Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show’ On Max, Where The Comedian Wants To Reveal All Of Himself On Camera

In 2019, Jerrod Carmichael produced and starred in a double-feature of documentary specials for HBO which followed the stand-up comedian back home to North Carolina where he confronted his parents and his sisters about their lives and his upbringing. So much has changed since then. Carmichael won an Emmy for his 2022 special, Rothaniel, in which he came out as gay, hosted Saturday Night Live and the Golden Globes, and featured in a supporting role in the Oscar-winning film, Poor Things. Now he has turned the cameras onto himself for a revealing, intimate look at his life since Rothaniel, and the first of eight weekly episodes might have you wondering just how revealing and intimate a stand-up comedian could be or should be?

JERROD CARMICHAEL REALITY SHOW: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Carmichael, pausing for several moments in reflection while sitting in front of audience performing stand-up. “I fell in love with my best friend,” he eventually tells us, adding: “One out of 10, don’t recommend.” 

The Gist: We cut to a flashback scene with Tyler (if you don’t clock it immediately, we’ll all find out later it’s Tyler the Creator), with Carmichael narrating from the stage how he had revealed his feelings to the rapper, only to be rebuffed later in a voice memo saying “hahaha you stupid bitch,” which Carmichael then recounted to his therapist.

Someone in the comedy audience hearing this story shouts out, “tell the truth!” But Carmichael has other ideas. He wants to show us his new truth. Why? “Cameras make me feel more comfortable,” he says directly to the camera in a self-taped confessional. “I keep saying I want to live more truthfully.” And off we go, and even the camera crew gets captured on camera.

But the first of Carmichael’s friends to appear wears a mask covering his face and has his voice muffled, labelled as Anonymous but clearly a close comedic collaborator whose name rhymes with Mo Murnham, who’s quick to rain on Carmichael’s new reality-TV parade.“To me these cameras, it’s like there’s fucking sarin gas in the room, and I’m masked up,” he says. “Because I’m not exposing myself to this shit.” This is not the last we’ll see of this masked hero/anti-hero, tho.

This first episode focuses on the lead-up to the Emmys, where Carmichael was nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special for Rothaniel. A montage of his appearances on talk shows both celebrates Carmichael and allows him to express his anxiety over how his religious mother really feels about his coming out, or seeing him talk so frankly about it on TV. Carmichael spends the days leading up to the ceremony in a hotel room, nervously texting Tyler the Creator to invite him as his guest/date to the Emmys, and telling a Los Angeles comedy audience about his worries, including a mid-show check of his phone hoping it’s his reply only to crack jokes about how those text notifications are almost always from Carmichael’s personal assistant instead.

A childhood friend visits him in LA and provides advice about dealing with both his unrequited love as well as his relationship with his mother. On the dating front, Carmichael says: “Part of me wants to play Musical Chairs on Grindr the day of,” and we’re into a montage of scenes in which he welcomes multiple Grindr matches to his hotel room for sexual hookups, one of whom gets to stay to watch Carmichael try on possible Emmy outfits.

Tyler does agree to meet Carmichael at his hotel room to talk about why they hadn’t talked since Carmichael professed his love. “That was a lot to download,” the rapper replies. “I still don’t know how to respond.” Despite asking Carmichael for “the ideal response,” he delivers something quite different, ordering food, calling the comedian his brother, and stepping out to the hotel room balcony to let out a fart. The camera zooms in on Carmichael’s face to show us how crushed he is by all of this.

In the end, Anonymous attends the Emmys with Carmichael, and we cut to the comedian onstage at an LA theater afterward with him sauntering onstage clutching his Emmy. “That strong applause is nice, but it’ll go away, and I’ll be left alone with this statue,” he confides. He also says his mom left him a voice mail, and someone in the audience hollers out to have him play the recording onstage. Turns out she’s happy for him! So far, so good?

What Documentaries Will It Remind You Of?: This really does serve as a follow-up to Carmichael’s two home movies he shot for HBO in 2019.

Our Take: No matter how much Carmichael wants this, Anonymous (Bo Burnham) says the director and editors will choose to frame his reality however they see fit.

“It’s exhibitionist,” he says.

 Carmichael replies: “Yeah but what’s wrong with that?”

“There’s public and private, and then there’s masturbatorily public,” Burnham says, arguing that what Carmichael is doing amounts to shoving the camera up his own ass. “But I care about you beyond this thing.”

Making this a full series of eight half-hour episodes will force viewers and fans alike to wonder just how far they want to follow Carmichael on his journey of self-discovery. Future episodes show him getting a new boyfriend but struggling to be faithful to him, wondering how much he’s willing to help a childhood friend make it on her own as an actress, going on a road trip with his father, pushing a comedian (Jamar Neighbors, seen on Hulu’s This Fool) to make his own act more personal and vulnerable, and eventually coming to terms with his relationship with his mother.  

Most Pilot-y Line: When Carmichael explains the purpose for this series as “I’m trying to self Truman Show myself.”

Sex and Skin: We see the before and after of various hookups between Carmichael and his Grindr matches, and some kissing and caressing, and some underwear shots, but no outright sex or nudity. Yet.

Parting Shots: The last shot before the credits looks out from inside a car as Carmichael is hunched over, vomiting outside as Anonymous asks: “You get it all out?” (from the mushrooms we saw him take earlier, perhaps?) “Yeah,” Carmichael replies. Then while credits roll, we see his friend enjoy a male stripper dance, while Carmichael sits alone in silence in the strip club.

Sleeper Star: While Carmichael remains front and center for almost the entire episode, the premiere definitely and defiantly prizes Anonymous’s presence. But don’t get your hopes up for him providing commentary throughout the series.

Our Call: Is this series aimed for us, for his mom, or just for himself? Perhaps all of the above. So if you’re not already a fan of Carmichael’s, STREAM IT this first episode to decide for yourself whether you’re ready for what’s to come. There’s certainly nothing here, though, that would surprise fans who have watched him become more and more self-reflective and performative, from the most sanitized broadcast network sitcom version of Carmichael he first presented on NBC, to his 2019 HBO home movies, to Rothaniel, to now this.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.