventure, but it also opens the door to the character development I’ve said Season 2 needs to succeed.

After initially wondering if this series really needed to be renewed, I’m now thankful it was, and I’m fully on board.

Now it’s your turn!
What did you think of the way Stuart Fails to Save the Universe ended? What are your theories about the “real world” setting they seem to be in? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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