Set in the eponymous corner of Brooklyn, this laid-back comedy started life as a low budget web series and was picked up by Showtime in the US. It features teacher Dan and artist Kevin (Dan Perlman and Kevin Iso), who are childhood friends now living together as flatmates. Whilst the rich character studies are hugely entertaining, the comedy is drawn out across the series with a ludicrous crime caper after Kevin accidentally destroys a drug dealer’s stash when working as a delivery guy.
Created by and starring stand-up comedians Iso and Perlman, Flatbush Misdemeanors is laid back and smart, full of millennial references and storylines that take on race, gentrification, and a quickly evolving New York. The show doesn’t take a sledgehammer to the issues it tackles, but circles them with raised eyebrows and a sideways glance. Funny, but also warm.
For another rich comedy with character see our review of Ramy, also set in New York
Previewing the show in The New York Times Stuart Miller thinks it has “melancholic underpinnings that will be familiar to almost anyone who has ever been young and struggling in New York City.” He adds “the show’s pensiveness is offset by an off-kilter humor that finds the weird in the funny moments of life and the funny in the weird moments.” Variety’s Daniel d’Addario says that “Iso and Perlman, both appealing actors, have an unforced, likable chemistry. This makes the shagginess of the series feel like an honest expression of their vibe, even as it can sometimes lend scenes an unfinished air.”
Writing in The Guardian, Rebecca Nicholson thinks the series “finds an unusual tone by blending its laid-back approach with this high-stakes central plot that shouldn’t fit, but somehow comes together to find an oddly pleasing balance. It is lo-fi and ambling, dry-witted and a bit mumbly, but every now and then a big belly laugh arrives, pulled from the wreckage of an increasingly surreal scene.”
First shown in August 2021
