'The Chair Company’ Season 1 Recap: A Season to Cherish

Summary

The Prestige TV Podcast: ‘The Chair Company’ Season 1 Recap — A Season to Cherish
Hosts: Rob Mahoney & Jody Walker (The Ringer)
Release Date: December 3, 2025

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Overview:

This episode of The Prestige TV Podcast features Rob Mahoney and Jody Walker diving deep into the first season of HBO’s “The Chair Company”—a bizarre, darkly comedic, and propulsively weird new series from Tim Robinson. The hosts dissect the show’s tonal brilliance, narrative risks, ambiguous characters, and the confounding, hilarious chaos of the finale. With fond exasperation, they examine the show’s surprising warmth, its unique place in the TV landscape, and speculate on what might come next.

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Main Discussion Points and Insights

Initial Impressions: Love, Hate, and Whimsy

• [01:49] Jody Walker: “Rob, I love this show. I hate this show and I love this show. Like, I have so much fun watching it.”
  • Jody compares the viewing experience to “The Rehearsal”—less uncomfortable but still deeply intense.
  • The show is easier to watch than Robinson’s previous work yet more complex in its impact.
• [03:31] Rob Mahoney: Recognizes the show’s propulsive energy — “It is propulsive in a way that not that many things have been on TV this year...”
  • The balancing act of comedy and discomfort works surprisingly well.
  • Tim Robinson’s humor, while compared to “I Think You Should Leave,” operates here on a more dialed-back (yet still wild) level.

The Show’s Premise & Unique Flavor

• [06:18] Rob Mahoney: “If you are not familiar with the show at all...”
  • Recaps the wild premise: Suburban dad (Ron) uncovers an office chair conspiracy linked to a pharmaceutical company, filtered through small-town chaos.
• [06:32] Jody Walker: Adds detail on the scale of the conspiracy—“...major pharmaceutical company via a sort of small city government via a chair company...”

Highlighting the Finale: Absurdity at Its Peak

• [07:10–09:00] Listing “Finale Moments”:
  • Mike’s obsession with his organ donor’s daughter and the disturbing fallout.
  • The puppet masters behind Tekka (Stacy Crystals) are assassinated by a kid with a 3D-printed gun—storylines that go unresolved and unexplained.
  • HBO has picked up the show for a second season; wildness is expected to persist and escalate.
• [10:10] Rob Mahoney: On the show’s lack of answers—“this is not a show I go to for answers, necessarily. And so the idea that we are ending...on this incredible cliffhanger...I’m cool.”
• [10:33] Jody Walker: Points out ambiguous moments that hint at Amanda’s possible telekinetic powers—a new layer for season two.

Character Analysis: Depth and Oddity

• [11:15] Rob Mahoney: Lou Diamond Phillips' “goatee-twirling, villainous performance” as Ron’s boss.
• [15:16] Rob Mahoney & [15:49] Jody Walker: Comparing the show’s long-form sustainability and its improvement upon Robinson’s film “Friendship.”
  • The show succeeds at weaving Tim Robinson’s bizarre humor with a functioning serialized narrative.
• [18:30] Jody Walker: Big themes about “men and legacy”—how obsession with something bigger can rob you of little joys.
• [19:52] Rob Mahoney: Lake Bell’s “improbably hot wife” role as Ron’s foil, similar to her role in “Children’s Hospital,” expertly grounding the madness.

Worldbuilding: Supporting Characters and Lore

• [29:23] Jody Walker: Highlights favorite side characters like the janitor obsessed with his wheelbarrow, the woman who believes she has metal in her body, and “lore” around supporting cast.
• [31:32] On side characters: Some, when explored, become “too much”—the balance between comedy and the grotesque.

Humor, Cadence, and Technique

• [12:29] Jody Walker: Watched a rewatch of the season at 2x speed for schedule reasons—“I am not advising anyone to do this. This is not an artistic practice.”
• On why Tim Robinson’s jokes land: “He just says the weirdest thing you can imagine...It is true artistry to be able to make comedy like that.”

Themes and Commentary

• [25:01] Rob Mahoney: “...people are just like, making garbage. And as a consumer, you cannot find anyone to complain to about the garbage.”
  • The show is actually about the sense of powerlessness and absurdity in navigating flawed systems.
• [26:23] Jody Walker: Cites a New Yorker piece: “Where Fielder's efforts at expansion went deeper, Robinson has chosen to go wider...he imagines a world teeming with [weirdos].”

The Workplace as Arena for Absurdity

• [36:22] Jody Walker: On workplace comedy: “My favorite Tim Robinson comedy is all of the little ways that he lies when he is, like, caught in a situation. And that really...points to...this is not exactly a, like, workplace comedy, but it is a lot about work...and ambition.”

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Memorable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

1. On the Show’s Paradoxical Charm:

• Jody Walker [01:49]: “Rob, I love this show. I hate this show and I love this show.”
• Rob Mahoney [03:31]: “It is propulsive in a way that not that many things have been on TV this year.”

2. On the Finale’s Outlandish Stakes:

• Rob Mahoney [07:15]: “To me too. And I’m sure to many of the people involved in making it.”
• Jody Walker [08:06]: “Rob he had been looking at this chocolate Kong for a year and he just needed a reason to buy it.”

3. Distinct Weirdness—Why Does It Work?

• Rob Mahoney [22:06]: “That is where the show really goes off the rails in the best possible way: following all those weird instincts and recognitions...”
• Jody Walker [26:27]: “Has my therapist told me that I use data collection as a form of control? Yes, she has…”

4. Specific Comedy Beats

• Jody Walker [37:32]: “My favorite little lie that he tells is when he is, like, rooting around under the car... He says, ‘I dropped a freaking Hershey’s hug somewhere.’ ...‘I’m gonna need something sweet later. I packed spaghetti for lunch, I’m gonna need something sweet.’”
• Rob Mahoney [37:46]: “...just the hilarious, like, audio cue every time [the phone-in-a-water bottle] goes off...”

5. On Legacy and Ambition

• Jody Walker [18:30]: “Men are obsessed with legacy. And I do think that this TV show is...about how an obsession with something bigger robs you of all the good, small things.”

6. The Show’s Structure

• Rob Mahoney [32:58]: “...they have just chosen to shoot it and score it as if it's the Parallax View. But everyone is yelling all the time...”

7. On Side Characters & Lore

• Jody Walker [29:48]: “Are you the guy that’s been saying I’m not allowed to have a wheelbarrow in the office? ...It’s an inside wheelbarrow. I could understand if it was an outside wheelbarrow.”

8. Building Empathy Through Absurdity:

• Jody Walker [59:54]: “And she appreciated having Ron in that moment who, like, was a place of sympathy. And he says, like, your boss really shouldn't talk to you that way when he has been out there just leading his employees into car wrecks and then abandoning them and then gaslighting them about it.”

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Episode Structure & Key Segments

• [00:18]–[03:31]: Host intros, initial reactions, and the difficult-to-describe emotional experience of watching “The Chair Company.”
• [06:18]–[07:15]: Concise overview of the premise and warning about spoilers.
• [07:15]–[10:10]: Season finale recap and list of wild plot points.
• [10:10]–[12:29]: Show’s comfort with ambiguity, speculation on season two, Amanda’s “abilities.”
• [12:29]–[18:05]: Season rewatch anecdotes, Tim Robinson’s comedy style, and comparisons to other shows (“Veep”, “Industry”, “Rehearsal”).
• [18:05]–[20:55]: Deep dive into Ron's family dynamic and the show’s emotional center.
• [20:55]–[25:33]: How the show handles “reality,” narrative escalation, and social commentary.
• [29:23]–[32:17]: Favorite side characters and the world’s strange “lore.”
• [36:22]–[40:15]: Detailed breakdown of work/life themes and personal moments.
• [40:15]–[46:42]: Family relationships, supporting character arcs, and voice of empathy for even the weirdest roles.
• [53:58]–[55:41]: Mike’s performance and speculation about season two’s structure.
• [55:45]–[57:36]: What do fans actually want from the show? Cherishing its existence, despite (or because of) its chaos.
• [57:55]–[63:20]: Lightning round of favorite bits, steering wheel joke, and the show’s “off-the-rails” commitment.
• [63:20]–[End]: Plugs for related podcasts and shows, connections back to broader TV trends.

