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

31:27Like 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. Yeah, I think that's why I keep going back to that the best thing season one has done is teach me to trust it because I don't totally understand how this is 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.

32:12I 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. You're a professional. I'm a professional. I'm going to I'm going to watch it all, you know, two and a half times.

32:27I 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.

33:11Like, I really loved The Detroiters. It is designed in a different way. It's 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, 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.

33:58But 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 Jodi that's fucking deep I gotta say and as I said it I was like where do I fall on the scale oh no something to think about no you are both great and managing it beautifully I can attest to that I mean I do have a podcast about Hallmark movies so I think you know the greatness is there 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 yeah everyone is sometimes like he will walk into an office and everyone is just laughing it is they they're not 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.

35:26Do you have a favorite one of these? 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. The noisiest water bottle in the world. it just I mean it creates the like just the hilarious like audio cue every time it goes off that then sets every scene 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 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 working through this or that or maybe he abandoned them to get into a car accident.

36:13And yet he's just got to take that call because this is what drives him. 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 fricking 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 going to need something sweet later. Like I pack spaghetti for lunch. I'm going to need something sweet later.

36:48I got to find this Hershey's hug. 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 uh like record cabinets um he catches him in there with a with a full chair on his lap and a screwdriver upside down upside down on his lap and he says what are you doing and he says he says just call on my mom relaxing both of those things simultaneously just call my mom relaxing with this chair in my lap I just love him.

37:34It's truly an unhinged show for an 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 going to 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 oh no natalie is in on it with teka oh no what is wrong with my brain that this show has convinced me that a shadow chair corporation is guilty of a level of conspiracy that would infiltrate this man's family watch honestly you know tough but fair it's like there were a lot of moles in task I actually do not begrudge you thinking Natalie might be in on it.

38:35There 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, may be a little corrupt, but ultimately is not corrupt in quite the way he envisioned. 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 sort of real way and doesn't want him to stop. 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.

39:11But 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 failing to explore his artistic dreams. With an alcohol addiction. Like isn't being fully supported in his stop motion dreams. And a middle-aged man in the basement. That's what I'm saying. 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.

39:47Where does Tara, the maybe-to-be daughter-in-law, 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 grotesquerie 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 she was the guy who did work at teka and was working in the nude he was kind of forgive me if i'm wrong it's it's his mom in the hoarder house that is screaming for popcorn that's right um and that was that was my red line for me yeah i didn't like that could not deal i didn't like that at all that was like a little too i did like every time though that um 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 into 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 yes oh man she just cracked me up and like that's like so strange so weird um 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 twist her 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 where 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 he's dissing their dead dog repeatedly for not being well behaved like well if you didn't know him not great you 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 which is like 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-os so much and yet what do we know about tara that she seems incredibly content and happy with her job yes as a food photographer for wendy's i believe 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 well 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 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 i love imagining it um 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 yes 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.

43:41I 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 I don't have an outside passion. It's all right here, baby. And there is some part of this show that is about that. 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? What I'm hearing is, is a man allowed to have a hobby? He's just trying to blow off some steam after work breaking into various factories and offices like is that so wrong 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 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 into his computer if he just did that on reddit instead i suspect he would get some very well-meaning dms being like dude are you okay you know yeah and like i don't want to direct him to read it.

44:55I think there's a lot of darkness he could find there, but maybe he could find a community that's like, yeah, but 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. Yeah. What is it that makes you think he could be okay? 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.

45:40And 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 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 don't feel great admitting this, but I started to find it very endearing 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 yeah 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 i mean is he still an ally question mark you know i don't know we'll Do you think he ever watched a version of The Christmas Carol that wasn't the porn?

46:48I really hope so. I really hope that's not where he's getting his Dickensian information about the story structure there. I don't know. Maybe there's more going on in the porn parody than we've been led to believe. Well, you know, he mostly just listens. But that one 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.

47:22He 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. And then she'd get mad at him for smelling like a duck. And he'd say, it's the pills. It was the pills. Was any of that true? Was anything Mike ever told us ever true? I just feel so betrayed. 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. Yes. The man at the shirt store who keeps saying it because it made me think of it chasing down. I mean, I can't believe like that happened in the first episode, chasing him down with the pole.

