The series premiered on Netflix on October 7th, 2022. The first episode, "Raising Toasty", can be viewed on James' YouTube channel here
, while the second episode "Breaking and Entering" can be viewed on the Netflix After School YouTube channel here.
This series provides examples of:
- All for Nothing: By the end of a given episode. James, Max, and sometimes Echo's efforts are for naught... either because something James wanted came up moot. Or something silly would derail the end.
- Alien Blood: Fitting his laboratory origins, Max’s vital liquid is lime green and has an odd resemblance to jello.
- Ambiguously Human: James and his parents Louise and Patrick are designed the same way as James normally looks in the YouTube shorts, but the series doesn't specify if they're just weird-looking humans; or scientific experiments like the other non-human characters. It doesn't help that Louise works with the other scientists in town.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Toasty the toaster, brought to life by James and Max as part of an attempt to make the perfect toast. It has a suspicious resemblance to a certain other cartoon toaster. A small handful of background characters follow this too, like a volcano, implied to be due to the same scientific experimentation that Max and the other animals underwent.
- Animation Bump: Due to the show having a bigger budget than James' usual videos and hiring an entire studio to work on the show, the animation is more fluid and crisp. The characters even have fully animated mouths. Max also turns realistic when angry, surprised or scared.
- Artificial Animal People: Several characters in the show resemble Funny Animals, such as Max the crocodile and Mr. McFly the fly, but are actually laboratory experiments.
- Black Comedy: How does a scuba diver being electrocuted to death by Toasty in the first episode sound?
- Bland-Name Product: There's a chain sub sandwich shop called Sooub... sound familiar to long time fans?
- City of Adventure: Well City pushing it, but Dirt does have this due to all the mad scientists and their experiments living inside the town.
- The Determinator: The salesman from "Almost Home Alone" is extremely stubborn and refuses to take no for an answer, no matter how many times James tells him to get lost.
- When James puts his mind to a task, he's virtually unstoppable... no matter how ill-advised they might be at times.
- Disney Death: Toasty is subjected to this, dying after providing James with the perfect slice of toast only to come back to life at the end of the episode. His Declan alter-ego also dies right after promising he is going to "make perfect toast for the entire world".
- Drives Like Crazy: After James is turned into a smartphone, he gets Mr. McFly to drive him home as soon as possible. The result is that Mr. McFly drives recklessly through a construction zone. James doesn't break again because he was wearing a protective bubble wrap layer.
- Electrified Bathtub: This joke is done twice with Toasty. First, James announces that he’s going to give the newly-created Animate Inanimate Object a bath, and carries Toasty offscreen. The sound of an electrical discharge is heard, and he walks back with Toasty in tow, both smoking slightly, and announces that it didn’t work out. The second time, Toasty falls into a lake, and is soon surrounded by belly-up fish. And a scuba diver.
- Freudian Excuse: Parodied with Toasty the toaster, who turns evil after one single day of James and Max's "parenting".
- Furry Confusion: Played for dark comedy when James and Max thought they were murdering McFly relatives when in fact they were regular flies.
- Harmless Electrocution: James is subjected to this when he tries to give Toasty a bath (see Electrified Bathtub above).
- Here We Go Again!: After Declan's death, James and Max create a "smart waffle iron" named Waffley. Shortly after this, a girl named Harmony comes from the future and says a boy named James is about to destroy the entire world. Echo, who is listening to her, kicks her back through the time portal saying she hates spoilers.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Exaggerated Trope with Max, who was created in a lab and then subjected to all manner of horrid experiments by his Mad Scientist "parents".
- There’s also Toasty, who eventually turns evil because of James and Max's poor attempts at parenting.
- Somewhat downplayed with James. His mother doesn't express any concern when James screams in pain from being transformed into a smart phone. And when Echo briefly moves into his house, his father seems keen on adopting her to 'start over'.
- Idiotic Partner Confession: James dad has this when he revealed the 'Starting over with a new kid' thing right in front of James much to James Mom consternation.
- I Taste Delicious: Max thinks his blood tastes good when he starts bleeding out after being shot in the chest by Toasty.
- Keep It Foreign: In "Almost Home Alone", James has an elaborate anti-intruder system installed in his house by a persistent door-to-door salesman. When he tries to turn it on the salesman, he is informed that the language settings are set to French to prevent him from using it before payment, resulting in him speaking French to activate it. The French dub changes the language to English, and the Hindi dub changes it to Gujarati, likely due to that language being taught more in India as opposed to French.
- LEGO Genetics: Applies to most of Dirt's residence. But especially used in the Season 1 finale when the trio accidentally created living dino nuggets.
- Made of Iron: Max is able to survive bleeding out, and returns good as new for the next episode.
- Noodle Incident: Whatever exactly happened in the RV clubhouse in the intro of every episode that causes James and Max to flee from the ensuing explosion.
- Outside-Context Problem: In the fourth episode, 'Line Cutters'. James and friends learn that the ribs are being made by alien cicadas looking to fatten up Dirt's population to eat.
- Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: Or rather, a "Foodball Supreme" killed the "Dino-Nuggets".
- Pictorial Letter Substitution: The letter O in the show's title gets replaced by James' head. His crocodile friend Max wishes to be a letter in the intro.
- Projectile Toast: Toasty starts subjecting people to this after he turns evil.
- Shout-Out: Quite a few.
- Toasty resembles a certain other cartoon toaster.
- The episode Pillow Fight Club is a parody of Fight Club.
- The season 1 final has one for Jurassic Park, specifically the scene where Rexy roars as a banner flutters to the ground. And usage of the 'clever girl' line.
- The season 2 opening has James trying to diss a musical parodying Hamilton. He then attempts to make a fake musical based off of Benjamin Franklin to prove he's right and rip people off, only to make the musical a
So Bad, It's Good reality, much like in The Producers.
- Sliding Scale Of Silliness Vs Seriousness: Far on the silliness side. The series doesn't really take anything seriously and exists purely for surreal and goofy entertainment.
- Snake Oil Salesman: The salesman from "Almost Home Alone" peddles a home security product that ultimately makes him the owner of the house.
- Stereotypical Nerd: Toasty after being revived as Declan.
- Take That!: The episode 'The Show Mustn't Go On' is one towards historical musicals, such as Hamilton.
- Treehouse of Fun: Sort of. It's an RV that got trapped in the arms of a sentient cactus named Sagu.
- Unicorn: One of the recurring characters is an emo Unicorn girl named Maz Scare-ah.
- Vocal Dissonance: James and Max are supposed to be schoolkids, but their voice actors are adults that don't even try to sound like kids.
- Wham Episode: Season 1 ends with a reveal that Toasty is the cause of the Bad Future Echo is from. And is in the process of planning something for a bakery.
