I saw Maria Bamford's stand-up special for Comedy Central years ago and loved it, she explains a little about herself in it and so I had a slight background knowledge of her, but didn't know anything about the show. The first episode was a little hard to follow, but it's supposed to be that way. As you keep watching, you get what she's going for and it's awesome. I think it's too awesome and too deep for some people, hence the stupid reviews like: "it's a failure"-to that I say "you're a failure, butt-face, just because you're not smart enough to get the joke doesn't mean it's not funny." Anyway, it's like she/they-(the cast is amazing and so talented, the fact that she got so many well-known people in the show tells you that she's genius, it takes a great comedian to make other comedians laugh)-zoom in and out on life stuff. Some of it is like big-picture, meaning-of-life stuff, some of it is about things a lot of average people struggle with, like doing too much or not being able to say no, and some is really specific issues that everybody may not relate to-like what do you do when someone you're dating dies and you have to be a part of their funeral but you really don't know them well? What do you do when you realize you thought you were dating someone and they had a totally different goal/idea of the relationship? And Maria takes those topics and comments on them in her unique and hilarious way. And she works in stuff about mental illness as well, which is honest and brave and ground-breaking, and also hilarious. It's hard to explain, but really this show is about everything and nothing all at once and it's a work of art.
Side note: Some people might feel uncomfortable about the frank discussion of mental health issues, psychologists, psychiatrists, and medications, but I think those are things a lot of people deal with in real life and real life things can be the basis for the funniest jokes. She is of course exaggerating about some things in the show, so don't think she's like a total nutcase in real life, sometimes art imitates life and sometimes art is just a total work of the imagination. It seems to me she is incredibly ordinary in the way she does her life, she just deals with different issues than some people, and she's also incredibly amazing in how she is brave enough to discuss those things openly, and she must be very emotionally intelligent and wise to have done the treatments she has and to avoid hiding her issues, because what it takes for a person to be successful in anything is self-awareness, honesty, and a willingness to ask and accept help when they need it. Athletes don't make it to the Olympics on sheer talent alone, and people with illness-physical or mental, short-term or chronic, don't make it to a place of wellness and balance without self-awareness, honesty and help. But that is a very hard-learned lesson and it takes time to get to a point of clarity about this, Maria has obviously done this with her life and she's sharing her wisdom with this show. I appreciate it, and I get it. And no, I'm not mentally ill-not that there's anything wrong with that ;)
Side note: Some people might feel uncomfortable about the frank discussion of mental health issues, psychologists, psychiatrists, and medications, but I think those are things a lot of people deal with in real life and real life things can be the basis for the funniest jokes. She is of course exaggerating about some things in the show, so don't think she's like a total nutcase in real life, sometimes art imitates life and sometimes art is just a total work of the imagination. It seems to me she is incredibly ordinary in the way she does her life, she just deals with different issues than some people, and she's also incredibly amazing in how she is brave enough to discuss those things openly, and she must be very emotionally intelligent and wise to have done the treatments she has and to avoid hiding her issues, because what it takes for a person to be successful in anything is self-awareness, honesty, and a willingness to ask and accept help when they need it. Athletes don't make it to the Olympics on sheer talent alone, and people with illness-physical or mental, short-term or chronic, don't make it to a place of wellness and balance without self-awareness, honesty and help. But that is a very hard-learned lesson and it takes time to get to a point of clarity about this, Maria has obviously done this with her life and she's sharing her wisdom with this show. I appreciate it, and I get it. And no, I'm not mentally ill-not that there's anything wrong with that ;)