Featured

THE OSPREY MAN, available now

On By Christopher TuthillIn Uncategorized1 Comment

THE OSPREY MAN

Christopher Tuthill

Jacob is at that most magical time between childhood and adolescence. As the end of the school year approaches, he is dreaming of baseball and the beach, but most of all, about working on the comic book he and his best friend Jonathan have created, The Osprey Man. Then tragedy strikes and Jacob has to find an inner strength he is not sure he has.

This beautifully written tale of youth, coping, and working through grief is ideal for readers of all ages.

Purchase a signed copy from the author

The Reviews of THE OSPREY MAN are coming in:

Read the review from D. Donovan, Midwest Book Review: “
“Osprey Man reveals its surprises, unwrapping them through the course of the story like birthday gifts.”

Teddy Rose Book Reviews:

“‘The Osprey Man,’ was a highly enjoyable novel, and a wonderfully nostalgic look back at the eighties. Tuthill’s writing was genuine, heartfelt and skilled. I really felt for Jacob and his loss and I wanted him to succeed from the get-go. This is a five-star book that can be enjoyed by any and all readers!”

“A great read, with well-drawn characters. Chronicles that first, elusive love and all its insecurities as well as the tangled webs of friendships and devotion to the causes that inform who we become later in life. Harkens back to an innocence that many of us can relate to. I can’t wait to see what Chris is up to next!”–Glenn Jochum, singer and songwriter

Goodreads reviews:

“I found this book to be a really beautiful piece on grief and moving on. Jacob’s point of view was very poignant and touching and I found it really similar to how I have felt after losing someone close to me.
Five stars for this stunning tale!”

“This YA coming-of-age novel is a heartwarming tale of grief, friendship and perseverance told through the age of a young boy on the verge of becoming a teenager, and Tuthill portrays this perfectly.”–Laura Lee

“This is the first novel by Christopher Tuthill that I have read, but I would gladly read more! The atmosphere in this novel was perfect. The nostalgia of the 1980’s and the beginning of summer after school lets out, created a pitch perfect setting that made the background of the novel almost feel like a character in it’s own right.”

“Tuthill has created a beautiful and moving novel, with all of the panache of a great YA story. It’s obvious from his writing that he understands how kids talk and act and this glimpse back into the 1980’s seems as fresh and timely as ever.”

Adaptations AI Blues Boardgames book-review Books Carl Sagan Christmas Comedy Comic Books Comics Coming of Age Fantasy fiction film Folk George RR Martin Halloween HIstory Horror Ian Anderson Jethro Tull Libraries Movies music Poetry Poughkeepsie Book Festival Progressive Rock Reading Reviews rock Roger Zelazny Science Fiction Short Stories Stephen King Summer Tad Williams The Chronicles of Amber The Osprey Man Tolkien Winter Solstice writing YA Young Adult zombies

Promotional Fees May Apply

On By Christopher TuthillIn baseballLeave a comment

Given the direction MLB and the Mets have been heading, I will not give them a cent this year, and will pay less attention than I have for many years. I recently posted about my disgust: I’m sick of the greed and the ownership and the corruption of the sport. But I’m writing tonight’s post after receiving an email from the Mets that I found totally bewildering.

Son, if you have to ask how much this crappy thing costs, you cannot afford it…

It was typical promotional stuff about bobbleheads and other giveaways. For decades, teams have given out small promotions on certain days as a sort of inducement/thank you for coming. So you’d receive a poster or t-shirt or hat or flag or bobblehead or whatever. Just some little gewgaw you could keep and put on your shelf or file away with your memorabilia.

The weird part was that the Mets wrote that you needed a special extra ticket, beyond the price of admission, to get the bobblehead. That seemed crazy to me–these things are cheap junk, after all–but what I found out when I clicked the link was even crazier. That extra ticket costs–get this–$120. So you pay for an outrageously expensive ticket just for the right to buy another ticket to get the tacky tchotchke.

Incredible. As PT Barnum once supposedly said, there’s a sucker born every minute. Or as Waylon Smithers remarked of a 100% surcharge on tickets tacked on by Mr. Burns: “Well, it’s a policy that ensures a healthy mix of the rich and the ignorant, sir.”

A $120 bobblehead. And I thought the price of mlb tv was absurd.

