La Silla (2025)★ 7.5/10

Here is a review I wrote of the pilot:

Tim Robinson, comedic element, is unhinged, again.

Robinson is kind enough to twist off the top of his brain and show us its best, most chaotic tale.

The Chair Company, Robinson’s latest project, a “Comedy/Thriller” series for HBO, follows William “Ronald” Trosper (Robinson), a middle aged father and husband up for a very important promotion in the world of building malls.

Ron gets it. His kids and wife — who are way, way cooler than him — are proud of him. When a server at a celebratory dinner for Ron learns about his promotion, she congratulates him but politely acknowledges it’s been a long time since she’s been in a mall. He suggests she’s likely been in a mall recently, she just didn’t realise it. She’s certain she hasn’t been in one since she was 14. He knows she thinks she hasn’t but that’s just evidence of how much malls have changed, and it’s likely she has. “They’re more naturalistic. In fact, even this restaurant is kind of like a mall.” It goes from there.

Anyone familiar with I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, Detroiters, or Friendship will understand how Robinson plays the above scene, and how it is funny.

Later, at a consequential presentation in front of a big crowd, as well as his boss, Ron’s chair breaks under him. As he’s lying face up on the ground, he happens to see up a co-workers skirt. She makes a face. He makes a face. Elliott Smith’s “Between the Bars” soon plays. He thinks on the day’s multiple embarrassments as he attempts to sleep next to his wife. Eventually, he resolves to get in touch with the company that manufactures the chair that broke under him, in an attempt to right a wrong. Someone could die from these poorly manufactured chairs. At the same time his obsession with the chair company reaches fever pitch, his boss makes him promise not to get distracted. The promotion he just received is in jeopardy.

Everything in The Chair Company is turned up to 15. 10 is a regular comedy. 20 is I Think You Should Leave-ridiculousness. The plot itself is that of a modern day psychological thriller. The way it’s played, edited, and scored is like an I Think You Should Leave… sketch. He’s sad? Play Elliott Smith’s saddest song. He’s frustrated with his co-worker? We’re going to see his face all scrunched up at varying levels of zoom. Side characters care a weird amount about totally innocuous things (wheelbarrows are inside only).

After the conversation with his boss, Ron makes the tough decision to give up the chair company mystery. He deletes a picture he took of the manufacturing information (that’s what amounts to an emotional moment in The Chair Company, and it’s played big). As he walks to his car, alone, a man appears behind him, big and angry. He wields a pipe. Ron eyes him and attempts to run to his car, but the man catches him. He whacks him over the head with the pipe and warns, “Stop looking into the chair company.” He skulks away.

Instead of continuing to cower, Ron becomes overwhelmed with a confident if foolish feeling, and starts to chase the man back. After a jog that seems to last forever based on a trick in the editing, Ron grasps the man’s shirt and wrenches it, only to find the man had unbuttoned it from the front, ready for it to be ripped off. He runs, bare-chested, into the forest. Ron stares in disbelief.

I stare in disbelief.

This particular comedic “…what?” style is tried and tested. A mystery as an engine for a television plot is tried and tested. It’s clear this mix works well enough for one 30 minute episode. It’s possibly it will outstay its welcome after eight episodes, but for now, let’s enjoy it.