Ziwe

The comedian maintains the potency and insight of her act without losing her edge. The early episodes suggest a comic sensibility that arrives on television fully-formed, an insight machine whose ability to fillet the absurdities of the world as she sees them may make her a millennial answer to David Letterman.

It’s refreshing to experience a talk show that cuts the monologue out entirely to get straight to the straight talking. ... [Ziwe] certainly stars shines throughout, even while she’s consistently throwing shade and facial expressions.

As with any new series, Ziwe has its uneven spots. Some of the musical performances can drag for just a moment too long, and some of the sketches can feel redundant. But overall, these premiere episodes are a formidable start that seem to indicate Ziwe and her show have real staying power.

While musical numbers and scripted sketches in the first few episodes fall flat, segments featuring ordinary people — including one where Ziwe interviews several White women named Karen, and another where she demands to know whether her nose bothers a plastic surgeon who suggests she make it more “refined” — show potential.

Ziwe, so much bigger and glossier than Fumudoh’s Instagram show, is best when it recaptures the original videos’ feeling of live, uneasy, intimate, and intense conversation — when it’s riding on friction and interpersonal messiness.

Ends up amounting to a creeping self-portrait of its namesake, rendered through flashy critiques of race and the media. ... “Ziwe” is trapped in an interminable dance with whiteness, its muse. ... I found myself most interested in “Ziwe” when the host was in the presence of other Black women—in other words, when the Ziwe persona was put to the test.

The interviews – pinballing from awkward to endearing with hairpin confrontational questioning – remain the show’s strength, although the guest list will disappoint those looking for the rush of Instagram Live exposure. ... It’s when the show expands from one-on-ones that Ziwe, as a comedy project, flounders, with jokes relying too heavily on racism as a neon-lit punchline.

Let me say first that there is nothing wrong with making a racially provocative show, or with trolling (in this case) narcissistic white people to expose racism. Or with making racially provocative satire. All good - and arguably necessary. The problem is —- Ziwe isn’t funny. She’s not witty. She’s not creative. She’s not particularly intelligent. She’s not talented. Anyone who finds this funny, must be, by definition, a simpleton. Even the brilliant Fran Lebowitz couldn’t save that dreadful first episode from itself.