# Middleditch & Schwartz (2020)

> Comedy duo Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz improvise absurd, epic-scale stories from small ideas in this three-episode special series.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/85781

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 3
- Episode runtime: 50 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy
- Created by: Thomas Middleditch, Ben Schwartz
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Thomas Middleditch, Ben Schwartz
- TMDB rating: 8.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12027034/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: none
- Tone: playful, irreverent, absurd, breezy, spontaneous

## What critics say

Audiences broadly found the improvised comedy specials inventive and consistently funny, with the duo's chemistry carrying the format.

## Synopsis

Middleditch & Schwartz (2020) is an American streaming improv comedy series created by Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz for Netflix. Its two co-creators play themselves, trading jokes and building entire scenarios on the spot from small, everyday ideas that quickly swell into absurd, epically staged stories. There is no script to lean on, so the engine of each episode is the duo's quick reactions, their rapport, and their willingness to follow a ridiculous premise as far as it will go. The format is a short, self-contained run of three roughly fifty-minute episodes, each a standalone comedy special rather than a continuing plot, so viewers can dip in at any point. The tone is loose, playful and irreverent, with a sharp sense of escalation that keeps the laughs coming. Fans of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Comedy Bang! Bang! and Documentary Now! will find the same spirit of spontaneous invention, performer chemistry and deadpan absurdity here, delivered in a compact, easy-to-finish package.

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