With Netflix on the mountainous rise that it's on, it's fun to see what they can do with their influence and convenient platform. While they have been providing its customers with new stand-up comedy by means of the Netflix Comedy Specials, it has provided a new platform. Much like Comedy Central Presents and the Half Hour, The Standups provides up and coming comedians a platform to show off their comedic chops.
I will be the first to admit that this was not the best lineup that the show could have started with, but many of them were really quite promising.
Nate Bargatze, whom I have heard of before, kicked off the series with a strong performance. Much of his material comes off as a bit absurdist, but Bargatze really brings his A-game with his performance.
Fortune Feimster provided a few laughs for me, but her material is not what I particularly look for when I want to watch comedy. Her bit about being a lesbian and loving Chik-Fil-A, though a bit unoriginal, was fairly humorous.
Deon Cole perhaps had the best performance of the six, in my opinion. Like another reviewer has mentioned, the way he structured his performance was actually quite ingenious. One of the funniest jokes he had during his performance involved Caitlyn Jenner and her vehicular manslaughter charge. Definitely one of the best jokes overall. He also provides some philosophy about romance and racism that are actually quite genuine. If you were to only give one comedian on this lineup a chance, make it this one.
Nikki Glaser, perhaps best known for her short-lived Comedy Central series Not Safe with Nikki Glaser, really disappointed me with her performance. She had some promising jokes about online dating sites and air travel, but most everything else comes off as lackluster for me. Again, like Fortune Feimster, Glaser is not really my brand of comedy, so I won't critique her too much.
Beth Stelling is another comedian in this lineup that had a really strong performance. Her material ranged from staying in hotels, messing with airport security, her mom, her family, her weight loss, frozen yogurt, and many others. Almost everything is funny in her performance. I would say that she was my favorite.
Dan Soder ended this particular season on a very high note for me. While he did not have as much charisma as Cole or the same impact as Stelling, he certainly held his own. He speaks about his marijuana usage as well as his grandma and his love life. He has this thing, however, where he sort of laughs with the audience at certain times in his jokes. This doesn't necessarily bother me, but I know that it bothers other people, so I just wanted to throw out that warning before they decide to watch it.
If I were to rank the six comedians, it would be like this:
1. Dean Cole / Beth Stelling: they both provided humorous material and made me laugh the hardest.
2. Nate Bargatze: his absurdist and almost "blue-collar" material was very humorous.
3. Dan Soder: he had definite shining moments but could probably work on his delivery a bit (though that's not a totally huge issue for me).
4. Fortune Feimster: didn't make me laugh that much but had some bright moments here and there.
5. Nikki Glaser: just didn't provide material that made me laugh that much. Again, Glaser and Feimster are not particularly my brand of comedy, so no one should really base an opinion on them based off of mine.
Overall, this series is very promising. Hopefully, Netflix will continue this series and bring on even more talents on the rise. I give this series, based solely on the initial viewing of the first season, a seven out of ten.
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