Full Exposure
Comedian Jerrod Carmichael offers an intimate look into his extended coming-out process
Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show Platform HBO Premiere date March 29 Episodes 8 Creators Jerrod Carmichael, Ari Katcher, Eli Despres Cast Jerrod Carmichael
Stand-up comedy is a public performance that simulates intimate spontaneity. This is equally true of reality television, so it’s natural that a master at the former might try his hand at the latter. Hence “Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show,” a self-reflexive (and self-explanatory) HBO project that follows Carmichael’s Emmy-winning special “Rothaniel” with a more extended look the comic’s later-in-life coming out. Just don’t call it unfiltered. “This is not truth,” a friend reminds Carmichael and by extension, us. “This is narrative.”
“Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show” is not the first time a professional jokester has blurred the line between entertainment and actual life. Carmichael brings up “The Truman Show”; more recently, Nathan Fielder’s “The Rehearsal” and Bo Burnham’s “Inside” have called attention to their own artificiality. Burnham is a longtime collaborator of Carmichael’s. While the skeptical friend quoted above may disguise his face and voice, his silhouette and cadence are recognizably Burnham’s.
Created by Carmichael, Ari Katcher and Eli Despres, “Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show” is less interested than these predecessors in making a statement about its format. Instead, it uses said format to unpack Carmichael’s hang-ups. “Cameras make me feel more comfortable,” Carmichael explains, so he aims to use them to ease into topics that make him deeply uncomfortable, from friendship to infidelity to his parents. The complicated family dynamic Carmichael outlined in “Rothaniel” endures: His father maintained a second family in a decadeslong deception; his mother, a conservative Christian, can’t accept his homosexuality.
Beginning in September 2022, “Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show” intersperses scenes from Carmichael’s daily life with confessional comedy sets filmed in close-up as he engages the audience in conversation, as he did in “Rothaniel.” The device invokes “Seinfeld” or “Louie,” where the comedy riffs on the themes of the plot — except this plot is unscripted. The episodes are organized into discrete topics, whether an event (the Emmys) or a person (Carmichael’s father). Such neat divisions add to the sense we’re watching a highly mediated version of Carmichael’s life, which can work to the show’s advantage so long as it’s deployed with intention.
Two episodes about friendship — both self-contained adventures in which Carmichael intervenes in the subject’s professional life — are the season’s weakest. Their resolutions are unconvincingly tidy, their stories too separate from Carmichael’s strategic solipsism. This is Carmichael’s circus, and can have its intended effect of public reflection only with the ringmaster at its center. Carmichael has discussed falling in love with a friend in his act; the premiere reveals that friend to be rapper Tyler, the Creator, who lets Carmichael down gently as an entire production crew looks on.
These intensely personal moments pile up over time, though the fourth wall grows less porous as Carmichael’s inner circle gets used to the experiment. Carmichael sucks the toes of a casual hookup. Carmichael’s mother prays he’ll stop being attracted to men. Despres is a co-creator of “Couples Therapy,” and sure enough, when Carmichael and his novelist boyfriend Michael seek help, the production goes with them. The show as a whole may be a produced package, but parts of it are undeniably authentic.
Most authentic of all is that “Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show” doesn’t resolve in a definitive fashion. Over nearly a year, Carmichael’s mother opens her mind, but never embraces his “lifestyle”; Carmichael gets closer to a sustainable relationship, but there’s no guarantee he’ll never break a boundary. Nor does he present himself as especially admirable for opening up in this way. There’s Burnham’s disclaimer, as well as discomfort in watching a professional communicator subject relative amateurs to his methods. Carmichael is going through a highly unusual version of a common experience. “Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show” may not be a relatable treatise on what it means to come out, but it’s an indelible, candidin-its-way snapshot of this coming out.
The show as a whole may be a produced package, but parts of it are undeniably authentic.