''Bust Down'' is an American comedy television series co-created by and co-starring

Langston Kerman Langston Kerman is an American actor, writer, and comedian. He has acted in programs including '' Insecure'', ''High Maintenance'', '' Bless This Mess'', and '' The Boys''. Kerman is a writer and co-star on HBO Max's '' South Side''. His first com ...

Jak Knight Jakim Maulana (November 6, 1993 – July 14, 2022), known professionally as Jak Knight, was an American actor, comedian and writer. He was best known for his roles as DeVon in the animated Netflix sitcom '' Big Mouth'' and Jak in the Peacock co ...

Chris Redd Christopher Jerell Redd (born March 25, 1985) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, rapper, and singer. Redd was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2017 to 2022. For his work on the show, he won ...

, and

Sam Jay Samaria Johnson (born January 13, 1982), better known as Sam Jay, is an American comedian and writer. She is best known as a writer for ''Saturday Night Live'' (2017–present), her Netflix comedy special ''3 in the Morning'' (2020), and as the co ...

. The series premiered on

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female pea ...

on March 10, 2022.

Plot

The series follows a group of friends working low-wage jobs at a casino in

Gary Gary may refer to: *Gary (given name), a common masculine given name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name *Gary, Indiana, the largest city named Gary Places ;Iran *Gary, Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan Province ;Unit ...

, Indiana.

Cast

as Chris, a valet *

as Sam, a cook *

as Langston, a janitor *

as Jak, a stockroom worker * Phi Tran as Tiki, Sam's sidepiece * DomiNque Perry as Nina, Sam's girlfriend *

Freddie Gibbs Fredrick Jamel Tipton (born June 14, 1982), better known by his stage name Freddie Gibbs, is an American rapper from Gary, Indiana. After initially being signed to Interscope Records in 2006, Gibbs recorded his debut studio album under the label ...

as Chauncey, the casino's HR manager

Production

''Bust Down'' was produced by

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a predeces ...

and

Lorne Michaels Lorne Michaels (born Lorne David Lipowitz; November 17, 1944) is a Canadian-American producer, screenwriter, and comedian. He is best known for creating and producing ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1980, 1985–present) and producing the '' La ...

Broadway Video Broadway Video is an American multimedia entertainment studio founded by Lorne Michaels, creator of the sketch comedy TV series ''Saturday Night Live'' and producer of other television programs and movies. Broadway Video also held the rights to ...

. Michaels was executive producer with Hilary Marx, Andrew Singer, Richie Keen, and Guy Stodel, as well as series creators and stars Langston Kerman, Jak Knight, Chris Redd, and Sam Jay. They described the show as predominantly about friendship and their intention for the show's comedy to be "raunchy, irreverent, and complicated." The series premiered on

on March 10, 2022. All six episodes were released simultaneously.

Episodes

Reception

The series received mainly positive critical reception. It holds a score of 76/100 on review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. Angie Han of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' praised ''Bust Down'': "the series’ comic voice is admirably bold — and if you’re left cold by one joke, there are usually three more coming right on its tail." ''

Ebony Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus ''Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when pol ...

'''s Savannah Taylor described the show: "abandoning the appeal of respectability politics and good-mannered humor, this show...is the definition of doing hood rat stuff with your friends" and praised the comedy as "just straight up, raw Black tomfoolery."

Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...

rated the series 3/4 stars and hailed the "biting social commentary, some ridiculously effective over-the-top physical shtick and a steady stream of laugh-out-loud moments" but also noted that the show "“will have some viewers bailing within the first 10 minutes of the premiere episode." Nina Metz gave ''Bust Down'' 3/4 stars in the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' and called the creators and stars "goofy as hell, but also intelligent and thoughtful and self-aware, which allows them to take on otherwise touchy subject matter."

References

External links

Official website
* {{Peacock (streaming service) 2020s American black television series 2020s American comedy television series 2022 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings English-language television shows Peacock (streaming service) original programming Television series by Broadway Video Television series by Universal Television Television shows set in Indiana African-American television