This new Netflix series blends Black Mirror bleakness with cringe comedy and it’s an ideal weekend binge-watch
Even though reviews of Bad Thoughts haven’t ranked highly enough to earn it a place on our best Netflix shows roundup, the streamer’s new anthology series does come highly recommended from me.
I’m a huge fan of darkly funny stories and anthologies, and I do place Black Mirror season 7 into that category, even if many of the tales in Charlie Brooker’s series are downright bleak with no comedic relief.
In Bad Thoughts, however, the disturbing nature of the stories is offset by some gross-out, cringe comedy and usually I’m not a huge fan of that, but it really worked for me here.
Check out the trailer for the six-part series, now playing on one of the best streaming services.
Why I love Netflix’s Bad Thoughts
The series is Tom Segura’s first go at sketch comedy. It sees him play various different roles including an incompetent assassin, a country singer who kidnaps his fans, and a difficult customer at a coffee shop. You never quite know what you’re going to get as you jump between episodes, and it’s guaranteed to shock you.
And seriously it’s very shocking. The first episode alone made me think “oh, this is how dark we’re getting, okay!”, and even though you can kind of predict what’s coming, it still fills you with this nervous sense of dread. You’ll also laugh too, which is a strange sensation indeed.
There’s some really great guest stars in this series too including Jurassic Park’s Daniella Pineda, The Sopranos’ Robert Iler and Boardwalk Empire’s Shea Whigham, accompanying Segura on this totally wild adventure.
The show is rated R for “crude humor” and “injury detail” and seriously, you will cringe in places. This is definitely an adults-only show and covers some topics that are not family friendly at all, so be warned! I wouldn’t be surprised if you watch some of this behind your eyes, quite honestly.
Segura has got the balance between humour and horrifying stuff right here, in my opinion. He plays on stereotypes, parodies things like action flicks, disaster movies, and A24 movies, and isn’t afraid to just go there.
The same as any anthology series, some episodes are stronger than others and people will have their own thoughts about each one, whether that’s positive or not.
Bad Thoughts has a 55% Rotten Tomatoes critical rating, not high enough to be considered ‘Fresh’ by the review aggregrate site’s standards, so it’s become this weekend’s ‘Marmite’ watch. It’s going to delight some people and completely disgust others, and perhaps that’s enough to convince you to give it a go!