GETTING ‘WEIRD,’ EDGE, P. 27
‘Weird City’ makes for one odd trip
Imagine a kinder, gentler “Black Mirror.” “Weird City,” a new scifi comedy anthology from Jordan Peele (“Get Out”) and Charlie Sanders (“Key & Peele”) streaming on YouTube Premium, has the same targets as the acclaimed Netflix show — our obsession with technology and how it invades our lives and often corrupts our intentions.
But it plays these anxieties for laughs, sort of. In broadcast TV terms, this is more “Night Gallery” than “Twilight Zone” (and a good moment to remind you that Peele will be rebooting the latter show for CBS All-Access).
Every episode is set in Weird City, a region divided by a border wall separating the Haves and the HaveNots. To cross from one area to the other, you have to endure a humiliating patdown from guards at a hightech TSA-style stop. Like the villains in Peele’s “Get Out,” the Haves — or Above-theLiners, as they are some- times referred to — are liberals unaware of their privilege. They go to a pet shop to play with virtual animals or to a therapy booth to get a printout of their issues. It’s a world of convenience but not so convenient.
The first six-episode season features such guest stars as Sara Gilbert (“The Conners”), Laverne Cox (“Orange Is the New Black”), Yvette Nicole Brown (“Community”), Steven Yeun (“The Walking Dead”) and Mark Hamill (“The Walking Dead”) and addresses such things as sexting, a smart house with too much attitude and reality TV.
In the premiere, “The One,” written by Peele, Stu (Dylan O’Brien, “The Maze Runner,” “Teen Wolf”) is a nice guy living above the line thanks to the wealth from an app his mom created, “The Unappetizer,” which deletes apps you are not using. (It helpfully eliminates “Getting Buff Quickly,” reasoning “you have clearly given up.”)
A lonely Stu checks out the dating service “The One That’s the One.” It uses DNA testing and a series of questions to find the perfect mate.
He is baffled by the intake interview, which asks about his favorite number and food and why he wouldn’t help an imaginary tortoise he knocked over in the desert.
The last person he’d ever expect turns out to be his match, and what follows is unusual mostly because it’s played so sincerely and with such charm. I won’t say any more to spoil the story, other than to note this is a premise that could have gone south about 93 million different ways. “Star Trek: The Next Generation’s” LeVar Burton plays the mad scientist behind the dating service and “Modern Family’s” Ed O’Neill manages to play up and skewer his curmudgeonly image all at the same time.
Michael Cera (“Arrested Development”) headlines the second episode, “A Family,” written by Sanders, as Tawny, a needy schlub kicked out of his pomegranate electrolyte juice addiction support group. That’s just the start of his slide as he’s fired from his data job for spending too much time on his worm terrarium and his digital assistant commits suicide by uploading herself to the cloud to get away from him.
Then he chances upon “ShapeCult” — ooh, sorry, CrossFit — which is more than a gym, it’s a lifestyle, a family and a new identity. His training with Delt (Rosario Dawson, “Luke Cage”) starts friendly, then turns into a demented competition as he sheds weight. Cera wears a series of unsettling body prosthetics as he goes from fat slob to maxed-out fitness warrior. The ending just might be a joke too far.
“Weird City” is built on one twisted foundation.