B. J Novak's Anthology Series "The Premise" Is a Timely Waste of Time

Published Sep 16 2021 at 8:40 AM GMT

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Courtesy of FXThe Premise refers to itself as "An Anthology of Now", which in practice means that it trades in irony-laden stories about modern technology, social justice, school shootings, celebrity, and social media.
Being timely, however, isn't worth much, unless a show also has something insightful or amusing to say about its chosen subjects.
That turns out to be the main problem with BJ Novak's new FX on Hulu series (Sept.
16), a tepid collection of sketchy notions in search of an overriding purpose or unanticipated point of view.
Novak enlists a formidable cast for The Premise, whose guiding m o is to establish a scenario and then upend initial expectations about its characters and outcome.