12/12/2025

FRIDAY | DEC 12, 2025

25

LYFE

The Chair Company is absurdity at its finest

possible way. He first appears as someone shockingly violent then slowly becomes oddly endearing before revealing an even more disturbing side. His backstory is somehow wholesome, sad and sickening. Sophia Lillis plays Natalie Trosper, Ron’s daughter who somehow stays on his side through what looks, from the

coincidences, empty warehouses, eccentric coworkers and a growing sense that something is either very wrong or completely imagined. Alongside his unhinged partner Mike Santini (Joseph Tudisco), Ron digs deeper into a puzzle that might involve corporate fraud, identity theft and a mysterious chair manufacturer, all while his family and coworkers watch him unravel. The show never settles on whether Ron is uncovering a real conspiracy or collapsing under his own paranoia, which keeps the story moving in a constant state of absurd and uncomfortable tension. Somehow, it never gets boring. The series balances its structure well with episodes shifting between the conspiracy thread and Ron’s work life and the family tension and the friendships that appear out of nowhere. The conspiracy itself is ridiculously entertaining. Half the time it feels like Ron and Mike are grasping at straws. The other half you start to wonder if they might be accidentally right. A few details connect in a way that should not make sense yet somehow do and that is the fun of it. You get dragged into their spiral without realising it. Robinson is great as Ron. He plays him with all the awkwardness and panic you would expect. Ron is a man with strange ideas and even stranger reactions who desperately wants to seem normal but absolutely cannot help himself. He also lies to escape sticky situations almost on instinct. It is the style Robinson is known for and while it will not land for everyone, it feels perfect here. Tudisco’s Mike is unhinged in the best

TV SHOW REVIEW

H BO’S The Chair Company might be one of the strangest shows on TV right now, and that is exactly why it works. Everything about it is absurd. The behaviour is absurd. The conspiracy is absurd. The situations swing so far into nonsense that you start laughing out of confusion. Yet the business side of things and the family dynamic feel weirdly real. That mix gives the show a pulse that keeps you watching even when nothing makes sense. Tim Robinson has basically created a long-form version of an I Think You Should Leave sketch. It carries the same painfully cringe humour where every small mistake becomes a full catastrophe. The series follows Ron Trosper (Robinson), a well-meaning but painfully awkward project manager who becomes obsessed with a bizarre conspiracy after a humiliating incident involving a faulty chair. What begins as a simple complaint spirals into a full-blown investigation filled with dead ends, strange o Broken furniture sends one man spiralling to uncover bizarre conspiracy Ű BY AMEEN HAZIZI

The series is HBO’s biggest comedy launch in more than five years with 1.4 million viewers in its first three days.

Rian Johnson on latest Knives Out movie WRITER and director Rian Johnson is unveiling his third Knives Out mystery movie Wake Up, Dead Man , which streams on Netflix today. The film centres around Father Jud Duplenticy, played by Josh O’Connor, who finds himself the prime suspect in a murder amid a small, close-knit Catholic church congregation. The Knives Out detective from the previous franchise films, Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, turns up to solve the mystery. Johnson talked about the process of creating the third film in the franchise. When you’re picking titles for films, such as the last film Glass Onion , and this one Wake Up, Dead Man , how much are you trying to befuddle the audience just with the title alone? Well, I mean, you’re trying to pick a title that sounds like a good murder mystery title, that sounds a little intriguing but also that hopefully once you see the movie, you’re like, “It couldn’t have been named anything else.” And this movie, I think the title is apropos. When you’re writing these mysteries, do you know who you have in mind for who the cast is? I try not to, because it’s a pathway to heartbreak because in one way, all the actors are excited about being in them. It’s still we’re going after people who are the busiest people in the world, who are these movie stars so you don’t always know if it’s going to work out schedule-wise. So, if you’ve written with somebody deeply ingrained for that part and you can’t get them, then that’s a heartbreak. I try and write just to the characters. I try and just write an interesting group and then find the best people to play them. I think last time I interviewed you for Glass Onion , you’d done this script already. How far ahead are you of future instalments? I actually think it’s quite important for me not to come up with an idea and start writing it until I know it’s going to be the next thing. So it’s not like I have a drawer of ideas for these things. – Reuters Johnson is well-regarded for his Knives Out mystery films. – PIC FROM GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

outside, like a prolonged nervous breakdown or a full mid-life crisis. She is surprisingly normal, which might be the strangest thing in the entire show. With everyone else behaving like caricatures of real people, her steady calmness starts to feel surreal. Robinson’s music choices are still impeccable. The songs are oddly tasteful, which makes the chaos around them feel even stranger. The Chair Company is dumb and smart, and somehow neither and both at the same time. It explains nothing and everything, and it glides along with a fever dream energy that makes you question what you just watched. What is clear is that Robinson has made something entirely his and it is a good weekend watch that will leave audiences with more questions than answers.

0 Cast: Tim Robinson, Sophia Lillis, Lake Bell, Joseph Tudisco, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jim Downey 0 Show creators: Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin E-VALUE 10 ACTING 10 PLOT 8

Natalie (Lillis) is the show’s one steady presence which somehow makes her feel even stranger.

Tudisco’s role in The Chair Company is his first major television appearance.

Ron’s chair giving out during a major ceremony, thus beginning his descent into madness and conspiracy. – PICS FROM IMDB