Indecent Exposure

Jerrod Carmichael's reality series attempts to excavate his deepest flaws.

- KATHRYN VANARENDONK

COMEDIAN JERROD CARMICHAEL'S new show is obnoxiously compelling—compelling because Carmichael cannot seem to help being electrically charismatic as the series moves through stories and ideas with an ease that belies the challenge of good pacing; obnoxious because the only thing more trying than a vanity project is a vanity project that cannot stop examining itself. The half-hour documentary-style series Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show follows Carmichael during the period after his 2022 special, Rothaniel, and mixes footage shot by a documentary crew and by Carmichael himself with scenes from his standup performances filmed more like his special than a documentary. The series swings through moments of heartbreaking sincerity, tenderness, self-recrimination, rage, and puckishness, letting those moods live together harmoniously. Viewers may feel devastated by one sequence and want to punt Carmichael into the stratosphere shortly thereafter. But the series’ most fascinating moments are the brief portraits of the friends and family around its central figure. Ostensibly about Jerrod Carmichael, the show asks how well he can see others beyond himself.

At its best, Carmichael’s obsessions and artistic ideas are used as a springboard to talk about comedy and creative production. The strongest episode focuses on Jamar Neighbors, who is running on fumes after years of performing a kind of impersonal, shock-style stand-up and whom Carmichael advises to consider talking more about his background. Neighbors is game but also resistant: It’s upsetting to dig into his early trauma and challenging to make that stuff funny. How Neighbors’s attempt at Carmichael’s comedic approach plays out is the nut of