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Conclusion:

“The Chair Company” is described as a show that operates on the edge of chaos, balancing between razor-sharp satire and absurdist comedy. The hosts agree: it should not work, but it absolutely does, thanks to a deft blend of family warmth, bizarre details, propulsive plotting, and an unending parade of unforgettable side characters.

Jody [57:40]: “Once again, I love it and I hate it.”
Rob [63:02]: “...they didn’t land the plane in the finale because they basically, if not crashed it, like flew it into the Bermuda Triangle or something.”

Season two is picked up, and both Rob and Jody look forward to whatever unforeseen weirdness comes next.

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Additional Recommendations & Related Discussions

• Comparisons: “The Rehearsal”, “Veep”, “Industry”, “Righteous Gemstones”, “Friendship”, “Detroiters”, “Breaking Bad” (in structure)
• Binge Miss: Podcast plug for holiday movies with Jody and other Ringer personalities.
• Audience Call-Out: Listeners invited to email thoughts and season two wishes to the podcast team.

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A Season to Cherish Despite its unsettling humor and inscrutable plot turns, “The Chair Company” is celebrated by Rob and Jody as a weird, ambitious season well worth the ride—a show that teaches audiences to trust an artist, even (especially) when you can’t see the road ahead.

Transcript

[Jody Walker]

Foreign.

[Rob Mahoney]

Welcome to the Prestige TV podcast. I am Rob Mahoney and I come to your feet today with great news because we are going to be talking about the thrilling first season of the Chair Company and a truly strange season finale on top of it. And at the risk of violating my own personal NDA, I have brought in the perfect co host. The Wendy of Wendy's Carvers herself is Jody Walker. Jody, how are you?

[Jody Walker]

I'm actually going to have to end the podcast because you're not allowed to talk about that. You've broken my boundaries.

[Rob Mahoney]

Oh, I'm so sorry. Look, it was right there for the taking. How could I simply refuse it?

[Jody Walker]

And you know, you came in with a perfect joke. I meant to come in with some prop comedy. I was wearing, going to wear a green bracelet to say that I was down to mistakes, but I've actually worn a red shirt, which I guess means like, no mistakes.

[Rob Mahoney]

Honestly, safer. I think the green bracelet is the bigger HR infringement, as these things go. Like, Spotify HQ would not love a green bracelet coated podcast.

[Jody Walker]

No, I think that they would like for us to be open to mistakes in the style of yellow, but maybe not actually going into an environment hoping to make mistakes because we're kind of in a weird time in our lives right now. Uh, these look like headphones, but they're a bubble necklace.

[Rob Mahoney]

I'm glad that you're bringing the appropriate whimsy to this podcast because this is the show. Look, how else could you feel but whimsical and also kind of terrified? I feel like the tonal balance of the Chair Company is. Is quite something to behold. What, what has your experience been with the show and just kind of like the day to day, week to week experience of watching it.

[Jody Walker]

I truly, I was like, I'm getting on this pod to talk with Rob. I'm so excited. And I was like, what are you gonna say about how you feel about this show? And the only thing that I could think was like, Rob, I love this show. I hate this show and I love this show. Like, I have so much fun watching it. You know, I covered the rehearsal with Charles on Prestige tv and obviously I think we have to get into like some of the facts and figures of how these two shows relate and relate in getting a second season and relate in their auteurs and the genius that fuels them. But I find the Chair Company to be much easier to watch. It doesn't sort of the. It is not, to me as uncomfortable as the rehearsal. And obviously these are like totally different kinds of Comedy. I don't find it as uncomfortable, but I do dislike it more. But I also kind of love it. I love watching it more. Like, I don't. I used to fear watching the show Parenthood because I knew how much I would cry. I fear watching the rehearsal because I know how uncomfortable it will make me. I do not. I go into the chair company with, like, an open heart, a girded loin, just ready to, like, be intense. I think that I actually. Another show that I cover on Prestige, I sort of watch it like, industry, which is like, your Apple watch is gonna think you exercised after this. It is so intense. But I love it so much. And I also hate what Ron is doing to himself at all times. Most times.

[Rob Mahoney]

At most times, I hate what he's doing to himself. I hate what he's doing to everyone around him. And yet, like, it is propulsive in a way that not that many things have been on TV this year. Like, I felt really pulled into this world. And a show that, like, to be totally honest, for all the reasons you just described, should not work. Like, the balance of what they're trying to pull off of kind of like, if you want to compare it to the Tim Robinson verse, it is like, they go 30% as far as they would on, like. And I think you should leave sketch. You know, you don't get to the full completely insane conclusion of every little situational joke they bring up. But then the show is also over.

[Jody Walker]

I think the exclusion is episode five, which was really difficult for me in terms of, like, grotesquery. But agree.

[Rob Mahoney]

No, speak on it. What was it that grossed you out?

[Jody Walker]

Oh, every single part, probably when that guy kept putting his elbow in that soup and then punched him in the dent in his head. Then next to that probably is when Tim Robinson. And I'm just calling him that. Found himself in that room where a man was cheating on his wife and thought Tim Robinson had been sent there by his wife and said, the only way to settle this score is for you to cheat on your wife too, and me to film it. And then he made him kiss that woman.

[Rob Mahoney]

And they certainly did it. And they filmed it. See, for me, I was.

[Jody Walker]

And he said, yep, that's cheating. And then he hit. And then he hit. Stop record.

[Rob Mahoney]

I'm glad we had confirmation. You know, like, we only want to do one take for these things.

[Jody Walker]

And it was helpful for me to know what counts as cheat. Like, that's what gets. That's what gets you to cheating.

[Rob Mahoney]

I do find that this show overall has a really strict morality. You know, it's really trying to set us straight in these uncertain times and put us on the right path as a country, as a people. I appreciate that. About the Chair Company this episode is.

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[Rob Mahoney]

If you are not familiar with the show at all, this is a series from Tim Robinson as we've alluded to and hbo. It's about a suburban dad who is like attempting to unravel an office chair oriented conspiracy. Is that a fair description?

[Jody Walker]

Yeah, vast criminal conspiracy may be conducted by a major pharmaceutical company via a sort of small city government via a chair company as as simply put as.

[Rob Mahoney]

Such chair companies are want to do. As you might be able to tell, it is unlike anything you will see on TV this year. And for that reason alone I think you should go watch it. If you haven't, we are about to spoil basically the entire first season, especially the season finale. Jody, like just to make sure we're all on the same page, I would just like to list some things that happened in the Chair Company Season one finale.

[Jody Walker]

Oh, that would be great. It feels like a. It feels like a nightmare dream to me.

[Rob Mahoney]

To me too. And I'm sure to many of the people involved in making it. Starting with the fact that we learn a lot more about our friend Mike who became so obsessed with his organ donor that he first wanted to be a father to his organ donor's. Daughter and then also made a move on said daughter. We learned that because she was younger.

[Jody Walker]

I mean, she was actually even better because she's younger.

[Rob Mahoney]

You're absolutely right. I. Look, I shouldn't have skirted past that part. It's very.

[Jody Walker]

The age is important.

[Rob Mahoney]

It is an important part to me.

[Jody Walker]

Falling out of love with Mike, actually looking that in the face of what he did to that family is important for me. Letting loose my grip of how attached I had become to Mike.