The Devil in a Forest by Gene Wolfe (1976)

On By Christopher TuthillIn Books, Fantasy, Reading, ReviewsLeave a comment

Gene Wolfe is one of my favorite writers, and this is a wonderful book of his that I found some years after reading his epic Book of the New Sun, an amazing series that I want to reread soon. Unlike that dense, lengthy work, this is a shorter novel of mystery, adventure and myth, but like Wolfe’s other novels, it is  beautifully written, tightly plotted and great fun to read. I just re-read it over the holidays, after hearing the carol, ‘Good King Wenceslas,’ which reminded me of the book. Wolfe explains his writing inspiration for this novel in the epilogue:

“Shortly before Christmas one year, Gene Wolfe was singing the carol ‘Good King Wenceslas’ and was struck by the king’s questions to his page: “Yonder peasant, who is he? Where, and what his dwelling?” And by the page’s answer: “Sire, he lives a good league hence, Underneath the mountain, Close against the forest fence, By St. Agnes’ fountain.”

Wolfe recalls, “I found myself wondering who, indeed, was that nameless medieval peasant from whom most of us are, in one way or another, descended.”

The Devil in a Forest is Wolfe’s story surrounding this peasant, whose little village becomes involved in a struggle between a nameless evil and the forces of good. There is a dangerous highwayman, a mysterious murder, and strange powers that converge upon this village and create havoc for Mark, the protagonist. The attention to detail in Mark’s day to day life, and that of his fellow villagers, is quite well done and made for some interesting reading. Mark’s trials and his battle for survival are suspenseful, keeping you guessing right until the end. I enjoyed this one very much—it is so different from some of Wolfe’s other books, but his concept and the execution are excellent. I don’t want to spoil the fun for those who may be interested in reading this one, but I recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed Wolfe’s more well-known books. Fantasy writing doesn’t get much better.

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson (1999)

On By Christopher TuthillIn Books, Fantasy, Reading, ReviewsLeave a comment

I recently read the first of Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series, Gardens of the Moon. I had a fun time with this book, and enjoyed the epic scope of it. This is a long and dense series, and this first installment is a huge doorstop of a novel, with a cast of dozens of mages, wizards, soldiers, fighters, assassins and those caught up in the war enveloping the Malazan empire and the city of Darujistan. There are plenty of plot twists, political intrigue, and enough magic and battles to satisfy any fan of epic fantasy. If you like reading writers like George RR Martin, Tad Williams, Robert Jordan, and Brandon Sanderson, I think you’ll definitely enjoy this book. An added benefit is that this series is already completed, though the ten novels in it may seem daunting. Gardens of the Moon was first published back in 1999, and though I’d seen his books in the store and the library, I’d never read Erikson before. I’ve already picked up the second of this series and will continue with it after finishing some of the other books I’m currently reading. Highly recommended for fans of epic fantasy.

Frank’s Truck Stop, by Glenn Jochum (2025)

On By Christopher TuthillIn music, Reviews, SongwritersLeave a comment

Glenn Jochum’s latest album, Frank’s Truck Stop, is a joy to listen to. Fans of roots and country rock will find so much to enjoy in this collection of songs. Jochum has a soulful, sincere voice that really engages you, and the playing of Don Cerce Jr. complements it perfectly. Cerce is an amazing player and an inductee of the New York State Country Music Hall of Fame who brings his talents to this record. His emotive playing is a fine counterpoint to Jochum’s singing and lyrics—they’re quite a dynamic duo.

“Rose in her Hair” starts off the fun—Glenn gives us a bluesy vision of better days here, singing “Come share the vision that life on the land brings/Come see the world with an innocent face” advice that all of us can take to heart in these hyper-connected, tumultuous days. You have to like his optimism here– it’s infectious.

The title song is a jaunty, fun tune that evokes a place where ‘We’re down-home folks, who like telling jokes, where food tastes like the frying pan.’ It’s a song that reminded me of listening to country music with my dad when I was growing up in the 80s, and would feel right at home in your collection of Glen Campbell or Johnny Cash albums. It’s a neat trick to tell a story and evoke a little world out of time in just three minutes, but Glenn accomplishes that here, has you tapping your feet along with the song, and he makes it sound easy.

