‘People’ is back, and funnier than ever
“Difficult People,” the sassy sitcom that raises self-involvement to new comic heights, is lucky it stuck around till 2017. Not just because it deserved renewal, but also because creator and co-star Julie Klausner has found a whole new vein of pay dirt at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as the show launches a third season on Hulu on Tuesday, Aug. 8.
Klausner and Billy Eichner star as two exceptionally selffocused, defiantly clueless people. For these two, it’s not just “all about me,” but “all about only me.”
Julie and Billy are struggling comics. She has a live-in boyfriend named Arthur (James Urbaniak) who works for PBS and cooks for her every night. Billy, who is gay and lovelorn, does as little as possible working at a diner owned by Nate and Denise (Derrick Baskin and Gabourey
Sidibe). As far as Julie and Billy are concerned, the world owes them a living, and that’s just for starters.
The new season retains all the sources of frequently nasty comedy that fans have enjoyed in the first two seasons. There’s Billy’s younger co-worker, Matthew (Cole Escola), whose sense of gay entitlement is just the beginning of why Billy hates him.
Matthew makes a typically over-the-top self-aggrandizing announcement, to which Billy sneers, “So last year. If only you’d been Jeffrey Dahmer’s type.”
There’s also Julie’s mother, Marilyn (Andrea Martin), a therapist whose own sense of entitlement almost puts her daughter’s to shame. She’s convinced that her dentist is secretly trimming her bangs whenever she’s put out for dental work. When she inadvertently drinks a hallucinogenic, she envisions a trendy restaurant in which all the patrons are herself.
Of course the show is set in New York City, which, this season, is embodied in an actual character when Billy decides he can’t deal with New York City anymore. Guest stars include Vanessa Williams, Larry Wilmore, Maury Povich and Rosie O’Donnell.
Billy is stuck in a constant whine, and Julie could probably rationalize even the most heinous act as something acceptable if it benefits her.
Why on Earth would anyone want to spend a half hour with these people? Simple: because they are hilarious. The fact that they don’t have a good word to say about anyone reflects on them, and the image isn’t pretty, but it’s very, very funny. It’s very much because we wouldn’t want friends like these that we’re empowered to laugh ourselves silly at their blather.
Among the four episodes made available to critics, one focuses on our antiheroes running into one demonstration after another. A restaurant is virtually empty because of the pickets outside. Great, says Julie; there will be no problem getting a table.
In the same episode, Julie gets an audition for a top-secret project for Amazon. She brings along a blender, because she’s been meaning to return it. Turns out, the audition is for a certain big-deal filmmaker, and I’ll leave it at that, but suffice it to say that when it comes to deciding whether she should go for the job or stand up for her principles, there’s no choice at all: Julie has no principles.
Among the show’s most enduring trademarks is that it namedrops celebrities, usually in disparaging tones. There’s a great visual joke involving Nathan Lane this season, but I won’t spoil it for you.
Now that there’s a new sheriff in town in Washington, the cast mocks not only President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, but also the mind-set of their supporters. In real life, the characters Klausner and Eichner play probably wouldn’t be all that well versed in politics, but it’s to Klausner’s credit that the political focus doesn’t feel out of character. As with everything else, their belated awareness of changes in political priorities derives directly from self-interest. The third season is decidedly more political and current than its two predecessors, at least on the basis of these four episodes. I won’t spoil these jokes either, except to say that the situations depicted are entirely fictional. At least for now.
“Difficult People” makes for easy and frequent laughter.
Why on Earth would anyone want to spend a half hour with these people?