By Robert Scucci
| Revealed 13 seconds in the past
As an avid stand-up comedy fan, I’m upset to say Tom Segura’s most up-to-date specials, 2020’s Ball Hog and 2023’s Sledgehammer, didn’t hit the identical as his earlier works, White Ladies With Cornrows, Fully Regular, Largely Tales, and Disgraceful. Having adopted his profession from the beginning, I, like many different Segura followers, echo the identical grievance: his large success has made his comedy really feel unrelatable, centered on life experiences outdoors our pay grade. Dissatisfied by these misses, I approached his new Netflix sketch comedy collection, Dangerous Ideas, with guarded enthusiasm, solely to be pleasantly stunned.
Channeling the identical awkward, uncomfortable vitality as Tim Robinson’s I Assume You Ought to Depart, Dangerous Ideas is refreshing as a result of Segura isn’t leaning on drained anecdotes from his standup act. As an alternative, he dives totally into absurdist darkish comedy with a manufacturing model that solely Netflix cash may give this format.
A breezy weekend binge, Dangerous Ideas runs about two hours in whole, and by the top, you’ll be glad to comprehend it’s already renewed for a second season.
Segura At His Most Unhinged
Dangerous Ideas wastes no time offending your sensibilities. Segura’s Agent Six character botches an assassination by by accident killing a lady and little one, soils himself from the stress, then runs round bare whereas attempting to speak his angered consumer off the ledge, unaware they’re watching the entire catastrophe unfold in actual time.
From this introductory skit that begins the collection, Dangerous Ideas solely continues to escalate. Every episode tackles mundane subjects like jobs, success, household, love, communication, and well being, with titles and skits that correspond to those themes.
The execution is something however mundane, as a rustic star serial killer (the place are the our bodies, Garth?!) exploits the working class for track materials, Steven Seagal sexually harasses his method by a movie set funded by Russian collusion, and a disgruntled IT man launches a multiple-episode revenge arc after a white-collar worker named Evan eats the final piece of cake at an workplace occasion.
Every sketch works as a standalone bit, however hints of continuity are peppered all through, slowly revealing that every part takes place in the identical twisted universe Segura has constructed for his humor to thrive.
For Followers Of I Assume You Ought to Depart
Although significantly extra deadpan than I Assume You Ought to Depart with Tim Robinson, Dangerous Ideas carries the identical uncomfortable vitality by its sketches. The place Robinson yells his method out of sticky conditions, Segura stares you down till you fold. Each reveals sit on totally different sides of the identical coin, leaving you with the identical sick feeling when the envelope will get pushed just a bit too far.
Thankfully, like Robinson’s present, simply when the stress turns into insufferable, there’s a cathartic launch because the bits repay, leaving you dumbfounded and barely much less okay than you have been earlier than you hit play.
Dangerous Ideas isn’t for everybody, nevertheless it’s a robust entry into the sketch comedy house that makes me hope Segura retains going. And who is aware of? Now that he’s confirmed himself within the writers’ room, perhaps his subsequent standup particular will profit from this detour.
Dangerous Ideas is a Netflix Unique and could be streamed with an lively subscription.