[Rob Mahoney]

This show's ability to make Mike an incredibly sympathetic character for like, half its run should be studied. I don't know by what courses in what colleges, but, like, there's an educational value to this process.

[Jody Walker]

Rob he had been looking at this chocolate Kong for a year and he just needed a reason to buy it.

[Rob Mahoney]

It's so sweet until it's colored very.

[Jody Walker]

Darkly by that reason. Was the son of a man that he involved in a vast criminal conspiracy with and just wants to get inside his house like a vampire.

[Rob Mahoney]

All extremely normal stuff happening up and down this show. We did learn that the puppet masters behind Tekka are apparently this dude named Stacy Crystals who was assassinated by a kid with no explanation holding a 3D printed gun. And also good. Again, I have no explanation for any of this.

[Jody Walker]

Oh, no.

[Rob Mahoney]

Why did it have to be 3D printed? Couldn't tell you. Couldn't tell you what's happening with most of this show most of the time. And yet I am delighted consistently by all of it.

[Jody Walker]

Oh, same. I mean, you know, I. The news came out that the show had been picked up for a season two, along with the sort of Easter egg news that this is HBO's top freshman comedy in the platform history.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Jody Walker]

All at the same time, I think ahead of the penultimate episode. And it's like, surely with this ending and the initial reception, HBO and Tim Robinson maybe knew this was being picked up for a second season much earlier than we did. That could be part of the reason it ends that way. I think he'd also be perfectly happy for it to end that way and for everyone to be like, what? But it certainly colored the way I watched the last two episodes of like, sure. How do we extend this universe? Do we. And what do we extend? Do we extend the universe? Do we extend the mystery? Do we extend Tim Robinson's devolvement into it? And. Oh, I do not have an answer. To be very clear, I am presenting a series of questions because per the finale, I do not know. But I liked it.

[Rob Mahoney]

I did too. I liked it. I have to say, this is not a show I go to for answers, necessarily. And so the idea that we are ending a season one finale on this incredible cliffhanger, that I'm just gonna spell it out like, apparently this whole story might have been Amanda's psychosexual revenge fantasy. And also she might be telekinetic. To be continued. Hard stop for season one. Like, I'm cool.

[Jody Walker]

I remember when those paperclips moved, when that other woman in the office thought that she had metal inside her body. And we thought it was because of that, but maybe it was Amanda.

[Rob Mahoney]

You know what? I completely blocked that from my mind. I'm so glad you're here to illuminate, really, the pertinent details that could bust this whole case wide open.

[Jody Walker]

Jody, I think there's metal inside my body. What if I came into your office and was like, hey, could we move the podcast up? I have got to get to the doctor. I think there's metal inside my body.

[Rob Mahoney]

Like Ron. I don't know how I would respond to that.

[Jody Walker]

And I have to say, you, Rob, you would respond. I was going to. You would respond as sweetly as the Ron that we met in the story. You would not respond like the Ron that we left the story with.

[Rob Mahoney]

Well, again, can you blame him, given the lengths that Ron has gone through to try to uncover this conspiracy, only to find, at the end of the day, his boss is partly responsible. You know, Lou Diamond Phillips in this incredible, like, goatee, twirling, villainous performance by the end, combined with everything that's going on with Amanda and maybe her telekinetic powers, to say nothing of all of the completely insane shit that has happened in the interim. Who wouldn't be a man or woman on the brink by the end of all that?

[Jody Walker]

And. And to think that I believe original music is being brought into the mix and that maybe that's something that we'll be hearing next season is a lot more of Lou Diamond Phillips and that other guy. When Stacy Crystals. Stacey Crystals. When Stacey Crystals is like Sabrina. Think about Sabrina Carpenter. They're making these songs. What is anyone ever talking about? But, you know, I was doing a kind of a full rewatch of the. Of the season to.

[Rob Mahoney]

Well, let's clarify there, Jodi, because you were doing a full rewatch.

[Jody Walker]

You can expose me like this when I have metal in my body.

[Rob Mahoney]

Well, at two times speed. Which is a choice for any show, but for this show, I think is, like, clinically problematic.

[Jody Walker]

Oh, yeah. I think if you can see my pupils right now they don't look right. I knew going into it that it wasn't a good idea, but I simply had to do it for time's sake. You know, I've been watching live, and here we were about to talk about the whole season. I said, I want to see it as a package, but with the timing that I had, it kind of needed to be two times speed, one and a half if I was treating myself. And that was anxiety inducing. But it really worked because, like, what it pointed and I was like, am I gonna lose some of the humor? I am not advising anyone to do this. This is not an artistic practice. This is. I watched it at one time, then I watched it at two times later, and I wondered, like, what the joke cadence would be like, because these jokes are so strange. And I think that something that people love about Tim Robinson's comedy, I think something men really love about Tim Robinson's comedy and sometimes can't believe that women love it too, is that it is so weird and so strange that it feels like only you could be finding it funny. Like, when you receive. Feels like, who. What other freaks out there could think that him just saying this in this cadence, or him just saying. Or like a guy just being like, yeah, I saw some bugs I'd never seen before could be so funny? I. It is. It is true artistry to be able to make comedy like that. I know that I. I feel so confident I couldn't do it because I don't understand it. But, like, he. He understands, and his, you know, longtime writing partners understand in some way how to keep repeating this comedy. And what I was noticing on my super fast rewatch was it is in the way that I think people used to talk. How about how Veep is like, joke for joke, one of the most packed shows of all time, Just absolutely joke after joke after joke is like, that's what Tim Robinson does with weirdness. It is just weird after weird after weird. And, like, they are jokes. They're not technically jokes, actually. A lot of times they're just saying the weirdest thing you can imagine. And what I really noticed is, like. And for me, I think my favorite episodes are where those lines are just packed in. Like in the Pin ultimate episode, when he brings the dog baby home, it is one thing after another. It is. You know, a baby got into the rat poison, and I don't know if he bit the rat or if he bit the poison. And also, I pushed my boss. And so now I'm on leave. Like, just. It's Just it's so much that these 30 minute episodes in their normal one time speed watching live on HBO felt much longer.

[Rob Mahoney]

They actually do, they do feel longer. I think if you push past 30, you risk that assault feeling overwhelming. And to be honest with you, that was kind of my experience watching Tim Robinson's movie Friendship as well, which was like, it just kind of pushed past a point where I was like having fun and comfortable and on the edge of my seat and into just like I'm just like a little too put off by everything that's happening in all of these scenarios. And so somehow the Chair company, despite overall being longer, breaks it up and parcels it out in a way that like makes a long form version of this thing that should not be able to sustain long form.

[Jody Walker]

Totally. I do. I re. I liked Friendship. I didn't love it. I really think that the Chair company kind of course corrects what he was doing there. It's a different story. He's doing. He is doing a different thing. But in terms of being able to sustain Tim Robinson comedy with a narrative and a serialized structure, I think he like, he's really found the puzzle that fits together just right in the form of the Chair Company. I think, I guess we'll see about that Being a multi season show. I think in it being like what felt like a limited series show, the shorter episodes with the ultimately longer run gives a lot of moments for things to amp up way too crazy, like way out of control in what it can do in 30 minutes. And then it just gives you one or two moments of showing what he's like as a family man. And I think I really bought into that a lot more in the Chair Company than I did into Friendship. My editor was like, when, when the Chair company was coming out, he had watched some of it, he was like, hey, do you think that you would want to write about how Tim Robinson is always dating the. Or like married to these really hot, really cool, incredible women in these shows and like how unlikely that is. And I was like, kind of. But I feel like when we meet him in the Chair company, you see how she could have fallen in love with his whimsy and you see but also his secure, like his stableness a lot of the time. But then you also see how he goes down these paths and you see how his children love him. And I, I sort of marvel at like how the show could do that with just really little things like Seth putting the tiny hat on his backpack or loving the Pee Wee Herman dance or being able to talk to his dad about drinking. While we really know, like, very little about Seth, except that he did play basketball and now he wants to do stop motion animation. You know, we don't know that much about, like, the inner workings of these characters, but we know how they all relate to each other, and that really provides a lot.

