Netflix's Chelsea Does

January 24, 2016 9:42 PM

This weekend Netflix released Chelsea Does, a new documentary series that follows comedian Chelsea Handler as she explores the topics of marriage, racism, drugs, and Silicon Valley. Some reviews have been quite positive whereas others are much more negative.
posted by smorgasbord (20 comments total)

I watched the "Racism" and "Drugs" segments. The "Racism" segment is basically "Well-meaning but hopelessly self-centered and ignorant White woman blunders her way through race, discovering other White people are way shittier than she expected without ever turning the lens on herself." There is a lot of "check out these bad White people" without much "hmm I wonder if I should re-evaluate my perceptions."

The drugs segment demonstrated a similar lack of self-awareness, save at the very end when she has some revelations about her sister.

They're exactly what you would expect from her, I guess.
posted by Anonymous at 10:10 PM on January 24, 2016

She's rich. She's white. WHY ARE YOU NOT LISTENING TO HER????
posted by zaelic at 3:56 AM on January 25, 2016 [5 favorites]

The one redeeming quality of this show is that the New York Times' review mentions a pretty interesting-sounding Maggie Gyllenhaal series that I hadn't heard about. I think I'll take their advice and watch that instead.
posted by Metroid Baby at 5:37 AM on January 25, 2016

Chelsea Does

I liked it better when Penn & Teller did.
posted by MikeMc at 6:10 AM on January 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

I watched the drugs one and it was so privileged I couldn't stand it. She and her friends just laugh and laugh while getting high on legal medical weed on a hillside being served by waitstaff and then she takes all sorts of medications in front of some sort of researcher (who asks her to do things like draw and play Twister) and she never addresses even slightly the problem that, while she and her lily-white buddies can do this on camera, there are people being rounded up and jailed for years for even possessing a fraction of what they've consumed. Then she nods knowingly at people whose lives were ruined by addiction, but she says she's not like them, because she can handle all the substances she ingests. It's just all so tone-deaf, it's amazing. The woman seems to have no self awareness at all.
posted by xingcat at 6:50 AM on January 25, 2016 [7 favorites]

Whenever I see Chelsea Handler's name in print, I always get really excited for a split second before realizing that it's not Chelsea Peretti.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:11 AM on January 25, 2016 [16 favorites]

I don't want to go.
posted by davebush at 8:03 AM on January 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

I watched all of them except for the drugs one; the racism one was the best out of the three that I watched. There are moments, particularly when she's talking to people, but I she really pushes the "I'm an equal opportunity offender, I make fun of everybody! Hee!"
posted by Comrade_robot at 8:04 AM on January 25, 2016

I liked it better when Penn & Teller did.

You mean when they were telling us environmentalism was bullshit and hawking other libertarian nonsense?
posted by Sangermaine at 8:28 AM on January 25, 2016 [7 favorites]

No thank you.
posted by EatTheWeek at 8:47 AM on January 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'd be much more interested in a show like this hosted by Chelsea Manning.
posted by Chuffy at 8:47 AM on January 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

Me, I'd probably prefer the one with Chelsea Clinton.
posted by box at 9:51 AM on January 25, 2016

I'd prefer Chelsea Hotel.
posted by jonmc at 9:59 AM on January 25, 2016

On Jackie Kashian and Laurie Kilmartin's new podcast they mentioned how annoying it is that every show with a female comedian starring has to have a sexualized title, in reference to Samantha Bee's new show. Now I am going to be equally annoyed by this trend too.
posted by Space Coyote at 11:56 AM on January 25, 2016

I know some people who used to write for one of Chelsea Handler's shows. Comparisons with Stalin came up, and they wer actually more flattering toward Stalin.
posted by jonp72 at 1:04 PM on January 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

I seriously cannot figure out how she has a career. I picked her book up in a second hand store and gave it back to them for free after two chapters. I've watched about four episodes of her talk show and almost cried.

She doesn't tell jokes. She talks about drinking a lot, and everyone laughs. She's like the worst fratgirl sitting next to you at a bar talking loudly into her bejeweled cell phone about how crazy her life is.

I was going to say watch Chelsea Peretti instead, but in the tradition of upthread I will recommend literally anything ever done by anybody else named Chelsea. Hell, I once got mugged in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, and I'd do that again over watching her output.
posted by lumpenprole at 1:35 PM on January 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

You mean when they were telling us environmentalism was bullshit and hawking other libertarian nonsense?

Are you saying you didn't buy the argument that recycling is bad because it's too hard?
posted by P.o.B. at 1:55 PM on January 25, 2016

I would be okay with this turning into a thread about how awesomely hilarious Chelsea Peretti is.
posted by invitapriore at 7:40 PM on January 25, 2016

how awesomely hilarious Chelsea Peretti is.

Cosigned. Did you catch Ralphie May's twitter tantrum about her special One of the Greats? He was upset that she was disrespecting Carlin and Prior or some such nonsense. I knew that title was gonna troll Comedy Bros, but I didn't expect any pros or semipros to fall for it. Brilliant.
posted by EatTheWeek at 2:30 PM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

I didn't, but I did rub my hands together in malicious glee at that title and the pants-shitting it would cause even before I watched the special, which I think is a real accomplishment on her part.
posted by invitapriore at 3:43 PM on January 26, 2016