I Think You Should Leave Season Three Thoughts
Not a full review, but some thoughts on the latest season after watching and digesting on it for a few weeks
Hey guys. Uh, sorry I’ve been pretty silent the last few weeks, but you gotta understand. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is really good. Like, maybe the best game of all-time good. Now that that’s out of the way…
I Think You Should Leave season three dropped a little over two weeks ago, on a Tuesday, actually. If you expected it to be released on a Friday or a Wednesday like a normie show, you’re not paying attention. Anyway, since the major upheaval in my life, I’ve only taken time out to watch sports and wrestling in a timely manner. My heart just has not been into scripted, non-live dramatic fiction EXCEPT for I Think You Should Leave, which I binged right after dinner the day it dropped. The first two seasons hit a bullseye on my soul that no other comedic program has come close to doing since prime It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, seasons four and five.
Because the season is only six episodes long and each episode is only 15-or-so minutes in length, I was able to binge the entire thing in an hour-and-a-half, solid. Overall, it was an enjoyable watch, at least on par conceptually with the first two seasons. I’ve had some time to marinate on it and have more in-depth thoughts, so forgive this review for not really dropping in a timely manner. However, with the show crossing over into mainstream popularity referenced by the Chicago Cubs recently having a “Dan Flashes Night” at Wrigley, there’s scant little probability that the show will become a tax write-off casualty in the way other shows on streamers might be. Have I mentioned how much I hate how streaming, which should’ve been the chosen way to view entertainment, has ended up? I digress.
Anyway, I have some assorted thoughts about season three, and I’m going to lay them on you in bullet points.
The Bad
- I understand you don’t want dilution, but how can you only have one sketch featuring Patti Harrison? She was arguably the brightest spot in season two in the Capital Room and Drivers Ed (her job is tables!) sketches, so I thought maybe she’d get more of a platform this season. Granted, the sketch she was in, the office Christmas party with the cardboard cutout, was one of the best. Maybe I’m greedy? I dunno.
- The dirty songs guy sketch was pretty flat even though I see the vision behind it. There was a great thought process behind the idea. You had this guy who misremembered how objectively funny something was that he loved in his youth playing up the awkwardness of this sad-sack guy singing nonsense songs that he couldn’t even remember in front of a younger, hip crowd. That’s the basis behind the entire show, awkwardness and embarrassment and the like. The premise was solid, and that’s why it sucks that there were just no laughs here until the very last line of the sketch.
- Overall, it feels like most of the uproarious laughs were in the first three episodes whereas the last three felt more “clever” than anything. I understand this isn’t necessarily a negative since, again, I enjoyed the whole season, but the season definitely felt front-loaded. While I won’t complain if we get another season or two of this show, especially since the presentation is bite-sized, I’m afraid it as a concept is running out of steam and that Tim Robinson might be better served trying a different avenue for his comedic sensibilities going forward.
- Again, this might be a nitpick and a selfish thing, but there isn’t a whole lot of meme material in this season compared to the last two seasons. I have seen a lot of people adopt “The Driving Crooner,” but although that sketch ripped, it doesn’t feel as natural a pull. Perhaps the thing that will endure the longest will be “For 50 seconds, I thought there was monsters in the world,” but both the first two seasons had more than one. Again, I could be proven wrong here in the long haul, but the meme-ability of this show is what has allowed it to explode in the way it has. I just don’t see that this season.
- Even though his sketch was hilarious, fuck Fred Armisen.
The Good
- A lot of what makes sketches on this show so uproarious isn’t necessarily the writing but the writing combined with the actors’ delivery and reactions, which starts right at the top with Tim Robinson. He sets the tone with the first sketch of episode one, Barley Tonight, where he absolutely NAILS the confrontational tone of a conservative talking-head op-ed show host, which juxtaposes with how ready he is to go on his phone if he’s losing an argument. There are better sketches in this season, but this sketch being the first one you see when you load up the season is pitch fucking perfect.
- You might think two sketches with puke is two too many, but I’m a fan of comedic vomiting. Big thumbs up.
- The list of guest stars this season is top notch. Along with Armisen, who sucks as a person but is funny, unfortunately, we get Tim Meadows and Jason Schwartzman, both of whom are great in their sketches. Of course, frequent collaborators Sam Richardson and Connor O’Malley return, and Will Forte makes another appearance. The most pleasant surprise was the insertion of all the wrestlers, albeit most of them were in the one sketch that actually was about wrestlers. Still, seeing Aron Stevens (Damien Sandow in WWE) show up in the drive-thru sketch (one of the BIG highlights) was pretty neat, and he acquitted himself well. Joseph Ruud (star of the major short motion picture Tito), JD Kratos, and Ryan Nemeth showing up in the Pacific Proposal Park sketch all were highlights, mainly because they did what they normally do when in their chosen field of work. If Robinson wanted to pivot and do an Andy Kaufman-style bit in actual pro wrestling, I feel like the only thing that would hold him back would be the fact that he’s too much of a wrestling fan to work in as cynical a business as it is.
- Every sketch, even if it’s not a laugh riot on the surface, is at least smart. Even where I didn’t die laughing in the sketches in the back half of the season, every sketch landed except for the Dirty Songs guy. Even that sketch as noted had a solid backbone. I didn’t laugh at a few of the sketches at first, but the more I thought about them, remembered back to them, I laughed harder and harder. The best example of this was the Tasty Time Videos sketch. At the time, I thought it was a neat sketch with good interplay between Robinson and O’Malley. I didn’t laugh too much at it, but each time I thought back about it, with O’Malley’s dumbshit facial expressions, Frankenstein holding the condom, and this exchange in particular:
“They’re saying I paid them in fast food.”
“Why would they say that?”
“Because I did.”
It all had me giggling and smiling. Sometimes, the best comedy hits me long after the fact. That’s why I don’t recommend turning your brain off when watching anything. Always think about what you watched, and if it’s your fancy, rewatch it. You can find value there.
What’s your favorite ITYSL sketch? Leave a comment!
Overall
Robinson has set such a high bar that he keeps clearing, but it’s nearly impossible to continue to do so in comedy because tastes change so much on the cutting edge. Season one was the pinnacle, and season two had the most memes spawned from it. Having season three equal them was a tall task, but falling short wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world because of the lofty standards set by the first two. Season three certainly is third out of three, but the importance that I think we place on ranking things at times does a disservice to how good it was.
There are several all-timer sketches in here, including The Driving Crooner, Pacific Proposal Park, Doggy Door, Tasty Time Videos, and Studio Audience Member. Robinson is in his bag throughout the entire season, and there’s a nice amount of tenderness and sweetness, but not enough to overpower the absurdity. Maybe the reason why it doesn’t hit as hard as it did when it first dropped is that he’s in a groove. It happens. Sometimes, it takes awhile to find your voice and some seasons in the middle are what hits hard. Sometimes, you hit such a high out of the gate that it’s all diminishing returns.
But it goes without saying that this season is more than worth watching. Again, you can knock out the whole thing in 90 minutes. Hell, you can spend an entire weekend afternoon to knock out all three seasons. Honestly, it would be a much better use of your time than doomscrolling or watching one episode of a thrilling drama that will only be cancelled after one season thanks to, you guessed it, streaming network tax write-offs.