Which Tim Robinson Project Is Right for You?

Want to watch a version of I Think You Should Leave before I Think You Should Leave existed? Great news, there’s Robinson’s episode of Netflix’s short-lived 2016 series The Characters, which gave alt comedians like Robinson, Kate Berlant, and John Early a half an hour each to run wild. Robinson’s episode is pure Robinson. He opens it playing a Rat Pack-wannabe Sammy Paradise who loses it when he makes a bad bet. Later he, Kanin, and O’Malley are the Pointer Brothers, a corporate Pointer Sisters cover band whose main thing is being too into pointing aggressively at people. Like his SNL work, The Characters makes it clear just how well-defined Robinson’s style has always been, even before I Think You Should Leave: Deranged. Genius.

If you can’t resist a conspiracy theory: The Chair Company

This brings us to the latest in the rich Robinson oeuvre: The Chair Company, which just premiered on HBO. Like I Think You Should Leave, The Chair Company is a Robinson and Kanin collaboration. But rather than small absurd bits, this time it’s a narrative that follows William Ronald Trosper (Robinson, naturally), a father of two who works at a company responsible for building a new mall in their Ohio hometown. He’s just gotten a big promotion and is riding high when something deeply embarrassing happens to him: After a big presentation, he goes to sit down and his chair collapses, leaving him on his ass and gazing up at his concerned coworkers. This sends him down a very Robinsonian rabbit hole, as he becomes completely consumed by this incident and investigating just who made this faulty chair. It co-stars Lake Bell as Ron’s wife and Sophia Lillis as his daughter. Think typical Robinson antics by way of prestige mystery—and he’s got the coveted HBO Sunday night slot.