Netflix’s ‘Disjointed’ a comedy about the ‘high’ life
It might take a medicinal brownie or two to really enjoy the new Netflix comedy “Disjointed.”
Starring Kathy Bates as Ruth Whitefeather Feldman, the owner of a Los Angeles cannabis shop known as Ruth’s Alternative Caring, she’s a lifelong advocate for use of the weed.
“You’re not alone,” Ruth tells an overanxious mother who has come to the store looking for relief. “You’ll be happy to know you’re a stereotype.”
Her “budtenders” at the store are Pete (Australian actor Dougie Baldwin), who is out to create the ultimate marijuana strain; Jenny (Elizabeth Ho), whose parents think she’s a surgeon, and Olivia (Elizabeth Alderfer), who dropped in after dropping out from her life in the Midwest.
Tone Bell plays security guard Carter, a war veteran with a touch of post-traumatic stress disorder. He felt safer in Iraq than as a black man in America, he tells Ruth in the one serious edge to the series.
Aaron Moten is Ruth’s son Travis. His dad was a Black Panther turned corporate lawyer and has gotten an MBA. His goal is to make his mother’s store profitable.
“This blueprint for the future,” he tells Ruth as he hands her a business plan. “Recreational is now legal in California. The gold rush is on, and someday somebody is going to be the Walmart of cannabis. Why not us?”
“Because Walmart is evil,” Ruth responds in her New York Jewish accent.
“You shop there,” Travis reminds her.
“Disjointed” is created by TV power Chuck Lorre (“The Big Bang Theory,” “Mom, Mike & Molly,” “Two and a Half Men”) and former “Daily Show” head writer David Javerbaum. The 20-episode series is pretty standard three-camera stuff but obviously not sitcom material for CBS. Language, of course.
Often, the best parts of “Disjointed” are the little videos that break up the scenes. Some are homemade internet spots to advertise the store. Some are tripped-out moments, usually animated. There are some parodies of old warnings against the dangers of marijuana, and a couple of them may even be real.
Of course, most of the jokes are pot-related, and high people can get on your nerves.
Ingesting “Disjointed” is pretty harmless. You might get a buzz, though. There are a few laughs, but I can pretty much assure you that you won’t get addicted.