No collection of country tunes would be complete without a heartbreaking tale of loss, and Glenn doesn’t disappoint, with “Smithereens,” among other tunes. “I can see the misty mountains…but I’ll never see this place again, cause I sabotaged my dreams…I smashed it all to smithereens,” he croons, and you can hear the regret and sadness in his voice. It’s not the cheeriest thought, but sung with such conviction and sureness that you can’t feel too sad about it. Like the best blues and country songs, it leaves you wanting more. Reflections is another song that speaks to loss and love, a brooding, sad tale of a broken relationship.

Copyright Blues is my favorite song on this collection. It has the kind of humor that I love in music, and Glenn is great at this sort of song. “Everybody told me about you, they all said that you would leave me blue, but I didn’t mind, my love for you was blind,” he sings, and you can almost see him grinning through the blues. “They might steal your copyright and walk away from you,” he says, concluding that he’s going to confiscate pictures of his lover and toss them in the sea to exorcise his loss. If you’re heartbroken and need to see the humor in it, this is the song for you. I was laughing at the image. It’s excellent advice for the broken-hearted. “What if?” is another great song in this vein, where he’s musing on the uncertainties of life and songwriting.

The other songs on this album are just as good as the ones I’ve highlighted. It’s been on rotation in my collection since I bought it, and I hope it will be in yours, too. Glenn is a poet, a fine songwriter, and if you enjoy your country and blues with a dash of humor, you’ll be happy you got this record.

The Lord of the Rings 25th Anniversary

On By Christopher TuthillIn Fantasy, Movies, Reviews, TolkienLeave a comment

Somehow, it’s been a quarter century since The Fellowship of the Ring first hit multiplexes. That was half a lifetime ago for me. I recall waiting for the movies eagerly, feeling very concerned that they wouldn’t be any good, that they’d get Tolkien all wrong and mess up my favorite book.

I needn’t have worried. They were great films, much better than anyone had a right to expect, and I loved them from the start. Oh, there were plenty of complaints from lots of people about what Peter Jackson and his team got wrong about Tolkien, but such criticisms were in the minority, far outweighed by the millions who loved the movies. The artistic achievement here was really beyond what even the most ardent fan might have hoped. The music, the costumes, the cast, the locations, the attention to detail, the story all came together in a way that rarely happens. The filmmakers created something grand that has stood the test of time.

            I am somewhat surprised that a bigger deal hasn’t been made of this anniversary, but never mind that. I saw that the extended version of Fellowship was in the theater and asked my thirteen-year-old son what he thought. He’s read the books and seen the movies and was enthusiastically in favor of seeing them on a big screen, an experience he’d never had. My ten-year-old daughter also wanted to see it; she fretted a little that she’d not yet read the books, but she soon got over this and happily came along.

            My daughter’s response to the films was quite sweet, and for me, it put to rest once and for all the idea that these films were somehow no good. I know Christopher Tolkien, as well as some Tolkien superfans, hated the movies, but whenever I heard such criticisms over the years, I couldn’t have cared less, and after seeing my daughter’s adoring reaction to the movies, I think whether someone disliked these films is not something I could ever be persuaded to care about. She loved the epic scope of it, the characters and the settings and the battles. She loved Gimli and Gandalf and the hobbits and everything in between. Again: she is ten years old and now can’t wait to read The Lord of the Rings. It was her introduction to this vast, glorious epic. She knows about Tolkien, since she’s heard me talking about his books and has seen all the games and memorabilia I have, but these movies further sparked her imagination, just as Harry Potter and other books and movies have. There is nothing at all wrong with her uncritical love of these movies, nor with the way the rest of the audience have found happiness or escape or emotion in it. Any critic, no matter how well versed (or not) in Tolkien, is free to dislike the movies as much as they wish, but it’s quite clear they are missing the point and need to perhaps understand that we all come to these things differently.

            For my part, after having lived with these interpretations of the books for so long, I was amazed at how well they held up. They still look better than anything else out there, which is a real testament to the craftsmanship, hard work, and love with which they were made. It’s of course condensed and simplified from the novel, but I don’t care about that at all. Filmmakers are required to do things to sell a movie; it’s a different medium that requires different things than a book does, especially when so much money is at stake. Given such constraints, it is a miracle these movies were as good as they were.

            My children loved seeing The Fellowship of the Ring so much that we went back Saturday to see The Two Towers, and Sunday for The Return of the King. We are now reading the books together. I can’t think of a better way to spend a weekend. If you’ve never seen these movies on the big screen, I highly recommend it.