48:05So then Ron gets his shirt because any good con man knows if a guy's coming for you and you're wearing a short sleeve button down, you unbutton that shirt. he's going to grab a shirt he can't get you. When he 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 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, Like, where did they find this alien? Like, if I just looked at those lines on a page, they would be so normal.

48:50And the 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 and he puts it over the ball was dead. 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 and their acting in their makeup styling like the guy who turned out to be Amanda's boyfriend who was demasked at the end I don't know what they did with his makeup but it was truly terrifying and that's one of those things where it's like we have done this physical beat and it will not be explained no maybe no explanation he was gonna take off a second mask.

49:49Um, 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. Um, yes. I mean, his assistant who is just so like, and so delightful and so pleasant and he just hates her um glow tabarez like just so funny um 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 sprints.

50:42I 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 tell you that much. I mean, he just wants to have a good time. He just wants to have the mistakes party. He wants to dress like a chicken sometimes. He seems to be supportive of mostly everyone around him. he wants you to know that even though he wasn't able to choose the food 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 um 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 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.

51:36I think it would be awful to be 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. 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 Tudisco, 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 the show is so deliberate.

52:15That 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 yeah totally yeah i saw someone know this on twitter like i 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 all if he believes this man to ultimately be like capable of of goodness or if he does see him as a madman i am so curious to see what season two looks like and feels like as you said like the the legs on this thing are so hard to anticipate what are like appetite for exactly this kind of comedy and exactly the 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 like there's always a new place you could just pop up in and find more of these people and these characters but in that case like is the main is is ron the same or do you well he seems like changed forever by his experience in the first season how could he be the same 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?

53:55Like, he's already there. The buttons are busting. And now is next season about Amanda's telekinesis. I believe 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. I think that's the right mentality. And if you watch the season and enjoyed it, email us at prestigetv at spotify.com. If you do have like a specific idea of what you want from this show, I 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.

54:41But I'm curious if people have a different experience, Jody. Maybe maybe there is a viewer of The Chair Company. And it's like, I need to see Tim Robinson do X. Yeah. 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.

55:23And, um, 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. Look at that. I think we just wrote the headline of this, this episode. Thank you so much, Jodi, for that. Once again, I love it and I hate it. This is who we are at this point. Is there anything else about this season of this finale you want to shout out you want to recall your favorite bits that we didn't get to recount in glorious details or anything else that comes to mind for you I think um 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 um just like that You also have to imagine it's a light nod to the steering wheel flying off from I Think You Should Leave.

56:17Yes. What if the steering wheel just flies off? I'm trying to think if there are any other side. 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. And they like it. And it's a joke. And it's like it's a prank. It's a joke. It's not insidious, or is it? Or is this guy a monster? 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 each other. Everything out there in the world is scary. 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.

56:58The small man showing back up. LT, I think, later to ask Ron for a job. job at where at the professor's office where he works just so good the woman at the um 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 um 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, um, she smells bad.

57:40And then it becomes like increasingly pressing that she, that she leaves to take a shower. I really felt for her. I did too. Again, instant empathy for that character. 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 boss. Which part of that is greatness, do you think?

58:19Not 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. 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 to do but reach for it? So I wonder if you had any moment in this season of insane television where you recognized yourself in it.

58:59I 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 waitresses hovering around and it starts distracting him so much that he just can't take it.

59:42And 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 cheerbreaking 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 Robinson, who a clip that sort of like goes viral on TikTok pretty often is him on the Seth Meyers 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 Meyers and like comedy writers laughed a lot.

1:00:22and Seth Meyers is like and you didn't think that joke was funny and he was like it wasn't money 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 uh I just thought was a great way to kick off the show 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 place.

1:00:58They did a Yellow Jackets like it's just it's crash landed and there are survivors and we'll see who eats who next. 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, Jodi. Thank you so much for doing this. Where can people find you other than teaching the life of the party class? 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're too dumb. But other than teaching life of the party class, you can find me co-hosting We're Obsessed with Nora Princiati on the Ringer Dish feed.

1:01:31And 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. 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? 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.

1:02:28And 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 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 here at TheRinger.com of the great TV episodes since the year 2000.

1:03:07So stick around. We'll be right back.

1:03:17you