Some of the changes are less easy to enjoy than others. The forgettable new credit sequence (which, to be fair, has to follow-up one of the catchiest sketch show themes ever made) is an aggressive blast of kaleidoscopic weirdness that you’d expect from a Mr. Show protégé like Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job*. In turn, Mr. Show’s clever transitional links between sketches, which recalled Monty Python’s Flying Circus, often play like an afterthought in W/ Bob and David. The greater number of pre-taped segments further suggests that the creative staff know their material is more likely be viewed piecemeal than as part of an entire episode.
Ultimately, though, the quality of the new sketches is what really matters, and the half of them that I’ve seen justify the long wait. The launch point for many sketches is what you’d expect from guys who have been on ice this long, with shots at tech gurus and reality TV becoming more reminiscent of Mr. Show the further they spiral into deranged nonsense. The oddities of the Internet era have given the writers even more license to go down whacked-out rabbit holes (a spin on the “they’re right behind me, aren’t they?” trope gets delightfully, crudely metaphysical), but Bob, David, and the cast are still often at their best when working the stage. A simple, two-hander spin on “The Most Dangerous Game” proves that the starring duo can still build on a funny premise using just a couple costumes, some leftover Halloween decorations, and delirious comedy logic.
The pre-taped segments are cleaner than ever thanks to digital cameras, but with the exception of clips taken from a fake movie (Better Roots, a hilarious lampooning of historical sanitization run amuck), W/ Bob and David maintains the low-rent, DIY appeal of Mr. Show. It’s not like W/ Bob and David looks unprofessional (a 30 for 30 riff about a champion skier that hates skiing effectively visualizes multiple time periods), but moments that tear right through the show’s paper-thin fourth wall, like when Cross pays a delivery boy by telling him “this is fake, you can keep all of it,” make the silliness of W/ Bob and David existing at all one of its best jokes.
Along with Netflix’s previous comedy time capsule, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, W/ Bob and David is as much a thank you to longtime viewers as it is a jumping-on point for the uninitiated. Years later, many once-incendiary Mr. Show sketches no longer have the same bite, while others probably couldn’t be done today at all. Bob, David, and company aren’t as interested in pushing the edge of the envelope as they were twenty years ago, but their entertaining return illustrates how a comedian’s shelf life often comes down to craftsmanship, not provocation. So call W/ Bob and David a spiritual sequel, a reboot, or a reincarnation, it doesn’t matter: Bob and David’s comedy science is still plenty tight.
*Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim are new to the fold as executive producers on W/ Bob and David. If Wareheim somehow turns out to have had a hand in Marvel’s Jessica Jones, he’ll have a November hat trick of excellent Netflix projects.
