Bobcat Goldthwait’s new TruTV anthology series “Misfits & Monsters” is all about mashups and playing with tropes, something you would 100 percent expect from the comic-turned director and producer.
But when Danny Pudi explained to TheWrap that his episode is “Enemy of the State” meets “Home Alone” (and that fellow series star Seth Green’s installment is “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” combined with “Cape Fear”) we felt like that sounded a little whacky — and we’re talking about Goldthwait here. And then Pudi described it as “‘Black Mirror’-ish.”
“Yeah, thats fine with me [laughs],” Goldthwait told us, coming in mid-interview during the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour back in January, to hear that Pudi was pitching his show to TheWrap as Goldthwait’s version of Charlie Brooker’s Netflix series. “Compare it to that! I’d rather you compare it to that than something bad.”
“But, yeah, I even felt that when we were making it,” Goldthwait said. “I might actually owe those guys a fruit basket. I felt [Pudi’s] is the closest episode to ‘Black Mirror,’ because that’s the only one that basically takes place right now and is tech heavy. The other episodes, even though they take place now, you’re not sure.”
“In my episode, I work as a scientist at this corporation that is working with artificial intelligence and I am on the brink of discovering something,” Pudi explained. “I get these elements to communicate and the technology starts doing something very exciting and I think that I’ve discovered something but it quickly escalates — and the technology is after me! [laughs]”
“He’s really good at physical comedy and it’s really about tech and how it’s cutting us off from each other, basically,” Goldthwait, who worked with Pudi on an episode of Dan Harmon’s series “Community,” added. “That’s the theme of his episode.”
“It feels like it’s this kind of suspenseful half-hour, but at the same time there is a lot of physicality and physical comedy involved,” Pudi says. “And when I read the script I was super excited because it is this thing that quickly escalates and the stakes keep getting higher and higher and higher, and there is this dark undercurrent. My episode definitely has a twist to it and this great exploration of a theme of modern day technology and how we use it and how it affects us. So despite it being this weird trip and journey, he’s saying something really cool. And, yeah, ‘Black Mirror.’”
“Yeah, it’s ‘Black Mirror,’” Goldthwait added.
Here is “Bobcat Goldthwait’s Misfits & Monsters” official description, per TruTV:
From the twisted mind of celebrated auteur Bobcat Goldthwait, truTV’s scripted anthology series “Bobcat Goldthwait‘s Misfits & Monsters” mashes up wildly different genres to tell suspenseful stories with funny, imaginative twists. Each distinct episode turns familiar tropes inside out to create a curated and eclectic collection of stories filled with equal parts nostalgia and modern satire.
Guest stars throughout the eight-episode first season include Pudi, Green, Michael Ian Black, Bridget Everett, Dave Foley, Seth Green, Melissa Joan Hart, David Koechner and more.
“Bobcat Goldthwait’s Misfits & Monsters” premieres tonight, Wednesday, at 10/9c on TruTV.