Review: Legit ‘Anger’ – That Joke Kills On Stage

‘Anger’ feels less like the first three episodes of Legit, and more like an indie version of a Seinfeld episode. There isn’t so much a plot to the episode, as a series of scenarios where Jim Jeffries can riff on whatever social norm that’s on his mind, be it flying, being paralyzed, or a gay black guy. It definitely has its funny moments, but it doesn’t quite come together in the final moments the way previous episodes have.

Ultimately, the episode feels a bit empty because Jim is so detached from everything that’s going on. We’re hearing his voice, and get plenty of reaction shots from the mortified people on the plane (he calls the gay black guy hogging his armrest a cunt), but the events never connect to Jim in any meaningful way. Legit is a show about growth, but ‘Anger’ doesn’t appear very interested in that, especially in the end. Jim eventually makes a terribly, self-indulgent apology to the gay man, and gets completely thrown off when he calls “the one gay guy in Omaha” and leaves to go get laid.

In narrative terms, ‘Anger’ tries to draw its parallels from Billy and Jim, two pissed off guys who can’t control anything around him. But again, Billy fighting with his mother about her controlling nature has completely different emotional stakes to Jim’s situation (which is just thinly-veiled stand up material), and without getting into the mother’s character a little more (she’s a hoarder, the most uninteresting character trait ever), it doesn’t give their relationship any kind of interesting dynamic.

‘Anger’ pulls away from its character study of the first three episodes, and tries to deal with broader issues of race, sexuality, and of course, airplane etiquette. But the material doesn’t quite connect with the characters at any point, and while it makes for a perfectly funny episode, it’s more shticky than Legit needs to be. At its core, Legit has a big, warm heart – and ‘Anger’ is nothing but cold cynicism, an episode that has gret intentions, but gets sidetracked with its jokes.

Grade: B-

– I found it odd the visual parallels drawn between Billy and Steve (red pillows, shots comparing their uncomfortable positions) – most of the episode is trying to draw lines between Billy and Jim.

– Billy’s mom puts flowers in a bong and places it by the couch. How decorative.

– “It’s not offensive… it’s magnificent.”

– the highlight of the episode is the English man who chimes in often during Jim’s rants on the plane.

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