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Billy Crystal

Billy Crystal

Actor

Josh Gad

Josh Gad

Actor

Matt Oberg

Mitch Reed

Actor

Stephnie Weir

Kristen Laybourne

Actor

Megan Ferguson

Esme McCauley

Actor

Billy Crystal

Executive Producer

Ben Wexler

Executive Producer

Matt Nix

Executive Producer

Larry Charles

Executive Producer

Mikkel Bondesen

Executive Producer

Henrik Bastin

Executive Producer

Kristen Campo

Executive Producer

Carl Molinder

Executive Producer

John Nordling

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Critic Reviews for The Comedians: Season 1

Audience Reviews for The Comedians: Season 1

• Nov 09, 2016

  While there was some funny moments, I still struggle liking Josh Gad as an actor. Billy Crystal hasn't been in his prime in years and it kind of shows with old tired Jewish shtick. The show lacks the uniqueness we have expected from FX.
  
• Oct 28, 2016

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• Jun 20, 2016

  This embellished mockumentary about two very different comedians being paired together to make a sketch comedy series is pleasant, charming, meta and occasionally magic. Billy Crystal and Josh Gad play "hyper" versions of themselves, in the sense of their redeeming qualities and dickheadedness being fictionalized to make each funnier than they probably both are in day-to-day life. But it's done carefully and with craft. Gad plays himself as a man-child who is far from brilliant, or even conscious of common sense, except when dealing with Kristen: the neurotic, helpless, near-brainless producer; in which case he is fully aware of her nonsense and often calls her out. As in episode 2, when Gad gets invited to Crystal's home by his wife, and he asks Kristen for gift ideas when arriving, she suggests wine and a gift certificate, among other things, to which he replies, "There is literally a level of autism to some of these suggestions." It's funny, and the delivery is dynamite, but at times Gad's lines don't come off as believable based on the character the writers have created for him. I laugh almost everytime he lands a joke, but they don't always fit the level of intelligence or awareness they've given the audience with the expectations set from the get-go. Billy Crystal is funnier than he's been since the early '90s, and he's made himself relevant to a generation younger than Baby Boomers. Kudos to him for doing something different and attempting something other than his typical "silly Jewish schtick" (which is referenced time and again throughout the series). The fictional character of Billy Crystal in The Comedians is, like Gad's, embellished for richness; he's the "good guy" he's always appeared to be, but he makes sure people know that. In a scene in episode 8, the pathetic invertebrate head writer character for The Billy & Josh Show (show within the show) is showing Crystal the new desk chair he purchased for $1,700 out-of-pocket, and Billy can't help but try it out. He sits, admiring the lumbar support and raves about it with subtlety until the next cut of him wheeling the chair down the hallway to his dressing room, while the writer sadly looks on without a word. The supporting cast is brilliant. Stephnie Weir is hilarious and completely incompetent as the fictional show's on-set producer, with all of her interactions and direct-to-camera 'confessionals' being spot-on and believable. Denis O'Hare plays Denis Grant, the fictional president of FX Network who has waining faith in the production of the show, and pushes back the premiere date, inciting panic in Crystal, Gad and Kristen over the show even airing. Mel Brooks, Will Sasso, Rob Reiner and the duo who co-wrote award-winning songs for Disney's Frozen and Broadway's the Book of Mormon all guest star in episodes. As a whole, the show is fantastic. I could see how some viewers might not love the show; it's sometimes dry, a bit slow, the occasional joke feels forced, and when it comes down to it some people are just going to not like certain aspects. Some people simply don't like Billy Crystal (I've never been too fond). Some people find Josh Gad insufferable (I think he's mostly great). Some people are sick of the whole mockumentary style of comedy (it's starting to get old...), and some people might just not get what this show is doing (the whole meta thing; show about a show about comedians by comedians playing comedians who are versions of themselves). Critics generally shat upon this show, which unfortunately led to its demise after one season, and I can sort of see why they might have. I don't agree with them, but it's conceivable. I think it works and it's actually made me appreciate Billy Crystal more than I have since City Slickers. But for some, it might just be the perfect storm of things that annoy people, wrapped tightly in one 13 episode package.
  
