Just a few months removed from his triumphantly odd film Friendship with Paul Rudd, Tim Robinson strikes again, this time with an equally strange—and hilarious—series on HBO/HBO Max.
The Chair Company stars Robinson in a role that doesn’t require him to stretch all that much; he’s the same neurotic mess he was in Friendship. After a public mishap involving a chair, Robinson’s William Ronald Trosper (love that name) conducts a private investigation of a chair company, putting himself and his family in peril.
Four (of eight) episodes have been released as of this publication, and it’s clear that this is a great playground for Robinson to practice his now-patented brand of random, oddball, uncomfortable comedy, expertly modulated in a way that makes him ALWAYS FUNNY. I do suspect that Robinson will expand his range someday and try his hand at straight drama—and I have no doubt that he will succeed.
The supporting cast includes the ever-reliable Sophia Lillis as William’s concerned daughter, Lake Bell as his bewildered wife, Will Price as the oblivious son, and a hilarious Joseph Tudisco as William’s investigative assistant, who has a thing for listening to strange porn in his car.
There’s also Lou Diamond Phillips as William’s beignet-obsessed boss, and the great James Downey as a concerned, and maybe evil, co-worker.
I have no idea where this show is going, or its purpose on Earth other than to make me howl with confused laughter. Robinson was a one-season wonder as a performer on Saturday Night Live. Boy, could that show use his brand of comedy right now.
The year 2025 has been a lot of things, bad and good. It’s been a year when we got a great film and a great TV series from Robinson; we’ll go ahead and file that in the good category.