The Chair Company: Season 1

15

I’m not normally a fan of cringe. Sure, I’ve seen plenty of it, but it makes me super uncomfortable. Tim Robinson excels at this type of comedy, and has continued in that vein with The Chair Company. His thing is not unlike the weird out-of-nowhere yelling, insulting anger act that Adam Sandler has employed over the years with his many goofball characters. Flying off the handle, screaming unhinged things at family and co-workers with absolute abandon with no apparent repercussions. Acting in a manner that might have people calling for the butterfly nets. But this is a hyper-real world where acting like a complete crazy person isn’t call for concern. Except when it is. And the way Ron (Robinson) is acting, someone should really be concerned.

To try to explain the plot of The Chair Company would be an exercise in absurdity. It would be like trying to explain Twin Peaks: The Return. There is an inciting incident, but from there it’s just television nonsense. In this case, Ron is given a new assignment as the lead project manager on a new mall project in Columbus, Ohio. During his first big meeting after being assigned the project, he gives a presentation and goes to sit down on a chair, which immediately collapses. In typical Sandler fashion, he completely overreacts and makes it his mission to prove that the chair was faulty and to get the company that made the chair, Tecca, to admit to their error. Or something like that. His embarrassment is constantly amplified by his unbalanced behavior and his deepening obsession with getting to the bottom of who he can make take responsibility for the faulty chair. Which also leads to a mystery that he pursues for the rest of the season. Despite some shadowy folks throwing up roadblocks to keep him at bay.

From there we get a series of unfolding comedy of errors and bizarre situations. Though there is an edge of horror under the comedy, as the soundtrack punches up the paranoia and we’re constantly trying to peer around blind corners. Because there is no rhyme or reason to anything that happens in this show. It’s the antithesis of what makes for a typical mystery series. Nothing makes sense, and pretty much everyone is either an idiot or completely insane in one way or another. It’s made clear that Ron has had his challenges in the past — at one point quitting his job to fulfill his ridiculous dream of running a Jeep adventure company in Ohio — and clearly having some sort of personal crisis afterward. But, despite his clearly unstable personality, he is sometimes the sanest person in an insane world. Because, as it turns out, his instinct that there is something nefarious about the chair company doesn’t turn out to be completely wrong. Maybe mostly wrong, but not completely. I think? In any case, we meet all sorts of wacky characters, really dumb things happen to Ron and generally everyone is either a jerk or a fool. Except Ron’s loving wife, Barb (Lake Bell), who seems way to good for him. Or this world. Even his two kids seem to adore the guy despite his volatility and delusional behavior. His adult daughter, in an attempt to bond with her father, even joins him in his fanciful investigation into the chair company.

I don’t have a ton of experience with Robinson, but know that this might be a six out of ten on his cringe scale. Ron’s entire person is one giant ball of cringe, but there are human moments with him, especially when dealing with his kids. And there are moments where his confusion is our confusion and we can actually see ourselves in him. But there is also Mike (Joseph Tudisco), who at one point is Ron’s nemesis, but turns into his co-investigator. He is an older lonely, porn-addicted dude who lives in a dirty apartment building where people scream constantly day and night — a repeating gag that is hysterical and then less hysterical and then horrifying and then sad — and spends his days listening to a radio shock jock team who are basically an x-rated Jerky Boys rip off. Who are neither funny, nor comprehensible to anyone except Mike, and we have to hear their completely embarassing act several terrible times. Mike has a good heart, but also a secret that is related to his heart that layers cringe on cringe. Ron is brought up on some bonkers harassment charges at work that reflect some of our worst snowflake work fears. And has a few co-workers who are just insufferable caricatures of caricatures that kind of put you in those awkward Curb situations where Ron is sort of a lunatic, but his lunacy, in regard to the stupidity surrounding him, is not completely unfounded.

Bizarre stuff happens. Incredibly creative, bizarre stuff. I paused the show several times and literally asked myself, “What the hell am I watching?” But was always compelled to press play to find out what was next. I shook my head and laughed. I shook my head to make sure what I was seeing was real. I explained to an alarmed Ms. Hipster that she was not on drugs and that what she was witnessing as she passed through the room was, in fact, a real program on HBO that I was not only watching, but enjoying. I think she thought that perhaps, like Ron, I was losing it. To this day I’m not sure I can admit to her how much I liked the series. For its weirdness. For its originality. For its completely off-the-wall approach to television making. I imagine this series will not appeal to a large swath of the general public. It has layers of irony and meta I can’t even begin to untangle. And there is a looseness to it that will drive your average mystery TV seeker crazy. As if they were building the maze as they were traversing it. But that’s what gave it its sense of discovery and surprise. Its complete sense of rudderlessness that ultimately worked to make it hang together. I honestly have no clue where they’re going to go with this in season two, but, by god, I will be there to cheer it on.