I Think You Should Leave mastermind Tim Robinson returns with another uniquely unhinged comedy, this one about a troubled man who thinks he’s uncovered a dark conspiracy at the heart of . . . an office furniture supplier
Few comedians emerging over the past decade have proven so fresh or confoundingly delightful as Tim Robinson. After cutting his teeth during a less-than-successful stint on Saturday Night Live (as a performer for one season in 2012-’13, then bumped to the writers’ room for three more), the Michigan native went on to find his groove with cultishly adored sitcom Detroiters in 2017. That was followed by his true career-launcher, Netflix’s cringey sketch sensation I Think You Should Leave, from 2019-2023.
As Detroiters co-star Sam Richardson said of Robinson in a 2023 New York Times profile: “His cadence is so specifically his own. You can’t teach it. It’s incredibly human. It’s human beyond human.”
And indeed, even though his career got off to a bumpy start, those early struggles only proved that Robinson is at his best when given free rein over his own material — as opposed to adapting his singular voice for the pre-existing mold of something like SNL.
Which brings us to The Chair Company — which viewers can slide into starting this weekend on HBO. Reuniting behind the scenes with his I Think You Should Leave cohort Zach Kanin, the series casts Robinson as William Ronald Trosper (“Ron” to his friends), a perfectly stable husband and father living a perfectly normal life. In the trailer, his boss (Lou Diamond Phillips) enthusiastically gives Ron a big promotion during a work event; Ron’s wife, Barb (Lake Bell of Childrens Hospital), toasts his accomplishments over a celebratory family dinner; and his home life with kids Natalie (Sophia Lillis, IT) and Seth (Will Price, Goosebumps) seems nothing if not pleasant-enough.
But after a sudden, embarrassing incident at the office, things change. We see the beginnings of a tailspin as Ron calls the hotline of National Business Solutions, the company that supplies his office furniture, after detecting a problem with their product — “a big problem,” he assures the customer service rep. From there, it’s not long before he’s tumbling down the rabbit hole, coming to believe he’s in the middle of a vast criminal conspiracy operating under the mere guise of an office furniture supplier. (Indeed, he soon upgrades his assessment from “big problem” to “massive problem that could cause mass casualties.”)
“There’s a darkness to you, Ron,” a well-meaning co-worker tells him. Meanwhile, Barb starts to question the odd hours he keeps — and whether the man she married is hiding something from her, as this new investigative hobby sends him on late-night trespassing missions accompanied by fellow conspiracy theorist Mike Santini (Joseph Tudisco, A Brooklyn Love Story).
As in his other endeavours, Robinson spins life’s mundanities into explosively awkward encounters — rooted, this time, in the isolation and loneliness of obsession — all the while crafting an oddball character that’s oddly empathetic.
Robinson has said very little about the show publicly, but did offer a little tease to Collider at the Toronto International Film Fest in 2024: “When we started working on it, we realized how far it could go and how big it could become,” he said, before elaborating: “You don’t think of the idea and say, ‘OK, this could be one season, this could be two seasons or this could be three seasons.’ It’s just, as you work on it, then it builds into whatever it’s gonna be.” If that creative journey sounds similar to Ron’s conspiratorial spiral . . . well, it’s probably not a coincidence.
The series premiere of The Chair Company airs Sunday, October 12, on HBO Canada