What's it like to be a woman in comedy? Oh, it's my favorite question.

August 25, 2016 9:52 AM

"If you watch a lot of television and you don't know what could happen to lesbians if they don't die, this is a show about that. I promise you, no lesbians die in this show." Rhea Butcher and Cameron Esposito play a lightly fictionalized version of themselves -- a married couple who co-host a standup comedy show in Los Angeles -- in their new sitcom, Take My Wife.

♀♀ A.V. Club: Take My Wife radiates with the chemistry of its central couple

Take My Wife is the only show on television that's centered on two women who are comics and also lesbians, but that singularity doesn't make it niche. Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher's new scripted Seeso series is specific—Esposito and Butcher play, respectively, Cameron and Rhea, two stand-ups in a relationship—but it breathes with relatable conflict and comedy. It unpacks big ideas in its up-close-and-personal world.

♀♀ Vulture: Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher on Take My Wife, 'The Show Where Lesbians Don’t Die'

When Rhea and I were working on the show, our goal daily was that people would say "Wow, this feels honest and this feels specific and this feels like it's about women." And that is why it's universal, because it's so specific and because it's so honest, so it's really treating women as if we're universal. As if we have acceptability to everybody, which I believe we do. So often women are treated as if we're a minority group, and we're 51 percent of the U.S. population. There are more of us than aren't, and we're not something that can't be understood.

Kill Rock Stars has released comedy albums by both women: Esposito's Same Sex Symbol came out in October 2014, and Butcher debuted last Friday, August 19.

The first episode of Take My Wife is now streaming on YouTube; the five remaining episodes are available to watch on Seeso and Amazon.

posted by amnesia and magnets (13 comments total)

They are both amazing and amazing comics and I hope they become so, so famous
posted by The Whelk at 9:56 AM on August 25, 2016 [5 favorites]

This show is so good, and good-natured, and I had expected this to be Cameron's show but Rhea's performance is quietly amazing. I'm extremely irritated we've seen them all already, but on the upside maybe there will be a flippin' Seeso app for the Apple TV by the time the next season comes out.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:12 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you watch a lot of television and you don't know what could happen to lesbians if they don't die, this is a show about that.

Alas, I just read a lot about lesbians in Dykes to Watch Out For.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:12 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Between this and the forthcoming My Brother My Brother and Me TV show, I think I might need to break down and get Seeso.
posted by roll truck roll at 10:12 AM on August 25, 2016

This show is amazing and fun. I'm a fan of both of them and I have Seeso so I watched the first one. I very quickly burned through the rest and I'm sad I'm out of episodes. On their Put Your Hands Together podcast (I reccommend it highly if you like them or just like standup) they talked recently about how they are hoping for a second season. I don't see how they won't get a second at least. I've seen this show mentioned in a bunch of places, most recently in the print issue of Time I read while I waited for an appointment. Seeso better realize the mainstream attention this show is bringing to their upstart network (is it a network? a channel? I don't know with these streaming only things) and give them more money and let them keep doing what they do so well. But then Seeso is NBC who aren't always known for their excellent decision making.

Between this and the forthcoming My Brother My Brother and Me TV show, I think I might need to break down and get Seeso.

Hidden America with Jonah Ray and Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ are also excellent. Thingstarter is well done but not really my thing. Plus every episode of SNL - though without musical guests and many sketches cut. Their original programming was in place and well done on day one. I hope it continues.

I swear I don't work for Seeso. I just get excited about good comedy done well
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 10:35 AM on August 25, 2016

I must say I love the idea of Seeso and was totally on board when it first launched, but they seemed to have soooo many streaming and tech issues that I just gave up on it and haven't really gone back. There's so much good stuff on there now, though... have they dealt with the growing pains? Because it was soooooo awful months ago.
posted by tittergrrl at 10:45 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Another surprisingly charming Seeso show: Harmonquest. Something about this particular format keeps Dan Harmon on his best behavior (possibly the presence of his almost-ex-wife? probably also editing), Spencer is your favorite deadpan DM dealing with people who have almost no idea how to play D&D, Jeff is great, the guests are diverse in demographics and experience, Erin is on point, and the animation makes it an actual pleasure to watch someone else's RPG campaign.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:18 AM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

I just signed up for a trial sub, and it's semi-decent on a technical level. My main peeve is that (just like with HBO Now, which I ditched the moment Game of Thrones ended this past season) you can't "favorite" an entire series for later viewing as you can on Netflix/Hulu/etc, just individual episodes. That said, I'm greatly enjoying both Harmonquest and Bajillion Dollar Properties, and will probably stick with it for the next few months at least.

Haven't watched Cameron and Rhea's show yet, but it's on my list.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:25 AM on August 25, 2016

Between this and the forthcoming My Brother My Brother and Me TV show, I think I might need to break down and get Seeso.

Plus Seeso brought back Lin Manuel Miranda's Freestyle Love Supreme! I'm going to give in.
posted by gladly at 11:27 AM on August 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

I want to love Seeso (and will absolutely be watching this!) but it's a trainwreck on Amazon Video. One early episode of The Mighty Boosh (which I'm finally trying many years late) is literally three minutes long, another was obviously uploaded from a non-anamorphic DVD rip with bad PAL to NTSC conversion, and one of the shows I subscribed for, Flowers, flat out doesn't appear on Amazon. At all. I've emailed Seeso about these and they were quick to respond, but weeks later haven't made any progress on actually fixing any of them.
posted by Merzbau at 12:08 PM on August 25, 2016

tittergrrl: "they seemed to have soooo many streaming and tech issues that I just gave up on it and haven't really gone back"

Merzbau: "I want to love Seeso (and will absolutely be watching this!) but it's a trainwreck on Amazon Video."

I was just about to ask whether getting it through Amazon Video is a better experience than the standalone app. Sounds like it's a wash.
posted by roll truck roll at 12:17 PM on August 25, 2016

I haven't seen the show yet, but I've been looking forward to it & planning on it soon. Good to know a bit about the technical issues. I have been a fan of Cameron Esposito for a while and caught her standup set last year - it was even better than I expected. Also, have come to love Rhea Butcher's standup mostly from their podcast "Put Your Hands Together," mentioned above, which is all standup, mostly lesser known acts.
posted by krinklyfig at 3:57 AM on August 26, 2016

Enjoyed this and hoping some of the viewing options work for Euroland.
posted by Iteki at 9:41 AM on August 26, 2016