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The &34;I Think You Should Leave&34; star plays a middle manager wrapped up in a bizarre plot in the new HBO comedy. The Chair Company review: Tim Robinson lead

The "I Think You Should Leave" star plays a middle manager wrapped up in a bizarre plot in the new HBO comedy.

The Chair Company review: Tim Robinson leads a wonderfully weird conspiracy comedy

The "I Think You Should Leave" star plays a middle manager wrapped up in a bizarre plot in the new HBO comedy.

By Kristen Baldwin

Kristen Baldwin

Kristen Baldwin is a TV critic for **, and a writer and editor with 25 years of experience in entertainment journalism. Prior to EW, she served as editor-in-chief of Yahoo Entertainment, and is currently a member of the Television Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. She does not know how to football the Super Bowl.

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October 9, 2025 12:23 p.m. ET

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Tim Robinson in 'The Chair Company'. Credit:

Sarah Shatz/HBO

In the penultimate episode of *The Chair Company*, Ron Trosper (Tim Robinson) — a middle manager in Ohio — storms into a sex shop called Romantic Depot and thrusts his phone at the man behind the counter (Michael Donaldson). "Do you know if these porno pictures are connected to anything bigger than porn?" Ron asks, gesturing to the grainy, black-and-white nude photos on his camera roll. "Like, are they connected to corporate fraud?"

It is one of many moments of amusing absurdity in the new HBO comedy created by Robinson and his *I Think You Should Leave* collaborator Zach Kanin. While the Romantic Depot scene won't make much more sense even with the full context, the fun of *The Chair Company* isn't piecing together the vast criminal conspiracy Ron may have uncovered — it's watching how far a desperately ordinary man will go to prove that his life has meaning.

Ron's spiral begins several weeks earlier at work, where he serves as the project manager for a new shopping mall development in Canton. When an embarrassing mishap interrupts a presentation to his boss, Jeff (Lou Diamond Phillips), and assembled colleagues, a seething Ron goes looking for someone to blame. What starts as a spite-fueled investigation soon morphs into an all-consuming fixation, as Ron uncovers what he believes is a web of secret corporate malfeasance — but what could also just be a series of odd but unrelated coincidences.

Sophia Lillis, Lake Bell, Will Price, and Tim Robinson in 'The Chair Company'.

Virginia Sherwood/HBO

It becomes clear pretty quickly that this isn't the first time Ron's developed an unhealthy, potentially life-derailing obsession. And it's also evident that Ron is pouring his time and energy into investigating Tecca — the titular office-supply company — because it's easier than coping with some of the more concrete realities of his life. He's in a job he doesn't like and will probably never leave, while his wife, Barb (Lake Bell), is pursuing her dream of becoming an entrepreneur. His daughter, Natalie (Sophia Lillis), is about to get married, and his teenage son, Seth (Will Price), will be leaving the nest soon enough, too.

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The flip side of all this, of course, is that Ron has a lot to be thankful for: A loving family, a steady job, a comfortable life. But just when he's on the verge of coming to his senses and dropping the investigation, Ron is confronted with a strange and sinister new development — one that that seems to confirm that he is, in fact, onto something real.

Fans of *I Think You Should Leave*, Robinson and Kanin's cheerfully bizarre sketch-comedy series, will find *The Chair Company *suitably weird. Even when the show starts to drag, as one lead after another dead-ends and new questions emerge, it's hard to drop. What keeps *The Chair Company *engaging are its spurts of tangential lunacy: An earnest conversation between Ron and Natalie about Wendy's, the fast-food chain, experimenting with ham-carving stations in select locations. A confrontation with an ornery bar patron (Douglas Bennett) who has a large dent in his forehead. A workplace compliance video titled "Peeping Toms."

Sophia Lillis in 'The Chair Company'.

Sarah Shatz/HBO

Robinson and Kanin also have a knack for assembling delightfully off-beat character actors who enhance the show's vibe of surreality. Donaldson is a hoot as the shifty Romantic Depot employee ("Porn's in a really weird place right now"), and Jared Lindner delivers a mini tour de force as the ingratiating owner of a menswear shop who tricks Ron into signing up for a costly membership. *Saturday Night Live *legend James Downey is a standout as Douglas, Ron's whimsical and meddlesome colleague, and Joseph Tudisco brings unexpected pathos to Mike Santini, a porn-addicted thug-for-hire who tries to stop Ron's search for the truth.

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Robinson has always specialized in playing quiet grumps who are prone to unexpected outbursts of lunatic rage, and he puts those skills to good use as Ron. Whether exploding over his wife's good-natured teasing ("SHUT UP, BARB!") or screaming through the phone at a corporate receptionist ("NOW YOU ARE GOING TO SPEAK WITH ME!"), Ron chooses to exist in a perpetual state of grievance rather than accept his totally fine, though certainly not extraordinary, life.

HBO did not make the finale available for review, so it's unclear whether *The Chair Company* wraps up its mystery in a satisfactory way. The focus of the conspiracy/Ron's mania continues to shift — drug smuggling? Local government corruption? Something to do with rare insects? — but what's really going on almost doesn't matter. Rabbit holes, like life, are about the journey, not the destination. **Grade: B+**

*The Chair Company* premieres Sunday, Oct. 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, on HBO.

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