Review of I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (2019)

Moving picture, 5.0 hours

Seen in 2025.

Sketch comedy.

In the final sketch of the final episode of the third and final season as of 2025-02, Robinson finally engages directly with the subject of comedy videos on social media. That’s after a sketch about sitcoms taped in front of a live audience, and it’s an interesting choice, because social media is to I Think You Should Leave what television was to Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969). There is variety here, but the central motif of the series is a species of embarrassment born of social interactions normally being mediated through the Internet. It is barely evolved from the cringe comedy of the previous decade, but it is cross-bred with “The Imp of the Perverse” (1845): A game with the idea of being drawn to take the faux pas and puncture the narcissistic self-control that reigns on social media. True to this theme, Robinson likes to work in short takes, using maximum control in the editing room to carefully arrange its opposite.

moving picture fiction series