This was published 1 year ago
Yo, bro, no: I wanted to like Pete Davidson’s Bupkis, but I just can’t
By Karl Quinn
Bupkis, Binge
★★½
How you feel about Bupkis (Yiddish for “absolutely nothing”) probably depends on how you feel about its creator and star, Pete Davidson.
As a title card and accompanying voice-over announces at the beginning of each of its eight half-hour episodes, “this program is inspired in part by real people and events” – the principal one being its co-creator, co-writer and star.
Pete Davidson as Pete Davidson in Bupkis, a show about the life of Pete Davidson.Credit: Heidi Gutman/Binge
Davidson is a former Saturday Night Live cast member (he joined the line-up at age 20, making him one of the youngest regulars on the sketch comedy series since its debut 48 years ago). But he’s arguably best known for his romantic entanglements with a string of high-profile women, including Ariana Grande, Kate Beckinsale (20 years his senior), Margaret Qualley (the actress daughter of Andie MacDowell) and Kim Kardashian.
He doesn’t reference any of them directly in this series, which consists largely of aimless bits of business in and around New Jersey with his posse of kind-of-useless friends (like an east coast version of Entourage), punctuated with sub-Tarantinoesque dialogue about such pressing topics as the correct pronunciation of the word “cuisine”.
But he does reference two other major points from the Davidson biography: the death of his firefighter father in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in New York; and the fact he lives with his mother Amy.
Edie Falco as Pete’s mother, Amy, is the best thing in the show.Credit: Binge
She is played here by Edie Falco, who is easily the best thing in the show. She’s pushy, far too willing to use her son’s fame to her own advantage, and utterly disregarding of the needs of her other child, Casey.
She is the other half of a codependent relationship whose oddness we are exposed to in the show’s opening scene when she walks in on her son masturbating while wearing a VR headset.
It’s a grossly hilarious moment that is rarely equalled. Much of the time is spent riding around in cars with the comedian and his friends, often in a fug of marijuana smoke, rarely to much end. Occasionally, something threatens to happen; an episode set in Florida that echoes Spring Breakers and the Fast and Furious franchise promises much, but soon peters (sorry) into ridiculousness.
An episode set in Florida echoes the Fast and Furious films and Spring Breakers, but ultimately disappoints. Credit: Binge
You can’t fault the casting, though. Bobby Cannavale crops up as an old family friend who offers child Pete the kind of advice guaranteed to shape him as a particularly retrograde kind of young man. Steve Buscemi appears as a Catholic priest who tells him his father is still around, as a virtual reincarnation of Jesus. Joe Pesci plays the grandfather who is on his last legs, but determined to go out kicking.
What they all have in common is that they are father substitutes for the bereft Davidson. And while that opening disclaimer adds “certain parts” of the show have been fictionalised “solely for dramatic purposes and are not intended to reflect on any actual person or entity”, this bit at least rings true. Davidson is a sad clown, haunted equally by the absence of his father and the overbearing presence of his mother.
That gives it a certain pathetic dramatic quality, but as comedy, it’s kinda bupkis.
Find more of the author’s work here. Email him at kquinn@theage.com.au, or follow him on Facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on Twitter @karlkwin.
Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.