1 of 5 | Tim Robinson stars in and co-created “The Chair Company,” premiering Sunday at 10 p.m. EDT on HBO. Photo courtesy of HBO
Tim Robinson’s unique brand of absurdity went viral with the release of his Netflix sketch show, I Think You Should Leave. His new project, The Chair Company, premiering Sunday at 10 p.m. EDT on HBO, successfully applies Robinson’s style to a weekly series.
Robinson plays Ron Trosper, an architect for a company that designs malls. After a successful presentation, Ron has an embarrassing accident HBO has asked critics not to spoil, though it is far more mundane than the secrecy suggests.
This incident plagues Ron as Robinson tends to excessively focus on the mundane, leading Ron to believe the chair manufacturer Tecca is behind a conspiracy.
Robinson’s movie Friendship showed how the tone of I Think You Should Leave can work in a narrative story. In The Chair Company, created by Robinson and Zach Kanin, it works in an extended eight-episode narrative.
To begin with, the situation is an utterly absurd mystery. Ron is obsessively seeking an explanation for a minor embarrassment. Even if a chair manufacturer was involved in a conspiracy, there’d be little heroism in exposing them.
And yet, Ron finds clues that generate leads. There is just enough legitimate intrigue to make the silly mystery of Tecca chairs addictive.
The most random tangents Ron pursues end up becoming pivotal, and seemingly unrelated situations end up paying off.
Even though Robinson plays one character throughout the show and follows a linear story, there are still brief situations with their own comic premises. A lunch cafe is unreasonably chaotic when Ron investigates it for a contact, and Ron’s schemes often escalate dangerously..
There is plenty of Robinson screaming excessively, as that seems to be the default for any of the actor’s characters when even mildly confronted about their nonsensical behavior.
Even domestic scenes with the Trosper family are outsized. Emotional beats are so extreme they play as comedy too. Ron talks with his future father-in-law about their daughters’ happiness and it is way more emotional than the sentiment warrants.
Ron does have some legitimate parenting moments with his kids. He has to discipline his son (Will Prince), while his daughter, Natalie (Sophia Lillis), genuinely worries about his distraction by the Tecca conspiracy.
Ron’s wife, Barb (Lake Bell), also grounds Ron’s obsession in real family drama. They are both working parents and Ron neglects some of his duties, but Barb errs on the side of empathizing rather than scolding him.
The Chair Company fills the void for absurdist comedy left by I Think You Should Leave. The new format even offers more absurd obsessions for fans along with the creator and lead character.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
