By Quinn Newland
Originally when Netflix started putting out original series, they were all serious dramas (like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black), but recently they’ve started trying to put our more comedic shows. It now feels like netflix has reached its comfort zone however, and what a good zone it is to be in. The two recently released straight comedy shows “Master of None” and “W/ Bob and David” are both laugh at loud funny, and better than most other comedies seen on any tv channel in the past 10 years.
Master of None tells tales from several days in the life of Indian New-Yorker Dev over the course of 10 episodes, as he struggles with things like having children, falling in love, confronting racism, and respecting his parents and the sacrifices they made for him. Created by, written by, directed by, and starring famed comedic actor and stand-up comedian Aziz Ansari, Master is truly hilarious all the way through. Not only that, but every single storyline feels realistic and extremely true-to-life, to the point where every single viewer will have at least several moments of deja-vu throughout. Hilarious moments and general poignancy are very hard to balance, often with one or the other feeling overly forced or contrived, but Master pulls it off deftly, often dealing a one two punch of having the audience laughing hysterically at a joke while also making them remember the very same thing happening to them.
“W/ Bob and David” is tonally and subject-wise very different from Master. “With” is a sketch comedy show that is actually a continuation of an old TV program from back in the late 1990’s called Mr. Show. It is once again created by, written by, and directed by its stars, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, who have since the cancellation of Mr. Show gone on to have very successful and award-filled careers. It sees its two main actors, as well as a handful of other principal actors and guests, doing a wide variety of sketches over an even wider variety of topics. The one consistency is they are all absolutely hilarious, and it being only a four episode season, you immediately crave more as soon as the credits roll on the last episode. Part of what makes it so incredibly addictive is the flow of each sketch into the next. Most of the times it’s an almost seamless transition, which is different than shows like Saturday Night Live that have a short intermission between sketches. It creates an entirely different type of experience than what modern audiences are used to with this type of show, and it feels absolutely refreshing.
It’s about time Netflix got into the TV comedy game. It is, after all, still a relatively untapped gold mine of originality and amazing content. Most networks are content to do various copies of things like Friends, Saturday Night Live, and South Park, and it seemed for a time that Netflix was too, but thankfully this no longer true. Master of Nothing is deliciously biting and funny show that rings so true to life, that you’ll have a hard time believing it’s not a documentary. W/ Bob and David is an entirely different beast though, as it manages to subvert expectations and deliver the most refreshingly new sketch comedy show since the cancellation of the original program almost 20 years ago. Netflix is continually raising the bar with each new program it releases, and I can’t wait to see what new height they take it to next.
