I have been loudly and repeatedly beating the drum for Andy Daly’s Comedy Central show Review for months now, so I apologize to the extent that my increasingly forceful rants about it are getting old, but I also do not apologize because I love it dearly and I think it is great. What can I say? I’m a sucker for long, elaborate, strange sketches about misunderstandings and wordplay. (Please see Episode 7, below, at about the 15:30 minute mark. Shout out to Lisa Ching.) So, naturally, I had mixed feelings about last night’s finale: sad because it meant the first season was ending, and happy because sweet fancy Jesus, it was incredible.
Let me be clear here: I am not saying I thought the finale was incredible for a comedy show. I am saying the finale was incredible, period, full stop. One of my favorite parts about the show was the way it used Forrest’s home life to ground the crazy antics at the center of the show. Or, rather, the show-within-the-show, which Forrest was so committed to that he was willing to destroy every part of his life to see through: his marriage, his possessions, his digestive system (So. Many. Pancakes.), whatever. I won’t spoil the ending for you if you haven’t seen it (and you should see it, as soon as possible, preferably right now, even if you have to leave work), but paying all of that off in glorious fashion in the last five minutes of an episode that was really, really dark up until then was a stroke of genius.
I don’t know if Review will be back for a second season, or exactly where they’d be able to pick up after last night, but even if this is all we get, I’m fine with that. It was a perfect, little, self-contained 10-episode season of comedy. You can’t ask for much more than that. Besides more seasons. Which, for the record, I am definitely asking for. Lots of them. Again, I’d be okay without them, but, like, not that okay, you know? Review is a good show. That’s what I’m trying to say.
One final note in closing: Between Review, Broad City, and Nathan for You knocking it out of the park in their first seasons, and Key & Peele and Kroll Show hitting their stride and churning out weird, hilarious sketches at a breakneck pace, Comedy Central is on a real hot streak lately. It turns out — and this may surprise some of you, so buckle in tight — finding talented, funny people and giving them little half-hour playgrounds to turn their strange, beautiful visions into reality is a recipe for success. Who knew, right?