The Navigator’s Children, by Tad Williams (2024)

On By Christopher TuthillIn Books, Fantasy, Reading, Reviews3 Comments

There are a lot of fantasy series out there, but in my view, Tad Williams’ Osten Ard novels are some of the very best. I was a huge fan of his epic Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy back when it came out; I was in high school when the first volume arrived, and I was hungry for more fantasy adventures after reading Tolkien. I found Williams to be great in his own right, very different, much darker. I loved the series and read some of his other books over the years.

A few years ago, when I learned he was going to write a sequel series set in Osten Ard, I was overjoyed. The Last King of Osten Ard has been a fun and engaging trip for me, and for many of us who love epic fantasy. These four volumes exceeded my expectations. There were also two shorter, superb prequel novels for the series that I highly recommend.

I finally read The Navigator’s Children over the holidays–it deftly ties the series up in a satisfying conclusion. There is a war to be fought, backstabbing villains, heroic deeds, and endless intrigue. There are also no easy answers or morality here. I really am in awe of how Williams finished this series, after so many years away from these characters. The story is dense, the world is staggeringly vast, and it is hard sometimes to keep track of all the interweaving story lines. I think Williams deserves so much credit for doing justice to all these characters and this story. It is no easy task. Most writers struggle to write convincing prose for much simpler kinds of tales, but he has again managed to do it in a lengthy, sweeping narrative.

I was happy to adventure again with Simon, Miriamele, and their many friends. In my view, what Williams really excels at is keeping the fates of all these characters in doubt right until the very end. They face such impossible odds that you think there must be no way out, again and again. I don’t wish to spoil anything for those of you who haven’t yet read the books, but I want to encourage those of you who have enjoyed books like Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, or other epic fantasy, to read these as well. If you’ve not read the original trilogy, start there, with The Dragonbone Chair. It may be an investment of time, but it’s well worth it; if you love epic fantasy novels, and haven’t read these, you are missing out. I was sad when it all ended, but pleased to see that Williams has a new Osten Ard book planned for later this year, which I will happily devour.

One observation about marketing from me, a guy who is an avid reader but who is not a businessperson or bookseller: I think bookstores could have made a better effort to promote this excellent novel. Maybe it’s just me, but my local Barnes and Noble didn’t have it when it came out, which I found shocking. I would think there would have been a major effort to promote it, with its own table, quotes from admiring authors like George RR Martin, and so on. I guess people who know and like Williams’ work were going to buy it, but it was surprising to me that there wasn’t more publicity. My local bookstore also didn’t have the latest Philip Pullman novel when I was last there, which seems very odd. Perhaps those of us who read these kinds of novels are getting older, but in my opinion it’s a missed opportunity on the part of booksellers when they don’t make a bigger deal out of new releases from major authors.

Romeo and Juliet (1968)

On By Christopher TuthillIn Movies, Poetry, Reading, ReviewsLeave a comment

I just watched Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet with my thirteen year old son, and we both enjoyed it so much. I last viewed it when I was a Freshman in high school, nearly forty years ago. I recall being very moved by it, but doing my best to keep my enthusiasm for it hidden from my classmates. I still have many lines from it committed to memory thanks to my ninth grade English teacher.

In viewing it now: my goodness what an amazing production. The costumes, the sets, the locations, the cast are all superb. This has got to be one of the best film versions of a Shakespeare play ever made. One of the things I found quite arresting was the duel scene; the sweat and dirt and grit and athleticism of the cast made it feel startlingly real. The same is true of the passionate desperation with which Romeo and Juliet fall for each other. Completely reckless and irresponsible, as the young so often can be.

There’s the beauty of the language, of course–my son remarked with surprise at several points in the play, when he realized where some famous quote came from: “A plague on both your houses!” “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” On and on it went. Only in reading and seeing these plays performed do you get a true appreciation of how magnificent they are, and how much of our culture owes a great debt to Shakespeare.

I found this tragedy terribly sad as a fourteen year old, so upsetting that I didn’t much want to watch it or read it again. I have read it a few times since then over the years, but now that I have children of my own, the story was far more wrenching to me. When you’re young I don’t think you really know just how inexperienced and innocent you are. The passage of time and a different perspective have made this play much greater in my eyes.

