‘The Chair Company’: HBO & Tim Robinson Secretly Released 2025’s Best Thriller Series

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Tim Robinson might have created his best show yet with The Chair Company, a quietly excellent series on HBO. While he’s famous for his Netflix sketch comedy, I Think You Should Leave, like recent HBO hits such as Barry and The Rehearsal, Robinson demonstrates that comedy writers can also deliver surprisingly deep and insightful television.

You might not have noticed, but The Chair is much more than just another quirky comedy from Robinson. It has his signature anxious energy, but it also offers something deeper. HBO’s new thriller leans into the ridiculous so much that it surprisingly feels very real.

What Is ‘The Chair Company’?


HBO

In the series The Chair Company, Tim Robinson portrays Ron Trosper, a project manager who’s responsible for overseeing the construction of a new mall while also juggling family life. Despite his outward responsibilities, Ron is secretly very insecure, and he finds himself getting incredibly stressed over small, everyday details – everything from what technically qualifies as a ‘mall’ to how soft his pillow is.

Ron is fixated on a broken chair that caused him embarrassment while giving a presentation. Though he wasn’t hurt, his investigation into the chair’s origins unexpectedly leads him to believe there’s a larger conspiracy at play.

Is HBO’s ‘The Chair Company’ a Comedy or Thriller?


HBO

The novel The Chair Company playfully blends a thriller plot with humor. The main character, Ron, is portrayed as boastful and eccentric, but underneath, he’s deeply insecure. He fully believes he’s stumbled into a real conspiracy, filled with secret plots and dangerous people. Watching him try to unravel it is both funny and unsettling, because you start to wonder if he might actually be onto something.

The first season follows Ron as he investigates the mysterious Tecca company, and the search is intentionally confusing. He finds both typical clues, like fake websites, and bizarre ones, such as random adult images and a massive red ball. Meanwhile, Ron’s personal life is equally messy, dealing with his wife’s career ambitions, his son’s struggles with alcohol, and his daughter-in-law’s marriage to a food photographer.

The show The Chair Company deliberately avoids simple explanations, shifting between minor arguments and mysterious hints, with bigger reveals likely coming in a second season, according to Variety. It explores a desperate need to believe there’s more to life than meets the eye, with the main character almost wanting to uncover a hidden conspiracy. He refuses to accept that something as simple as a broken chair could be the cause of everything, believing someone intentionally sabotaged it. He struggles with the possibility that his own actions are to blame, and his volatile behavior stems from this unsettling thought.

Similar to the show Friendship, which humorously depicted the difficulties men face in their friendships, The Chair Company focuses on men who are drawn to the idea of a conspiracy. Ron finds himself connecting with other men who feel lost and insecure. The ending is intentionally unclear, hinting at a conspiracy, but one that’s surprisingly small and unremarkable. This is what makes The Chair Company so clever: it’s a thriller that doesn’t shy away from the genre’s silliness, but leans into it with a strangely unsettling charm.

Tim Robinson’s Familiar Comedy Touches


HBO

Created by Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin – the comedic minds behind shows like Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave – The Chair Company shares their signature brand of absurdity. The show follows Ron as he encounters a cast of bizarre characters, including Mike, a security guard who listens to podcasts filled with swear words, and Oliver, an actor who funds his drinking with fake money. The settings are just as strange, ranging from a clothing store with a strange nightclub inside to a bar where the rowdiest customer dips his elbows in soup.

As a big comedy fan, I’ve been really enjoying Robinson’s show. It feels less like a traditional sitcom and more like a series of connected, surprising sketches. It reminds me a lot of I Think You Should Leave – both shows are filled with characters fixated on bizarre little things. You’ve got people starting arguments over Wendy’s commercials, and others getting surprisingly upset over a… well, let’s just say an unusual take on A Christmas Carol. It’s hilarious, but there’s a deeper current running beneath the jokes. What really connects this show to I Think You Should Leave, for me, is this sense of underlying anxiety and awkwardness. Almost every sketch in I Think You Should Leave is about someone struggling with how they’re perceived and their own insecurities. And honestly, a lot of the humor comes from this fear of death – skeletons pop up way more than you’d expect!

The Chair Company explores the worries of Ron, who is stuck in a dull office job while also trying to solve a strange mystery. As the story unfolds, we discover past disappointments that have left Ron feeling trapped in a monotonous life. Ultimately, Ron isn’t just seeking answers about the chair company; he wants to believe his life has meaning and won’t end without purpose.

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2025-12-14 23:03