Last week, Amy Schumer became the first of several high-profile comics to debut a brand new comedy special exclusively on Netflix in 2017. More are soon to follow, though Schumer’s The Leather Special is currently facing a deluge of not-so-nice press thanks to a mixed bag of critical reviews and what appears to be an alt-right (i.e. “white nationalist”) group on Reddit. At least, that’s according to separate reporting by Decider and Splitsider after The Leather Special‘s incredibly low user ratings were first noticed on Netflix.
As of Tuesday, Decider determined Schumer’s special had an average rating of 1.35 stars — a figure they reached by combing through all 876 “Member Reviews” on Netflix’s website. (As of this writing, however, that number has jumped to 1330 total reviews by Netflix subscribers. The average rating also increased by a slight margin, though not by much.) Of the reviews surveyed, 33 were for five stars, 17 for four, 22 for three, 85 for two, 710 for one, and 9 for zero.
Decider rightfully noted many of the negative reviews could be ascribed to misogyny, especially since many of the user comments had more to say about Schumer’s physical appearance than the special itself. Splitsider, meanwhile, did some digging and discovered concerted efforts on the r/The_Donald Reddit forum to bury Leather Special‘s ratings average into the ground. “To those that still have Netflix,” wrote one user, “please go and 1 star that piece of shit.” So just as anti-Schumer Redditors did with her 2016 book, The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, they proceeded to tank the special’s ratings.
Netflix subscribers and Reddit notwithstanding, The Leather Special did divide many critics. The Los Angeles Times thought it was “mostly full of the unapologetic raunch that’s contributed to [Schumer’s] success,” but ultimately felt dirtier than it was funny. Vulture and The Daily Beast, meanwhile, praised the comic’s latest attempt to combine her more recent, politically volatile material with her previous raunchier work. In that sense, Schumer deserves plenty of recognition for what she accomplishes with The Leather Special — not that anything could justify a hateful, sexist campaign to destroy her favor with Netflix.
UPDATE: Schumer took to Instagram to address the initial and followup stories regarding The Leather Special‘s low user ratings on Netflix, and Splitsider‘s subsequent investigation. “I am embarrassed for the ‘journalists’ who report on trolls activities as if it’s news,” she wrote, adding her followers should instead read the Splitsider article about Reddit’s “organized trolls” and their efforts. “I want to thank them,” Schumer said of the trolls. “It makes me feel so powerful and dangerous and brave.”
(Via Splitsider and Decider)