[Rob Mahoney]

That little warmth goes a really long way. And you're right, like, having the family structure as kind of the anchor of the show and the thing that Ron is ostensibly like, fighting for amid his job travails and failed Jeep businesses and this big, like, conspiracy he's trying to uncover via spreadsheet. Look, we all have to have a dream, and I support him in chasing his. Clearly, that one was not the dream for Canton, Ohio, but you can't blame a guy for trying.

[Jody Walker]

Well, you know, something that I have been caught saying at a couple of ringer events with basically, like, no context is that men are obsessed with legacy. And I do think that this TV show is. Is a lot about how, like, an obsession with something bigger robs you of all the good, small things.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Jody Walker]

And attempting to strike the balance of feeling important and of feeling like you make your mark on the world while also actually making your mark on the world in the form of what is. What, like, what is almost the, like, you know, most automatic legacy to achieve a family. But we catch this man in the midst of. And I really loved those moments when we would sort of, like, dive back and find out how they. The family, got to that place and, like, how, you know, they both wanted to do something different, do something more important and that in that way, for Ron and Barb, like, it's not. There's not the gender divide. Barb also wants to do something bigger. Seems like she's handling it a little better, but like, that the way that they support each other in this mission, but that it has to be balanced and that this is not a balanced person.

[Rob Mahoney]

No. Very few characters in this story are balanced, but I would say the family is. And that we should like Lake Bell being the improbably hot wife in question in this case, who is just hilarious in these sorts of comedies. And this reminded me a lot of the sorts of roles she plays in Children's Hospital, specifically of being this, like, almost like a trampoline for Tim Robinson to launch him into orbit. Like, the more and more insane he gets, the more and more dry and unaffected she gets.

[Jody Walker]

Yes.

[Rob Mahoney]

I do think, though, over the course of the season, as we're straddling this, like, is this a Comedy. Is this a weird thriller sort of divide? The characters around Ron do start to respond to him as if this were an actual human being having some of these outbursts. Whereas in episode one were doing sketches almost. And by episode eight, it's like, dad, why are you being so weird? Like, just consistently he's getting that kind of feedback from basically everyone in his life in a way that, like, makes the show feel not real because it's still in a heightened space of some kind of reality, but it makes it feel more like of a world with itself.

[Jody Walker]

But also in episode eight, there's the bounce back to the bounce back, where suddenly everyone's kind of being like, wait, why are you stopping doing this? I think that maybe you're actually on to something and that all of your weirdness maybe amounts to something. And I think that that's. I. I just love how many times, especially in the premiere, he exclaims like, that's so weird. Don't you think that's weird? This is so weird. Because what they do with that character is that he is often capable of seeing when other people are strange, are behaving strangely, or when a situation is strange or a circumstance is strange, but he can't see when he is being strange. He kind of can. And also when he will sort of relate to someone who's being extremely weird, when his phone gets like, wiped and then re uploaded and all of the text from the shirt. The shirt. The shirt company.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Jody Walker]

Whole other conspiracy. That's what season two should be. When the shirt company tech start rolling in and he starts seeing the vast criminal conspiracy at the shirt company and it triggers for him, they're replacing the parts and he recognizes that guy as being insane, but he also recognizes himself in that guy. And what can you do with recognition except follow it?

[Rob Mahoney]

And I think that's where the show really goes off the rails in the best possible way, is following all of those weird instincts and recognitions and frankly, like, structuring the show. So it is what could be a throwaway joke in any other program. Something like the Lou Diamond. We don't know it's Lou Diamond Phillips yet. But like the hold music that he has to listen to for five hours and we have to listen to for like three scenes. It honestly is quite catchy. Becoming a critical plot point. Like, that is the kind of economy.

[Jody Walker]

It was like as soon as he walked in that office, I was like, that's why Lou Diamond Phillips said that super weird thing to him about the wall. And it actually, in that way does it does work well as a mystery, like, as a mystery that you're following, because any one of these weird things that anyone said that woman having metal in her body could come back up. It might come back up in season two. Amanda might have put it there. Like, it could. It could be anything. And I'd buy it. I think I would, like, totally respect the criticism that the finale kind of flew off the ramp finally in terms of absurdity, but I think that I really just buy into that absurdity. And I think that what reminds me most about season one of the rehearsal for season one of the Chair Company is how it really just made me, like, trust this artist in terms of, like, where he's leading me and how he can complete a story and also leave it open to build on. I think, like, with Nathan Fielder, I never could have imagined what he was going to do with season two of the rehearsal. And my hope is also actually, like, that I can't imagine what Tom, like, what Tim Robinson is going to do with season two and that it kind of won't be the things that I don't want it to be. That it will actually be something that, like, I just couldn't imagine.

[Rob Mahoney]

You could never dream it. And I do think that the show and the rehearsal do have that in common. I do think as a broader, like, HBO comedy lineup, I would also put like, the righteous gemstones in that group as well as far as a show that went to really unexpected places. And also, again, I don't want to like, over prescribe a comedy in which, as you alluded to, a guy dunks his elbow repeatedly into a bowl of soup as being, like, pregnant with meaning. But this is a show that is kind of about some stuff. And, like, some of that stuff is.

[Jody Walker]

Like, speak on it.

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean, undercut, like trying to undercover a vast criminal conspiracy to deal with your feelings of inadequacy at work, for one. Or like, even as, as Ron, like, puts it, like, kind of lays this out, like, on the nose, this idea that people are just like, making garbage. And as a consumer, you cannot find anyone to complain to about the garbage. Like, it is grabbing something that's like a very real human feeling in 2025 and taking it to ridiculous places. But, like, I think there is actual commentary here. It's just kind of buried in all the soup.

[Jody Walker]

I agree. I think I read a really, a really great, like, piece in the New Yorker that I. I really liked by Molly Fisher that's called Tim Robinson Finds Humanity and Test it in the Chair company. And she sort of posited that, like where, she said. Where Fielder's efforts at expansion went deeper, Robinson has chosen to go wider. Rather than plumbing the internal lives of his trademark weirdos, he imagines a world teeming with them. And I think that's absolutely true. But I also think there's depth to wideness and like, what width allows you to do is to kind of place yourself within a wider world. And he really has painted this incredibly wide world, I mean, right down to like that moment. And I think the finale when he taps his phone onto the computer and it puts the pictures in, it's so.

[Rob Mahoney]

Fucking funny and I can't tell you why I could not begin to.

[Jody Walker]

And it's. And it's like, well, that's not real. It's not exactly the world that I know, but it's close. And these characters aren't exactly the people I know, but they're close. They're just stranger and widely drawn. But if I zeroed in, I'd see something and yes, like relating to spinning. I mean, listen, has my therapist told me that I use data collection as a form of control? Yes, she has. And I do think that in this, in this situation, Ron is attempting to use data collection to gain a sense of control in his life that he does not otherwise feel. And that's not like explained or drawn out on the page. It's just kind of evident in his wild actions. Absolutely wild. Oh, what fun. Holiday invites are arriving and Nordstrom has your party fits covered. You'll find head to toe looks for every occasion, including styles under 100, dresses, sets, heels and accessories from Bardot, Princess Polly, Dolce Vita, Naked wardrobe coach and more. Free styling help. Free shipping and quick order pickup make it easy in stores or online. It's time to go shopping at Nordstrom.

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[Rob Mahoney]

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[Rob Mahoney]

But as you laid out, not only are his actions wild, but in kind of creating this broad universe of across the board insanity. I mean, one of my favorite things about the show, Jodi, and we talked about this some, is just like all of the random side characters who are popping up for sometimes one scene, sometimes one minute. And it's just like there is an indelible thing about this person. Like you came off the top with the woman who thinks she has metal in her body. I would up you with like the guy who brought the Ziploc full of pepper patty balls to the dinner party.