• Jun 11, 2016

  The best comedy comes from pain and the uncomfortable situations these guys created made for some funny bits. Sorry there won't be a season 2.
  
• May 29, 2016

  This show got better and better as the season progressed. Watch it. Cancelling it was very ill-advised.
  
• Dec 29, 2015

  I really liked this show. I automatically assumed that it was going to be a second season. I'm just know finding out it was cancelled 6 months after the fact. Hopefully it would get picked up somewhere else.
  
• Jul 05, 2015

  It took some time but this show grew on us... hope it comes back
  
• Jun 27, 2015

  Too bad the critics only watched the first episode. The show has fantastic character development and the story arc is truly one of the best I have seen in a while. PLEASE DO SEASON 2.
  
• Jun 23, 2015

  This is a truly unique show. It's a unique show in that it does so many things wrong, and does them wrong in such complex and convoluted ways, that it's interesting to watch just to try and unpack what you're seeing. There are so many meta-levels happening, where the show is being knowingly bad, but simultaneously accidentally bad, that while watching it I sometimes feel like I'm traveling through time. Structurally, the show is 30 Rock-esque. Crystal and Gad play fictionalized versions of themselves having been cast to play off of one another in a 2 person sketch TV show. The show is them going about their lives, but also staging and executing the sketch show. The timing is off. the staging is off. Gad, Crystal and the supporting characters aren't just one dimensional, they're unconvincingly one dimensional. No one is likable, but not because they're unlikable, rather, because they're so poorly realized that they may as well be absent. The Comedians regularly tries to manufacture awkward situations, but those situations are so contrived that the discomfort doesn't come from the situation they're staging, but from your own understanding that you're watching a failed attempt at staging an awkward situation. It's some unintentionally next level stuff. The show makes jokes that intentionally fall flat, then comments on the fake bad jokes with worse jokes that are supposed to be the real jokes. The characters are playing fictionalized versions of themselves which are deeply self aware in unintentional ways. Peering through so many levels of characterization like this and, ultimately, hitting the motivations of the real-life actors playing the roles is strangely unnerving. And let's not leave out the sketch show that everyone is collaborating on that's so... The sketches are intended to be knowingly "wink-wink" bad, but also broadly funny, but they're not, not even a tiny bit. They're bafflingly bad, and that's where, again, this fascinating "meta-muddle" thing comes in. There's a phenomena that happens when you watch Billy Crystal pretending to be high, improvising a Sammy Davis Jr. Impression that would have been tired 30 years ago, being played for big laughs. Or seeing Gad knowingly make tasteless statements that are then treated like unintentional tasteless statements and, by extension, played as fraudulent commentary on his generation of comedians... It's incredibly surreal. Crystal's improvising. If he drops a couple bombs, it's not on him. He's putting himself out there, trying things out and trying to get a laugh. It's on the directors, editors and producers for keeping it in. I apologize for using the words intentional and unintentional so often here, but that's what's so fascinating. Much of what we see are intentional layers of irony, but unintentionally, they're all disastrously executed. There's no question that the cast is incredibly talented, so where does the blame lie? I believe it's in the writing, directing and editing. Directors aren't giving performers the feedback they need to make the correct adjustments. Writers aren't work-shopping their jokes enough to see that they won't land, and editors don't have the guts to cut what's not working. Frankly... everyone's probably afraid of pissing off Billy Crystal. I don't know what more I can say. If you love comedy, watch this show. It's a study on how to do literally everything wrong while maintaining excellent production values. I've never laughed once but I can't stop watching it. May god have mercy on our souls.
  
• Jun 07, 2015

  This show is brilliant. It takes a few episodes to find it's stride… but by episode 6 "Orange is the new black guy" it is on FIRE. FINGERS CROSSED for a second season!!!