W/ Bob & David

No summary description begins to capture the inspired silliness of “With Bob and David.” But one thing is certain: Television is way funnier “With Bob and David” than without them.

Terrific sketch comedy: absurd, inventive, surprising, and just damn funny.

[An] edgy gem. [13 Nov 2015, p.55]

You're not likely to find better sketch comedy on TV. It's a shame there are only four episodes.

It's not that W/ Bob and David feels safe exactly, but as welcome as it is to see seasoned professionals team up together to make with the funny, it's hard not to mourn, just a bit, the fact that more chances could have been taken.

The individual sketches themselves are things of beauty, running the gamut from old-school setups with one big joke that's repeated in a variety of ways right on up to those that make fun of current trends and pop culture.

While it is funny, sometimes very funny, it also has the quality of a gift--a gift from the artists to themselves and one another as much as to their audience.

Despite the 17 years that have passed since the end of “Mr. Show,” the format still works and the guys are still funny, despite not doing much to get with the times.

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.

At times endearingly old-fashioned (montages of whirling newspaper headlines), sometimes scatalogical (a time-machine toilet), occasionally blasphemous ("Turkey Jesus"), and totally irreverent (Odenkirk as "Pope Jonah Abromowitz.") The tone can get pointed (Cross as a filmmaker who's such an apologist for slavery he refuses to call it that, instead using the term, "helperism"), but the mood stays buoyant.

There’s a pretty good set of sketches that occasionally reach transcendence.

As usual, Odenkirk and Cross' humor ranges from easily explainable silliness that escalates in unexpected and extreme ways to more savvy and formally adventurous sketches that play off the familiar in smartly escalating ways.

W/ Bob & David is, pretty much, an of-its-time sketch show following the same format as Mr. Show--one sketch leads into the next, in a funny, often tenuous, manner.

While not every moment works--or even makes sense--the most vital link between old and new is Odenkirk and Cross’s almost-sacred dedication to following the funny as they see it. Viewer mileage always varies the most when it comes to comedy, but dedicated “Mr. Show” fans will likely be happy to spend a little more time W/Bob and David.

Without spoiling the brief season, I found the new sketches polished, if unsurprisingly hit and miss.... Still, if sketch comedy now has more tributaries and more ways to stream, it’s no less fun, in “W/ Bob & David,” to paddle back to the source.

It feels more like a casual affair, something that Odenkirk and Cross did on a break from things they take more seriously. They are such brilliant writers and comedians that their talents make the result of that “break project” entertaining, but one wonders how this might have turned out with a bit more concerted effort.

There’s some funny stuff on the Netflix version (two episodes were made available). Truthfully, just not enough. In fact, W/Bob & David can be more tedious than inventive.

Nothing about the targets or topics feels distinctive enough here to merit much enthusiasm. ... While there are, inevitably, some funny moments (and some really bad wigs), there’s also a sense that this was a weekend lark.