[Jody Walker]

You don't need to worry about him. It doesn't matter if he doesn't like the dinner because he's set. So don't worry. You came prepared.

[Rob Mahoney]

But who else stuck with you? Who else jumped off the screen to you?

[Jody Walker]

I mean, my first thought of like, favorite side characters. And of course, I would also love to elaborate on favorite, more like supporting characters. But in terms of like one to two appearances, I was so absolutely obsessed with that janitor in the very first episode who is obsessed with his wheelbarrow. And. And who.

[Rob Mahoney]

The indoor wheelbarrow.

[Jody Walker]

Well, the. In the indoor wheelbarrow. And allegedly he feels very protective of his wheelbarrow. And he says, are you the guy that's been saying, I'm not allowed to have a wheelbarrow in the office? Why would anybody care? It never goes outside. It's an inside wheelbarrow. I could understand if it was an outside wheelbarrow. And I loved him because that is just like objectively hilarious. But also because in that. That's one of those moments where you see Ron observing his own behavior. Like, that man is a mirror in the same workplace. It's kind of an upstairs, downstairs situation. Acting exactly as erratic, but kind of logical. Like there's a logic to his argument and the thread that he's pulling it is erratic. And also he does take the wheelbarrow outside. And he does.

[Rob Mahoney]

Ultimately, he was right. Ultimately it was suspicious, I think not to be the guy on a podcast explaining like, this is why comedy works. But this is kind of also what we're trying to do here. Aside from just Chris Farley showing, wasn't it funny when this happened? I think a lot of the jokes we're Describing. And the bits that really just stick with you from a show like this are the ones that kind of scratch our itch to have lore. And so it's like when you hear something like the indoor outdoor wheelbarrow, it's like, this guy has a whole history of wheelbarrow paranoia. When you see the woman who's been, like, taking stock photos at the life of the party class, and she's been told she can't get past level five because she's too dumb, like, I just want to know her whole story. Every. Every character who appears in this show has that effect on you. And it's sometimes like, they'll just scream so much they kind of knock the memory out for five seconds so that they can move on. But ultimately, like, that is a. That's quite a magic trick to have that many kind of, I say, well conceived, but just insanely conceived supporting characters.

[Jody Walker]

Totally. And then sometimes, like, when you find out their lore, you're like, oh, no, thanks. Actually, it was too much. You know, when you. The. The guy who runs out of the way. What is the class called where she can't get to level five as the.

[Rob Mahoney]

Life of the party.

[Jody Walker]

The life of the party class. And the guy runs out. And ultimately he is actually connected, and he is, like the nephew of the assistant director. And you find out that the lines on his arm, they really do mean something. They do represent all of the women that he's had sex with, and the black one is the woman he married, and that's his life structure. And that's why he designed those websites like that. It's like, oh, no, thanks. You can keep that. I didn't. I didn't like hearing that at all.

[Rob Mahoney]

Whereas maybe I'm good wanting to know that Mike doesn't want to turn out to be Ebenezer Scrooge. You and I have been talking a lot about Scrooge lately for reasons that are beyond my comprehension.

[Jody Walker]

I could not believe that we were coming here today to talk about another Christmas Carol allegory. Tune in to binge miss on the ringer dish feed to hear Rob and I talking about a little Hallmark film called Christmas above the Clouds, where the main character's name is Ella Neezer. And yes, it is a direct take on the Christmas Carol, Also a work.

[Rob Mahoney]

Of brilliance, and I would say, by comparison, much more chaste than the portrayals of Ebenezer Scrooge. We get in the chair.

[Jody Walker]

So really about men being obsessed with legacy, but go on.

[Rob Mahoney]

You know, it all ties into itself, but, yeah, I think you're so right that there are certain guardrails with some of these characters that are urging us to move on and kind of nudging you back towards the plot. And ultimately, I think what keeps this thing on the rails and kind of turns what could be a sketch show or just like all of these bits into something resembling a plot is they have just chosen to shoot it and score it as if it's the Parallax View. But everyone is yelling all the time. And as we were talking about kind of the way that nothing is spared in this show, it kind of is like the Breaking Bad of comedies in a certain sense. Like, there is no crumb left on the table. Everything is kind of coming back telekinetically or not. I'm just. I remain incredibly impressed with the structural obsessions of what it is that's going on in the show and why I can't begin to wrap my head around it.

[Jody Walker]

Yeah, I think that's why I keep going back to, like, that the biggest, best thing season one has done is teach me to trust it, because I don't totally understand how this is like a functioning ecosystem. I don't totally understand how they're making it work. And there were low points for me in the season. Like, I did really find episode five very difficult. When I knew that I was going to be rewatching it at two times speed. I was also thinking, oh, no, thank you so much. But I did, and I noticed some things I missed, so I was glad that I did.

[Rob Mahoney]

You're a professional.

[Jody Walker]

I'm a professional. I'm gonna. I'm gonna watch it all, you know, two and a half times. I. I think that, like, there. There were some times maybe where it didn't work for me perfectly, but maybe, like, there are some people where, like, episode five is their favorite style of Tim Robinson comedy. I told you this offline. Like, my favorite thing to track throughout the season and like, my favorite Tim Robinson comedy is all of the little ways that he lies when he is, like, caught in a situation. And that really, I think it's almost always at work. And I do think that points to. For me, this is not exactly a, like, workplace comedy, but it is a lot about work, and a lot of Tim Robinson's comedy is a lot about work. Like, I really loved the Detroiters. It is. It is designed in a different way, is much more episodic than serialized, but that is like another. Another show about ambition and. And real talent at times. I mean, I think I like, I love that we meet Ron absolutely knocking it out of the park. Like when he gets up before the inciting event, when he gets up on that stage and he gives his speech, does he repeat certain words, like 17 times? Yeah, but he's not a professional speech giver. And it's really rousing and it's really good. And these people at work trust him like the people at home do. And he's a really capable person who is maybe capable of greatness, but what if the greatness he's capable of doesn't bring something better to his life? What if the like, regularness that he's capable of is what actually brings something to their life? Like not all people, a lot of people are probably capable of greatness, but they're not capable of managing it. And so I really.

[Rob Mahoney]

Jody, that's fucking deep. I got.

[Jody Walker]

And as I said it, I was like, where do I fall on the scale? Oh, no. Something to think about.

[Rob Mahoney]

No, you are both great and managing it beautifully. I can attest to the. That.

[Jody Walker]

Thank you. Thank you. I mean, I do have a podcast about Hallmark movies, so I think, you know, we're the greater. So I love the workplace stuff, the strangeness that it brings. I love the show's commitment to basically everyone else at work being happy. Like everyone is sometimes, like, he will walk into an office and everyone is just laughing. It is. They. They're not expl. They are exploiting the weirdness of other characters, but not exactly the discontent of other characters. And that literally makes for a really fun time when there are kind of these like one dimensional weird people and this two dimensional weird person. And what that leads to is, as I was saying, like my favorite part, my favorite thing that he does is tell these insane, unbelievable, or insanely minute lies to cover up the weird things that he's doing. Do you have a favorite one of these?

[Rob Mahoney]

Mine is more a big lingering one. And I don't even know if it's a lie so much as just something he hid but did not need to hide. Which is when he finally does get this burner phone to communicate with Mike and he puts it in a water bottle for absolutely no reason.

[Jody Walker]

Noisiest water bottle in the world.

