Tim Robinson’s The Chair Company: swapping sketch comedy for conspiracies

Nobody feels embarrassment quite like a Tim Robinson character. More specifically, nobody feels such acute social anxiety while at work like one of his creations. Both of Robinson’s most recent shows, Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave, expose the absurdity of the workplace, using rules and etiquette as a boundary to skip past in search of big laughs. In his new series, The Chair Company, Robinson takes the idea of being left red-faced in the office into unchartered territory.

HBO requested us reviewers to avoid sharing too many details to not spoil the show but here is what can be revealed ahead of the season premiere on October 12. Robinson plays Ron Trosper, an unassertive family guy who manages the development of shopping malls. After an embarrassing incident at work one day, Ron launches his own investigation into his moment of humiliation and discovers what he believes is a criminal conspiracy. Like any good private detective, he skulks in the dark and investigates the private lives of some shady characters,convinced that his family and coworkers are blind to the truth. While, accidentally, he’s painting himself as the crazy one.

The Chair Company keeps a cool distance from where the truth lies, leaving viewers to wonder whether or not Ron really is on the verge of exposing something spectacular or, instead, simply a middle aged man going to extraordinary lengths to make up for a workplace slip-up, the kind a more well-adjusted person would laugh off and forget the next day. Think of it as the I Think You Should Leave broken door sketch meets True Detective and you have a good idea of where things start and the direction they head in.

That may be a frustratingly vague description but fans of Robinson’s work will not be disappointed by The Chair Company. Moving from sketch based comedy to a longer format could have been a tricky transition for the former SNL writer and cast member, especially one whose work mines its laughs by escalating small moments until they rocket their way into extreme or surreal places. Away from the confines of a sketch, however, Robinson and his co-writer Zach Kanin have the space to let scenes breathe and invest as much in the narrative of Ron’s quest as pushing him into awkward and embarrassing situations before making a quick exit. Robinson, perhaps the premier yeller of his generation, spends much of The Chair Company in his reassuringly comical state of rage as he goes deeper down the rabbit hole.

The feeling of control slipping so far out of your grasp that there is no other option than to roar feels pertinent to the world occupied by suspicion and belief in shady plots and cabals. What is a conspiracy if not a belief that you know how things really work in the face of nothing going your way? “I’m right about a lot of things that people have zero clue that they even know is going on,” Ron says at one point, echoing the sentiments of millions of podcasters and YouTube essayists attempting to convince their followers that some so-called “deep state” is controlling the weather. Robinson and Kanin’s work is far too silly to be considered overtly political but they have a knack for zeroing in on a “type of guy” hiding in plain sight. In the past that’s been the guy trying to cheat the system or the guy making a bold fashion choice. With The Chair Company, they produce a shorthand for the kind of guy that’s too invested in seeing the Epstein files published in full.

If that is the color that shades in the background of the show, its finer details lie in the bizarre situations Ron finds himself in as he pursues his shamefaced hunch. Slowly but surely he alienates his family and friends, including Lake Bell as his long-suffering wife, Barb, and Lou Diamond Phillips as his slimy boss. Legendary comedy writer Jim Downey, recently seen as a Christmas Adventurer in One Battle After Another, also makes a welcome appearance as one of Ron’s co-workers who watches on as Ron’s focus switches from malls to his wild goose chase.

“There’s so much built-in status and hierarchy” in the workplace, Robinson’s co-writer Kanin told The New Yorker in 2021. “It's a great place to be embarrassed.” The pair continue to reach new comic heights in The Chair Company, a launch pad into a far murkier world no sketch would’ve allowed them to get to.