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Critic Reviews
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The comedian maintains the potency and insight of her act without losing her edge. The early episodes suggest a comic sensibility that arrives on television fully-formed, an insight machine whose ability to fillet the absurdities of the world as she sees them may make her a millennial answer to David Letterman.
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It’s refreshing to experience a talk show that cuts the monologue out entirely to get straight to the straight talking. ... [Ziwe] certainly stars shines throughout, even while she’s consistently throwing shade and facial expressions.
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As with any new series, Ziwe has its uneven spots. Some of the musical performances can drag for just a moment too long, and some of the sketches can feel redundant. But overall, these premiere episodes are a formidable start that seem to indicate Ziwe and her show have real staying power.
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Fumudoh's approach on "Ziwe" is as stylized as her sets and costumes, and while she positively gleams in every interaction her heightened persona is a weapon. ... To see these celebrities simultaneously amused and bemused by her as she wraps uncomfortable questions in sunshine and approachable wit serves as its own endorsement for this delightfully subversive series.
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While musical numbers and scripted sketches in the first few episodes fall flat, segments featuring ordinary people — including one where Ziwe interviews several White women named Karen, and another where she demands to know whether her nose bothers a plastic surgeon who suggests she make it more “refined” — show potential.
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Ziwe, so much bigger and glossier than Fumudoh’s Instagram show, is best when it recaptures the original videos’ feeling of live, uneasy, intimate, and intense conversation — when it’s riding on friction and interpersonal messiness.
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Ends up amounting to a creeping self-portrait of its namesake, rendered through flashy critiques of race and the media. ... “Ziwe” is trapped in an interminable dance with whiteness, its muse. ... I found myself most interested in “Ziwe” when the host was in the presence of other Black women—in other words, when the Ziwe persona was put to the test.
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The interviews – pinballing from awkward to endearing with hairpin confrontational questioning – remain the show’s strength, although the guest list will disappoint those looking for the rush of Instagram Live exposure. ... It’s when the show expands from one-on-ones that Ziwe, as a comedy project, flounders, with jokes relying too heavily on racism as a neon-lit punchline.