The Premise: B.J. Novak’s anthology series wants to provoke

A five-episode anthology series is set up to challenge what you think about the ethical dilemmas of our world.

Wenlei Ma

@wenleima

2 min read

September 20, 2021 - 6:19PM

Anthology shows are always a gamble.

Not just whether the series as a whole is worth your time, but whether each episode is.

From Black Mirror and Modern Love to The Twilight Zone and Room 104, there will be episodes that convince you of its creative genius and then others that have you wondering if you accidentally switched over to something else and didn’t notice.

The Premise follows a similar pattern.

Created by B.J. Novak, who is best known for his work on The Office US, both behind the scenes as a writer and onscreen as Ryan “Fire(d) Guy” Howard, The Premise is a five-episode instalment that features a great cast and a strong idea.

It’s just in the execution – and particularly the way some of the stories end – where it wobbles.

Each episode is centred on a scenario of a moral conundrum. They’re all outlandish and contrived canvases to explore, arguably, increasingly thornier ethical landscapes, thrown up by today’s technologies, social mores and political divisions.

Jon Bernthal in The Premise’s “Moment of Silence” episode. Picture: FX on Hulu

In the first episode, “Social Justice Sex Tape”, Ben Platt plays a man who thinks of himself as an ally to progressive causes. While watching back a sex tape of himself and an ex, he notices in the background of the video a black man (Jermaine Fowler) being wrongfully arrested outside his building.

That man is now on trial, and the video will exonerate him – but the content of the sex tape, and the public humiliation that comes with it – challenges the main character’s sense of doing the right thing versus self-preservation.

The second episode, “Moment of Silence”, features Jon Bernthal as a man who joins a gun lobby group in its PR department after his young daughter is killed in a mass shooting.

His sudden take-up of target shooting, his propensity to bring his weapons into the open-carry office, as well as some things he’s said, gives his new colleagues and friends cause for concern, as the anniversary of the killing approaches.

The delivery and pay-off here is the strongest of the season, a fable about hypocrisy and grief.

Other episodes engage with the replacement of religious worship with fame and celebrity, the commodification of sex, performative social media, the thrill of external validation, and mercy versus revenge.

Lucas Hedges and Kaitlyn Dever on The Premise. Picture: FX on Hulu

The Premise wants you to mull the ideas it’s proposed, but it’s not provocative to really challenge your existing conceits.

The series has neither the satirical edge nor the character depth of Novak’s writing contributions on The Office, and its tone and sharpness is more or less in line with the volume of short stories he released in 2013, One More Thing.

But it is amusing and digestible.

It helps that the cast also includes Daniel Dae Kim, Lucas Hedges, Kaitlyn Dever, Beau Bridges, Tracee Ellis Ross, Lola Kirke and Ed Asner (in one of his final screen appearances), and the episodes run for under 30 minutes.

It’s not going to blow or change your mind, but there are worse things than being fleeting.