Previewing Shrill

Where Hulu has been swinging for the fences when it comes to dramas bringing in big names and splashy press releases, they may actually be getting more and more niche with its comedies. Earlier this year they premiered PEN15 by far the weirdest thing currently on television. Next month comes Ramy about a millennial Muslim starring someone you probably have never heard of. And today sees the premiere Shrill whose tagline is, “Annie, a fat young woman who wants to change her life — but not her body.” So yeah, Shrill is not a broad comedy either.

Then after one episode, I kind of wondered if Shrill was a comedy at all because the only time I laughed in the first episode was at a very blunt pharmacist. And that was the only scene he was in. Okay the show does get progressively funnier with each passing episode. Early in the second episode Annie, who writes for an online publication which for some reason still has office space, goes to a strip club to review its buffet.

Annie is played by Aidy Bryant (Saturday Night Live) who lives with her lesbian best friend (Lolly Adefope, Miracle Workers) while Luka Jones (People of Earth) is the douchebag boyfriend who she has to slum it with. Or maybe he is slumming it, I kind of go back and forth throughout the season. And he may only be out douched by Annie’s boss John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) who may the most pretentious gay dude ever.

But the problem is that the funniest people on the show are barely on it. There is a very inappropriate receptionist at the paper who always has something condescending to say but Annie is rarely at the office. So the IT girl only gets two scenes, but her matter-of-factly debates whether a corn dog could make for a self-pleasuring instrument may be the funniest bit in the show. It is either that or when you learn why the third episode is entitled “Pencil” (you will never guess why). Shrill can be very funny when it want to be, seriously there is a scene where a character takes shrooms when a dog eat one by accident in solidarity, but actual laughs are sometimes too far in between.

All episodes of Shrill are now streaming on Hulu.