Amy Schumer’s ‘Life & Beth’ Returns, Warts and All

As a comic actress, Amy Schumer comes across as part Lucille Ball, part Carole Lombard, and more than a little Mae West. Similar to those icons, she pulls off pointed or bawdy jokes with her natural talents, employing vocal fry, physical humor, and put-upon gazes to enhance her takes on relationships, women’s issues, and self-worth. A testament to her appeal, her sketch comedy show, “Inside Amy Schumer,” ran for five seasons and her first major motion picture, “Trainwreck,” grossed more than $100 million at the box office, not to mention her acclaimed stand-up specials. The second season of her semi-autobiographical TV series, the blandly titled “Life & Beth,” just had its premiere on Hulu and like its first season, the show alternates between being amusing, touching, and a mess. The new season’s first three episodes see Ms. Schumer’s Beth decide to quickly marry her spacey boyfriend John (Michael Cera) and head to New Orleans for the wedding. Attending the destination wedding are her three closest girlfriends, one of whom, after a drunken fall, is using a knee scooter to get around. Also in attendance is her sometime hobo, short-term-memory-challenged father, and her addict ex-boyfriend and his current girlfriend, among others.From this set-up, one expects hilarious shenanigans to ensue down in the Big Easy. Even with guest stars Amy Sedaris and Jennifer Coolidge, though, the episodes are only fitfully funny, with the ensemble’s various escapades feeling forced and the seriousness of some topics, like her ex’s addiction, uncomfortably dark. Yet uncomfortable humor has always played a part in Ms. Schumer’s schtick, as reflected by the comedienne’s sexual frankness in all her projects and the first season starting off with the death of Beth’s mother.The strength of the show’s last season sprung from the fact that despite its multiple thematic excursions — into women’s health, Jewish heritage, Long Island culture, and more — its look at Beth’s grief and self-esteem remained the focus, particularly when combined with flashbacks to her childhood. In its second season, the flashbacks continue, but these sequences now feel extraneous without the first season’s internal logic of how a return to one’s hometown sparks memories.If its first season emulated the fantastically incisive Phoebe Waller-Bridge comedy “Fleabag” in its storyline structure and concerns, then the second season of “Life & Beth” seems to aim for Lena Dunham’s intermittently clever “Girls.” Beth’s girlfriends come in for a sharper look, and one senses the rest of the season might benefit from a less Beth-centric focus. And what was plainly obvious in the first season — that John has some sort of dissociative disorder — finally dawns on Beth in the new season’s third episode, heading toward a narrative that tackles mental health and cognitive conditions, akin to Ms. Dunham’s show at times. As Beth’s partner, Mr. Cera has the strange job of playing a thinly veiled version of Ms. Schumer’s real husband, chef Chris Fischer. While affable, he’s an ill-fitting match for the funny woman’s robust jocularity. Michael Rapaport, as Beth’s dad Leonard, portrays yet another edgy character effectively, and as Beth’s sister Ann, Susannah Flood convinces in her cautionary quirks. Yet it’s Yamaneika Saunders as friend Maya who is truly uproarious, stealing nearly every scene she’s in with her ribald wisecracks and race-based quips. The saucy Black friend may be a stereotype, but it works here in expanding the show’s perspectives. It also helps that Maya and Beth genuinely seem close. Gary Gulman also shines in his small role as Maya’s Jewish boyfriend Shlomo, especially in this season’s first episode when he reminds John that he and Beth should procreate because there are only 15 million Jews in the world and “there have been much worse times,” a line clearly written before October 7, 2023.Whether its second season will end as charmingly as its first remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Amy Schumer’s journey to self-actualization — both professionally as an actress/writer/director, and personally as a woman and wife — makes for some genuinely funny moments. While her show may not land every punchline, or explore every thematic current gracefully, Ms. Schumer’s singular brand of comedy is blazing a trail, giving awkward, dyspeptic, messy men and women a little more confidence to live their life without apology — and more hilarity.

Amy Schumer’s ‘Life & Beth’ Returns, Warts and All

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