The Perennial Philosophy, by Aldous Huxley (1945)

On By Christopher TuthillIn Books, Reading, Uncategorized5 Comments

I’ve been reading Aldous Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy, which I have found to be a gem of a book. It’s an overview of different mystical and religious traditions through history, in which Huxley takes short passages from various religious texts, selected by theme, and offers short commentaries on each. In this way he shows many of the similarities that bind them together. I highly recommend it, no matter what your beliefs are. For agnostics or atheists, it is still a perceptive book from which you can learn much about religion and its motivations. For the religious, it will show how much you share in common with believers of different faiths.

I came across the following passage as I was reading and felt it was incredibly prescient, given the constant barrage of bad information with which most of us are constantly deluged today.

“Agitation over happenings which we are powerless to modify, either because they have not yet occurred, or else are occurring at an inaccessible distance from us, achieves nothing beyond the inoculation of here and now with the remote or anticipated evil that is the object of our distress. Listening four or five times a day to newscasters and commentators, reading the morning papers and all the weeklies and monthlies nowadays, this is described as ‘taking an intelligent interest in politics.’ St. John of the Cross would have called it indulgence in idle curiosity and the cultivation of disquietude for disquietude’s sake.”


It Used to be a Game

On By Christopher TuthillIn baseballLeave a comment

“Loyalty to any one sports team is pretty hard to justify. Because the players are always changing, the team could move to another city…you’re actually rooting for the clothes, when you get right down to it. You’re standing and cheering and yelling for your clothes to beat the clothes from another city. Fans will be so in love with a player, but if he goes to another team, they’ll boo him. This is the same human being in a different shirt, they hate him now! Boo! Different shirt!” –Jerry Seinfeld

I have irrationally followed several New York area sports teams for my entire life. My father enjoyed watching these teams (Mets, mostly, but also the Giants, Islanders, and Knicks), so that meant I watched it. In the days when every household had a single TV, you either watched the news or sports or whatever else your parents had on, or you found something else to do.

For nearly fifty years, I have followed these teams in good and bad years. Mostly bad, though the Mets won it all in ’86, the Giants have won it four times, and when I was very young the Islanders had their dynasty. It’s fun to debate the failures and successes of these teams with friends and family, not to mention the pure enjoyment we get when we watch athletes performing at a high level.

Since I was a boy back in the 1980s, there have always been rumblings that all was not right with these sports. There were occasional strikes, which my father held a dim view of. He earned barely enough to keep us afloat and was uninterested in hearing about millionaire players and their grievances against management, though as a union man he sided with the players.

There were corrupt owners moving their teams in the middle of the night to some new city. Luckily, New York is big enough that this didn’t apply to me, though perhaps we would have been better off if they’d abandoned us. My dad still recalled with bitterness the Dodgers leaving for LA but embraced the Mets when they arrived. He wasn’t a bettor, but legend has it that at his wedding he and his groomsmen stopped by the bar to find out the score of the Met game on June 2, 1962.

Like most, my sports interest is completely tied into these kinds of family stories. I spent countless hours watching these things with my dad and the rest of my family. It was always a special day when he brought home tickets so we could see a game in person. He’s been gone for more than a decade, but whenever I watch the Mets or any other sporting event, I think of him.

I stopped following sports for a bit in college and shortly thereafter. The baseball and hockey strikes of the early 90s disgusted me, and I lost all interest. But by the late 90s I was cheering for these teams once again. After my children were born, I had less time to watch such things, but I made sure to bring them to see the good guys in person once in a while. Today, in 2025, such excursions to see the big league teams are nonexistent for us, since prices are astronomical.

There have been some very disturbing events in every major sport over the past decade or so. Aside from strikes and lockouts, there have been plenty of allegations of game fixing in every major sport. The tarnish of the 2017 world series has still not worn off for me, nor has the scandal involving baseball’s biggest star who, he and MLB claim, was scammed by his interpreter, who stole millions from him to bet on games. No one bothered to look too hard into that one. As Pete Rose said at the time, what he didn’t realize back when he was banned for life in the 1980s was that he’d just needed an interpreter to take the fall. Baseball is big business, after all, run by billionaires who don’t want their authority, or their integrity, to be challenged. Having the biggest star on the planet banned would be bad for business. There are stadiums to build at taxpayer expense, after all.