[Rob Mahoney]

It just, I mean, it creates the whole like, just the hilarious, like, audio cue every time it goes off that then sets every scene and it's involved in. Into overdrive. But it's just like there are things like that that are happening for no conceivable explanation other than it. It aids the bit. It makes everyone in the scene More on edge. It forces him to, like, try to get in and out of conversations where, as a boss, like, he should be listening to the fact that the people around him are having a tough day or are working through this or that, or maybe he abandoned them to get into a car accident. And yet he's just got to take that call because this is what drives him.

[Jody Walker]

It's so incredibly specific, the humor. My favorite little. I have so many. But my favorite little lie that he tells is when he is, like rooting around under the car, I think, to find the pipe that Mike hit him with and someone asks him, like, ron, what are you doing? He says, I dropped a freaking Hershey's hug somewhere. He's like, do they even make Hershey's hugs anymore? And then he goes on this whole elaborate thing of like, and I'm gonna need something sweet later. Like, I. I packed spaghetti for lunch. I'm gonna need something swee to find this Hershey zug that is a Beautiful mind that could be used in many beautiful ways. And the question is, is he using it in the right ways? When the weird HR guy who keeps hanging around the office later catches him in his new office before he's outfitted it with like Persian rugs and gorgeous, you know, mid century modern, like, record cabinets, he catches him in there with a, with a full chair on his lap and a screwdriver upside down on his lap. And he says, what are you doing? And he says, he says, just calling my mom, relaxing. Both of those things simultaneously. Just calling my mom, relaxing with this chair in my lap. I just love him.

[Rob Mahoney]

It. It's truly an unhinged show for. In exactly that kind of way and that they're able to replicate it and replicate it. And I agree with you, there's ways in which your mileage may vary. There's gonna be things that are like a little too weird or not quite your brand of humor. But that office stuff, I think is so comfortable. I think the stuff at home is just like a nice place the show can return to as we address. And if anything, I will say that's the moment I knew this show had me is when Ron is having a heart to heart with his daughter Natalie, and she grabs his phone for a second and seems to be typing into it. And I honestly reacted to, oh, no. Natalie is in on it with Tekka.

[Jody Walker]

Oh, no.

[Rob Mahoney]

What is wrong with what? What is wrong with my brain that this show has convinced me that a shadow chair corporation is guilty of a level of conspiracy?

[Jody Walker]

All these other Infiltrate this man's family. Watch.

[Rob Mahoney]

Honestly, you know, tough but fair.

[Jody Walker]

It's like there were a lot of moles in task. I actually do not begrudge you thinking Natalie might be in on it.

[Rob Mahoney]

There were so many moles, but ultimately it was just the well meaning concern of a daughter who's seeing her dad go off the deep end investigating something that like, yeah, maybe a little corrupt, but ultimately is not corrupt in quite the way he envisioned.

[Jody Walker]

But then, Rob, correct me if I'm wrong, I did get a little lost in the Natalie stuff. She's ultimately, she is worried about him, but then she gets pretty into it in a. She does get into a real way and doesn't want him to stop.

[Rob Mahoney]

I think she eventually comes around to the idea that he's making some good points, whether it's about pharmaceutical drug smuggling or not. But it's also like this is one of the constant themes of this show is like what do Ron and his kids kind of have in common? What do they share? What are they doing? And it's like, you know, it's a daddy daughter project. Ultimately it's a heartwarming thing where he's just leaving his son to flounder around feeling for his artistic dreams with an alcohol addiction, like being fully supported and.

[Jody Walker]

Is middle aged man in the basement.

[Rob Mahoney]

That's what I'm saying. If you, if you as a father don't support your son and his stop motion animation, a surrogate father will, you know, another middle aged man will stumble into your home and into your fridge and do that for you.

[Jody Walker]

Where does Tara, the maybe to be daughter in law father fall in terms of side characters? Because I would say I also had some like least favorite side characters which again are like in the grotesque, Gary, are sort of difficult for me. Like Steven, the guy who is like a big part of like episode four and five where things really start to get unhinged. He was the guy who did work at Teca and was working in the nude. He was kind of, forgive me if I'm wrong, it's.

[Rob Mahoney]

It's his mom in the hoarder house that is screaming for popcorn.

[Jody Walker]

That's right.

[Rob Mahoney]

And that was, that was my red line.

[Jody Walker]

Yeah, I didn't like that.

[Rob Mahoney]

Could not deal.

[Jody Walker]

I didn't like that at all. That was like a little too. I did like every time though that Ron would walk into like a very disgusting house and be like, oh, oh, it's so dirty in here. Except like he did it in that, in that, in that house. But when he walked in to Mike's house, he was clearly kind of appalled, but like, he can ignore it there because Mike is briefly his family. And when Mike goes over to the sink and he's like, ah, there's barf in here. And then goes in the refrigerator to. It's just, it's so much. But yeah, like, didn't love. I think like, those characters are a little harder for me. But Tara, who is an unlikable character.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Jody Walker]

Oh, man, she just cracked me up. And like, that's like so strange, so weird. Who is that actor? Grease writer. It's just so, so funny in that role of having like these really specific, these really specific things that she bears down on and like, that she knew she wasn't going to be able to get her leg on yellow and twister because she knew her knee would give out and they made her do it anyway. And then even like that, her dad is kind of the specific brand of awful too. He keeps like testing all the stones, being like, this one's loose. This one's loose too. Also loose. And Ron's like, stop testing the stones.

[Rob Mahoney]

He's dissing their dead dog repeatedly for not being well behaved.

[Jody Walker]

She's like, well, if you didn't know him, not great.

[Rob Mahoney]

You can absolutely see where Tara gets it. I think the line that Tara had about how she's essentially eating alive pickles that are giving her incredibly vivid dreams, I could just run back on loop, I think. And she's so important because she is a character who even all of our other insane characters are sort of rolling their eyes at and they're all saying, God, Tara's the worst, isn't she? Because of all of these things. And they are right. And that endears us to these insane ohs so much and yet ultimately, like.

[Jody Walker]

Know about Tara that she seems incredibly content and happy with her job.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Jody Walker]

As a food photographer for Wendy's, I.

[Rob Mahoney]

Believe A very rom com ass job if I have ever heard one. I would love to see more food photographers in movies. I think too many podcasters in movies right now. Too many influencers. Let's get some food photographers in the mix, please, please.

[Jody Walker]

And like when I was younger, like when I was a teenager, we were all like, I want to be like the person who names Opi nail polish because they all have these like very punny names. And that's also one where you're like, I want to be the person who like photographs, you know, fast food, food. Like, what a, what a strange job to have. And I'm sure little Rob Mahoney was like, I want to be a podcaster. I bet you knew about it even back then.

[Rob Mahoney]

I was ahead of the game. I was just talking into a, you know, a hairbrush in my bathroom, just being like, here are my NBA takes. Let me tell you about Wilson Chandler.

[Jody Walker]

I love imagining it. But, yeah, like, we know that she is weird, but she is passionate. And what we also know is that that old man in the basement who becomes friends with Seth is her friend who is teaching Seth his new passion, stop motion animation.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Jody Walker]

There's like this very, like, light undercurrent of. And I mean, this is another thing that I talk about as someone, you know, like, who. And I assume you're the same. I work in my passion. Like, I love writing. That's something I would do anyways. And I happen to have turned it into a job. And not everyone can do that or should do that. And it's not exactly, like, necessarily great to do. It also means that, like, I don't have an outside passion. You know, all. It's all right here, baby. And there is some part of this show that is about that, like, can you balance living in a capitalist society with having a passion? Can you combine them? Can you balance them? What can you do to be happy?

[Rob Mahoney]

What I'm hearing is, is a man allowed to have a hobby? You know, like, he's, he's just trying to blow off some steam after work, breaking into various factories and offices. Like, is that so wrong?

[Jody Walker]

And a man is allowed to have a hobby, and that hobby is Reddit. And I think that he could find a real true crime community on there if he just stopped trying to do this all by himself.

