Critic Reviews

With Dice, he's allowing himself to be flawed and fearful in a way that his stand-up comedy never could. Clay has remade his career and his persona for the better, handling the complexities with ease, and it's genuinely funny. There is still the same obsession with sex and, particularly, male genitalia as metaphor, but in a context that makes it somehow less toxic, more pathetic--"poignant" might even be the word.

After the static and bloodless world of “The Girlfriend Experience,” the Showtime comedy Dice is like an explosion of heat and vigor and passion.

The six episodes don't feature enough laughs to rank it among the essential comedies, even if the writing in specifics is pretty solid. A handful of jokes land every episode. Few miss. The tone is consistently light.

It is brimming with weirdness--such as the Elvis impersonator who keeps following Dice like a bad-luck charm or guest star Adrien Brody mimicking Dice's mannerisms for a Method acting exercises--which bumps up against its ornery protagonist in funny ways. [15 Apr 2016, p.48]

The show works better when Dice is in sitcom mode, rather than trying to stretch his dramatic chops.

What is missing from Dice is more of these scenes, more moments where its clear that Clay isn’t the alpha-male vulgarian that he’s been playing on stage and on screen for most of his career. There’s not enough challenging of his machismo, outside of the age-old routine of Carmen being the sensible one and he being the foolish male, but that hardly counts as a moment of genuine reflection on the comedian’s part.

Overall, Dice may not be a groundbreaking piece of television, but it does feel in many ways like a culmination for Clay’s career.

It has its moments. It just needs a few more of them.

Clay's entry is far from the bottom of this burgeoning genre's particular barrel--Hello, Donny!--and the debut season of Dice actually has some highlights, including a very funny second episode built around an inspired cameo by Adrien Brody, but general unevenness pervades.

Strengthen or ditch most of the supporting cast (and go “Louie”-style with a rotating ensemble) and Dice could become something really special. As is, it’s still an interesting chapter in a return of a once-superstar that most of us never saw coming.