This offseason, two pitchers have been banned and may go to jail for fixing games. The story is that they merely threw certain pitches badly to win small bets. Could be true. Might also be much more widespread than baseball admits. We know that at least two guys did this. How many more are out there? And how can a sport that did absolutely nothing to an entire team that was found to have cheated their way to a championship convince us that they are willing or able to police the cheating in their sport?

A generation ago, there was a lot of hand wringing over steroids, but the game fixing issue seems far worse to me. In my view, MLB cannot even ensure the integrity of their own game. It’s a dismal situation. Virtually every team has an agreement with a sports gambling company, a mind-boggling arrangement that was correctly shunned in past years. But now every ad for a baseball broadcast is urging you to bet on your favorite team. Not really a way to inspire confidence that we’re watching something legitimate. Perhaps MLB ought to become a league like the Savannah Bananas have, a humorous spectacle complete with players dancing and doing flips in the field.

And then there is Seinfeld’s quote, which I found enormously funny when he delivered it, but as time goes by it seems less so. He was joking, but not really. This week a fan favorite who Met fans watched grow up was sent packing to Texas, in the name of something called ‘run prevention,’ which normal humans used to call pitching and defense.

My children barely care about any of this, since it is far too expensive for us to go to any games or to even subscribe to the channels on which these games appear. My oldest son, at 13, expressed disappointment, since he loved the way Brandon Nimmo was always smiling.

Once or twice a year we go to the local single a team, which charges around $8 for a bleacher seat. My family has fun for an afternoon, and I  can pretend for a few hours that it is still just a game.

Friendship and The Chair Company

On By Christopher TuthillIn Comedy, Movies, ReviewsLeave a comment

Friendship, with Tim Robinson, was great fun; if you enjoy the over-the-top characters and situations in his sketch comedy, you’ll find plenty of laughs in this tale of a misfit who can’t seem to act normally. The movie reminded me of The Cable Guy, the equally hilarious story of a man who wants so badly to be friends with a customer that he stalks him, committing crimes in the hopes of forging a connection.

This story was a bit more dramatic than that, as Robinson’s character, Craig, desperately craves the approval of his new neighbor, Austin (Paul Rudd), an incredibly cool dude and local weatherman who at first takes an interest in Craig, before finding out how unhinged he is. When Craig acts like a lunatic at Austin’s party, Austin politely suggests they go their separate ways. But Craig, who has no other friends, and seemingly no other hobbies aside from buying clothes and obsessing over them, feels totally betrayed by this rejection. He has bought a drum kit, lost his phone, and started acting like the carefree spirit he believes Austin to be, and won’t let this bromance die without a fight.

What follows is the relentless destruction of Craig’s life—he loses everything—his wife, his job, and what little dignity he once possessed, as he pursues his lost friend, only to find that Austin isn’t who he seems. At one point, in total despair, he screams at Austin “You all accepted me way too fast! You can’t do that! You made me feel too free! People need rules!”

These lines, delivered with Robinson’s trademark, bug-eyed wildness, had me dying with laughter and encapsulated this poor man’s dilemma. He’s an awkward psychopath who holds a good job, with nice clothes, a nice house and family, but he is emotionally stunted, living through his phone, spending his days wishing he could fit in and be a normal guy, something he enviously watches his colleagues and coworkers do with seemingly effortless ease. For work he creates an addictive app, when not making up ad campaigns for local politicians. His wife, who has recently beaten cancer, cannot stand him, nor can his teenage son.

If there was a flaw in the movie, I thought it was in this home life. It seemed beyond belief that Craig would have married so highly above himself and had such a good job. But then again, most sitcoms have this same exact setup: an oaf with a beautiful wife and family who barely tolerate him. And there are lots of weirdos walking among us, doing all sorts of crazy things under the veneer of normality. I really enjoyed this movie, even if I am more partial to Robinson’s more light spirited anarchic stuff.

Speaking of which, I found the first episodes of his new HBO show, The Chair Company, to be totally hilarious and loved everything about it. In this one, Robinson again plays a suffering everyman, this time seeking justice against an office furniture business after enduring a hysterically funny mishap in front of his entire workplace. Robinson is so good at these kinds of characters, barely holding his life together, trying to keep a lid on a brimming rage that bursts out over and over, through minor and major inconveniences. After his fall, he is determined to root out the villains who have embarrassed him, no matter the cost. The first two episodes moved him down this dark path in a painfully funny manner, and I can’t wait to see just how outrageous it gets over the course of the story.