![]() ![]() It can be dreary and rote, like when she talks to the founder of Ashley Madison and his wife about the state of their marriage, or to Willie Nelson about his burgeoning weed empire. The show can be fascinating, particularly when it delves into Handler’s neuroses, by showing her discussing topics with her shrink, or drawing pictures of her family under the influence of Ambien, or talking to her father about whether he liked any of her boyfriends (he didn’t). (She doesn’t, she admits, entirely understand what Netflix is.) She can’t figure out if she’s the host or the subject-whether she should be pointing out the many ways in which she’s the real-life model for Trainwreck, investigating modern phenomena, or simply adapting her outrageous late-night comedy shtick for a Netflix audience rather than a live studio one. Throughout Chelsea Does, its star seems confused as to what role she’s supposed to play: She’s alternately guarded and brazen, defensive and unapologetic, naughty and nice. This isn’t Handler’s fault so much as it’s the inevitable byproduct of trying to fuse reality TV and documentary into one cohesive whole. The difference is that the show’s only underlying theme is Handler herself, and that it seems intent on handling topics like racism and Silicon Valley and drugs without ever being willing to shift its gaze away from her. Instead, its director Eddie Schmidt-a longtime documentary producer whose credits include This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Beauty Is Embarrassing, and Valentine Road-seems to have decided to make a docuseries in the manner of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, or Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways. If Chelsea Does were less turned off by the conceptual limitations of being a star vehicle with a very funny, innately cynical person at its helm, it could be either a groundbreaking examination of comedy or a very funny, innately cynical reality show that ran out of material after two episodes. ![]() ![]() The people she encounters in Chelsea Does include a matchmaker, a polyamorous triad, and a woman whose business is setting up video-chatting for pets, and Handler’s eyebrows twitch so furiously while she talks with them that they make the case for having their own category at the Emmys. She’s also a powerful woman in Hollywood who’s almost pathologically unable to not say what she’s thinking. There are arguments to be made for both: Handler was for many years the only female late-night host on television, and her raunchy, deliberately outrageous brand of humor paved the way for the current Schumerian era of comedy. The main problem with Chelsea Does, a four-part Netflix docuseries centered around the comedian Chelsea Handler, well, doing things, is that it doesn’t know which one of these genres it should aim for. ![]()
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