[Rob Mahoney]

He really could, honestly, if he just translated. There's one scene where Ron, rather than screaming repeatedly, is just typing fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck into his computer. If he just did that on Reddit instead, instead, I suspect he would get some very well meaning DMs being like, dude, are you okay?

[Jody Walker]

You know, yeah. And like, I don't want to direct him to Reddit. I think there's a lot of darkness he could find there, but maybe he could find a community that's like, yeah, bud, let's knock this out. And they get to the bottom of it. And either there is something there or there isn't. But he doesn't have to feel so isolated and he doesn't have to get wrapped up with Mike, who, I'm still holding out hope. Could be okay. Except for that whole try to kiss his heart daughter thing.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, what is it that makes you think he could be okay?

[Jody Walker]

I just. It was really sweet how he gave Seth the Kong and how he wanted to. Oh, man. But so many of the things I thought were endearing are really recolored by that reveal. Because there's a moment where we see Ron observing a save the date that's still on his refrigerator. And what I now know is that was the save the date for. And it was kind of like, oh, this man's been invited to, like, what, one wedding? And it really means something to him. His desire for relating to other humans, his desire for companionship is very endearing and is very compelling. It seems that he is not capable of going about getting those things or showing interest in those things in a healthy way. I. I don't feel great admitting this, but I started to find it very endearing, um, the way he was always so enraptured by women's beauty. There were, like, several different moments where, like, when he saw all the headshots.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Jody Walker]

Where he was like, oh, she's gorgeous. She couldn't be a part of this. She's gorgeous. And then when they start seeing all the, like, photos in the games, he's like, ron, you gotta look at these girls. They're gorgeous. And I just. I thought that, like, his blanket, like, finding of beauty was kind of lovely. And now I feel differently about that.

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean, is he still an ally? Question mark? You know, I don't know.

[Jody Walker]

Have you ever watched a version of the Christmas Carol that wasn't the porn?

[Rob Mahoney]

I really hope so. I really hope that's now where he's getting his, like, Dickensian information about the story structure there. But maybe. Maybe there's more going on in the porn parody than we've been led to believe.

[Jody Walker]

Oh, you know, he mostly. He mostly just listens, but that one.

[Rob Mahoney]

He watched, he mostly does just listen. But yes, I think ultimately that juggle and balancing act of, like, Mike is the guy who chases Ron down in a parking lot and beats him in the head with a pipe. And then we come to really feel for that guy and bond with that character, and then you are forced to reconsider everything he's ever said and every detail and every story. He had that story about how his ex wife had been, like, feeding him sexual stamina pills that made him smell like a duck. And I'm like.

[Jody Walker]

And then she'd get mad at him for smelling like a duck, and he'd say, it's the pills.

[Rob Mahoney]

It was the pills. Was any of that true? Was Anything Mike ever told us ever true. I just feel so betrayed.

[Jody Walker]

I think it's his version of true, Rob. I also think that, like, legally doing this chair company podcast, if we don't talk about. In terms of our favorite random side characters.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Jody Walker]

The man at the shirt store who keeps saying. Because it made me think of it chasing down. I mean, I can't believe, like, that happened in the first episode. So chasing him down with the pole. So then Ron gets his shirt. Because any good conman knows if a guy's coming for you and you're wearing a short sleeve button down, you unbutton that shirt, he's gonna grab the shirt. He can't get you. When he takes. When he backtrack, puts the pictures into his phone with the tap, backtracks the pictures, finds out where that shirt was bought, arrives at the shirt store. I have, like, never seen a more immediately compelling performance than that man at the shirt store who's like, oh, yeah, he's at his limit. I know a guy who's at his limit. I was like, where did they find this alien? Like, if I just looked at those lines on a page, they would be so normal. And these absolute strangeness. I was the week that episode came out, I was quoting that all weekend long. Oh, yeah, he's at his limit. Look at these buttons. You see these buttons? He puts it over. The ball was dead.

[Rob Mahoney]

I don't know how they turn these people up for all of these shows, for everything Tim Robinson does. And this is sort of the parallel, right? If the friendship version of the dynamic is like, Paul Rudd is the normal guy, and then Tim Robinson is coming in as just like something very of a different universe. If you make Tim Robinson the normal guy, anyone by comparison has to be just completely off the deep end. Bizarre in their delivery, in their acting, in their makeup styling. Like the guy who turned out to be Amanda's boyfriend, who was de masked at the end. I don't know what they did with his makeup, but it was truly terrifying.

[Jody Walker]

And that's one of those things where it's like, we have done this physical beat and it will not be explained. Maybe no explanation. He was going to take off a stage second mask, but he's just Amanda's boyfriend. And he seems to have gone to Dr. Miami and had a few tweaks. He had that Canton, Ohio, Dr. Miami experience. Dr. Ohio. Dr. Canton, yes. I mean, his assistant, who is just so like and so delightful and so pleasant and he just hates her Glo Tavarez. Like, just so funny. And when she says like, I went to a new church this morning and I want you to come with me every, like the, the lines get colored in so quickly. It is a really, it's an efficient use of time and energy. And again the mind goes back to like, how do you do a long distance run with a series of. So I don't know. And I'm like, do I want completely new strange side characters? I don't know if the lady with metal in her body, I don't know if I need to find out more about. I do need more Douglas, I'll, I'll tell you.

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean, he just wants to have a good time. Like, he just wants to have the mistakes party. He wants to dress like a chicken sometimes. Like he seems to be supportive of mostly everyone around him.

[Jody Walker]

He wants you to know that even though he wasn't able to choose the. He got out of the freezer when he was trapped under the refrigerator. Which is clearly sort of a stressor point. Like the way that Douglas victimizes himself I find so fascinating. Like he actually is a victim from having been trapped under a refrigerator. But the thing he finds most offensive is that he couldn't choose his food. But. But he does.

[Rob Mahoney]

You're telling me that wouldn't be horrible, that would be awful if you didn't get to choose your food out of the freezer.

[Jody Walker]

I think it would be awful to be taken. Trapped under the refrigerator, but I don't know. And then he becomes so obsessed with like Ada compliance, which, you know, well, he should be. But his. That was a, that was like a perfect example of using a perfect strange character. Like just the right amount.

[Rob Mahoney]

Oh yeah. And in, in that kind of modulation. I do understand how you can fill out the Office with enough of these performers who just give it a very distinct look and feel. I think Joseph Tudisko, who plays Mike, I mean it's basically like a two hander of a season. Ultimately it's a buddy cop dynamic that they've created and I say stumbled into. But this show is so deliberate. That performance to me is on another level. That you can get that much screen time and usage and laughs and terror out of an actor that people have probably never seen before outside of like being a random bus driver or delivery man on Blue Bloods.

[Jody Walker]

Yeah, I saw someone note this on Twitter. Like it's not my original observation, but when you look at his IMDb page, it is like cleaner, delivery man, bus driver, taxi driver. And those are all, I'm sure. I bet you anything that he brought a lot of color to those small roles, too, because he jumps off the screen. But like, to get to watch him in this extended format in this. And I wonder what his, you know, what character background work he did, if he believes this man to ultimately be capable of goodness or if he does see him as a madman.

[Rob Mahoney]

I am so curious to see what season two looks like and feels like. As you said, the legs on this thing are so hard to anticipate what our appetite for exactly this kind of comedy and exactly this sort of cadence is going to be. I do feel like the formula, though, is sort of infinitely repeatable. You go to Canton, you go to Delaware City. There's always a new place you could just pop up in and find more of these people and these characters.

[Jody Walker]

But in that case, like, is the. Is. Is Ron the same, or do you.

[Rob Mahoney]

Well, he seems, like, changed forever by his experience in the first season.

[Jody Walker]

How can you. Is Tim Robinson Ron in the second season? Or is this, like, you know, an anthology series? Or do we take Ron to his limit? Like, he's already there, the button are busting. And now is next season. About Amanda's telekinesis. I believe that, that, that. That really could be pulled off. But I also. I'm just like, I'm not sure what I want. I think I want to go into season two with a yellow bracelet, like, open to making mistakes, but maybe not looking to make mistakes.

[Rob Mahoney]

I think that's the right mentality. And if you watch this season and enjoyed it, email [e-mail] if you do have, like, a specific idea of what you want from this show. Like, I find the mystery of it and just, like, being, like, blindsided by a lead pipe every episode to be the joy of watching it. But I'm curious if people have a different experience. Jody. Maybe. Maybe there is a viewer of the chair company that's like, I need to see Tim Robinson do X. Yeah.

[Jody Walker]

And I'm curious if there are people who love. I think you should leave. Who this didn't work for. Like, who didn't. Who didn't enjoy the serialized format and in that case, what it was because it really did work so well. And I, like, I really cherish having both things, you know, like, getting. Getting to do. Getting to see what Tim Robinson does with some time on his hands and the ability to, like, you know, forge a family structure. And, you know, I just. I really. Yeah, like, that's. I'm realizing now that it's a pun, but that is the word that came to mind is I really cherished this season.

[Rob Mahoney]

Look at that. I think we just wrote the headline of this. This episode. Thank you so much, Jodi, for that.

[Jody Walker]

Once again, I love it and I hate it.

[Rob Mahoney]

This is who we are at this point. Is there anything else about this season or this finale you want to shout out? You want to recall your favorite bits that we didn't get to recount in glorious detail? Is there anything else that comes to mind for you?

[Jody Walker]

I think the look in Joseph Tedesco's eyes when he grabs the steering wheel to pull a little prank on Ron is like one of the funniest things I've seen on television this year. Just like that. He. It's all. You also have to imagine it's a light nod to the steering wheel flying off from. I think you should leave.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Jody Walker]

What if the steering wheel just flies off? I'm trying to think if there are any other side.

[Rob Mahoney]

That also feels a light nod to the show itself. Like, the show feels like literally anyone could grab the steering wheel at any time or.

[Jody Walker]

And they like it. And it's a. And it's a joke. And it's like it's a prank. It's a joke. It's not like it's. It's not insidious. Or is it. Or is this guy a monster?

[Rob Mahoney]

I think it's all a little insidious at the end of the day. Unless it is wholesome family time or just office mates looking out for. For each other, everything out there in the world is scary. Like, you just don't know when a guy is going to stumble into your garage and just slowly knock over a cardboard box because he has the power to do it.

[Jody Walker]

The small man showing back up. Lt I think later to ask Ron for a job at where. At the professor's office where he works. Just so good. The woman at the. I'm just naming people now, but the woman at, like, the county clerk's office or whatever, where he. I love all those misdirects where he thinks like, oh, Douglas isn't there because he got him in trouble, but actually he was trapped under a refrigerator eating foods that he only kind of wanted. When he thinks that he got that clerk in trouble because he was asking for this particular deed, but actually her boss was telling her that she needed to go home and take a shower because she smells bad. And then it becomes like, increasingly pressing that she. That she leave to take a shower.

[Rob Mahoney]

I really felt for her.

[Jody Walker]

I did, too.

[Rob Mahoney]

Again, instant empathy for that character.

[Jody Walker]

And she appreciated having Ron in that moment who, like, was a place of sympathy. And he says, like, your. Your boss really shouldn't talk to you that way when he has been out there just leading his employees into car wrecks and then abandoning them and then gaslighting them about it. And I just. That is the stressor of the show is that, like, he really. He is Rob. He is capable of greatness. He was a really good.

[Rob Mahoney]

Which part of that is greatness, Steven?

[Jody Walker]

Not that part. The part before where Jamie loved him. Like, he was a good boss. He was a really good dad, and he can still be those things. But the greatness that he is seeking is not the greatness that he is capable of.

[Rob Mahoney]

I think this is the problem with the greatness in all of us. You know, that same ambition that is reaching for the shovel to build the mall that will define our legacy is the same hand that reaches for the last half of the deviled egg when we know that it's not good for us. And yet, like, what are we. What are we to do but reach for it?

[Jody Walker]

So I wonder if you had any moment in this season of. Of insane television where you recognized yourself in it. I don't think there is a lightness in you that I don't think that you could have. But the way that he got about the. About that being taken from him and then taking it home, I saw myself in that moment. Jody doesn't waste food. And it's, I'll eat it. I will eat it. I'll eat it. If it's just a defiant practice, and it will ideally not make me sick in an abandoned warehouse with a big ball in it. But I like and also, I also loved. I mean, that's the opening scene of the show, right? Is where is Lake Bell attempting to give that toast? And the. And the waitress is hovering around, and it starts distracting him so much that he just can't take it. And he interrupts the toast to say, like, do you need something? And then she does, which is, like, to express admiration for his son. But it completely derails the dinner in the way that, you know, this chairbreaking completely derails his life. And it also. I don't know if it's a nod to this, but I appreciated the light insight into Tim R.A. robinson, who a clip that sort of, like, goes viral on Tik Tok pretty often is him on the Seth Meyer show talking about a time that they were at dinner and a waiter told a joke that he didn't find funny, and it was like lightly at his expense about being a vegetarian. And the whole table of like Seth Meers and like comedy writers laughed a lot. And, and Seth Meyers is like, and you didn't think that joke was funny? And he was like, it wasn't funny. I don't know why you laughed. Like, it. It wasn't a great. It wasn't an impressive joke. And thinking about the push and pull that someone like that might have with someone who is briefly allowed to enter their life in an intimate way, yes, I just thought was a great way to kick off the show.

[Rob Mahoney]

It is. It's a masterful first episode. And I like, I think for what this show is, they didn't land the plane in the finale because they basically, if not crashed it, like flew it into the Bermuda Triangle or something. Like, it's going into a totally different plan place.

[Jody Walker]

They did a yellow jackets. Like, it's just, it's crash landed and there are survivors and we'll see who eats who next.

[Rob Mahoney]

That's exactly what I want to see. And I'm thrilled to be along for that particular ride. I'm thrilled to do this pod with you. Jody. Thank you so much for doing this. Where can people find you other than teaching the life of the Party class?

[Jody Walker]

Oh, well. And actually, I will go ahead and tell you up front that it's kind of a scam and you'll never get to level six because you do dumb. But other than teaching Life of the Party class, you can find me co hosting We're Obsessed with Nora Princioti on the Ringer Dish feed. And right now you can find my very special holiday podcast Breaking Down. Honestly, like a similar level of insanity of the, you know, 100 plus original holiday movies that come out every holiday season on a little podcast called Binge Miss. Also on the Ringer Dish feed, where you can find Rob, you can find Joanna, you can find so many other amazing Ringer friends. And it's just so fun.

[Rob Mahoney]

Would you say any of those Christmas movies of this year's lot have approached the level of darkness of the chair company? Is there a sinister underbelly to any of them?

[Jody Walker]

Oh, we did. I feel like Kate Hallowell and I talked about Merry Little Xmas on Netflix and that is really like about the dissolution of heterosexual monogamy and marriage in our current society ultimately. And so that's pretty dark. Next week coming up on Binge Miss is Time Travel Week, both films about time travel. And I think if you'd like to see Charles Holmes spin into a level of darkness. That would probably be where, honestly, one.

[Rob Mahoney]

Of my great hobbies is watching Charles slowly devolve in Tim Robinsonian fashion. So I look forward to that. I'm going to be back here on this feed with Joanna a few times this week. We have our usual Pluribus coverage coming up later. We're going to be around to talk about a few of the greatest TV episodes of the century as part of our coverage [e-mail] of the great TV episodes since the year 2000. So stick around. We'll be right back.

[Jody Walker]

Sam.