The Joel McHale Show: Series Premiere Recap

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Joel McHale is back with a new weekly Netflix Original show to fill that Soup-sized hole you have in your heart. We have all the series premiere details you need.

Joel McHale has returned to mock pop-culture. If you think this is going to be just another Soup, you’d be wrong. Except for the host, the green screen, the random stars dropping in to promote shows, the reality show clips, and maybe the funny pre-taped segments they are nothing alike.


Pickler, Pebbles, Pillows, and Priestley

Sunday, February 18th, 2018

Premiering today and here for a 13 episode run, The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale is the unadulterated progression of The Soup. It begins with Kevin Hart (I’m guessing we can expect a lot of Netflix stars to make appearances throughout the season.) in the audience waking McHale whereupon McHale is back at the green screen, looks at the audience and says “Where was I? Oh, right. The Bachelor.” Perfect.

Business as usual, McHale begins to mock The Bachelor Winter GamesSister Wives, the Love & Hip Hop franchise and more.

It’s Pickler and Ben, Y’all!

The show has segments. The very creatively named “Sports Segment” is up first with some great footage from a high school basketball game and Netflix Original show Ultimate Beastmaster. We also get “The Wonderful World of Weird Guys” and, my personal favorite, the delightful “Joel’s International Corner.” Here McHale ridicules shows from anywhere in the world. Among this week’s targets were South Korea’s The Secret of My Love, a series about a woman who is constantly losing her child, a South African show that uses the word “Kunts,” and South Korea’s obsession with seeing people getting hit by vehicles.

Bum Bummm!

We are reminded throughout that this is, indeed, a Netflix show. Every time Netflix is mentioned we are treated to that familiar Netflix sound. Fuller House‘s Jodie Sweetin, Stranger Things‘ Paul Reiser, and Luke Cage himself, Mike Colter, all are present to welcome McHale to the Netflix family.

Every element of this show does a bit of winking at the audience, from the Netflix plugs to the old Soup tie-ins. The last laugh comes with the credits and its song about how everyone just skips the credits on Netflix.

The new Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale is a smart way for Netflix to get you tuning in every week, not just when a new season of your favorite show is on. It’s definitely worth your time.

New episodes are available every Sunday on Netflix.

Are you a Joel McHale fan? Will you be tuning in each week? Let us know in the comments!

 

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Cheryl has written for What’s on Netflix for over three years. She’s a confessed streaming addict and also runs a Netflix based community on Facebook with over 10,000 users. Cheryl specializes in documentaries and covers weekly additions for the US in addition to breaking news stories. She is the Weekend Editor for What’s On Netflix. Cheryl resides in Virginia, USA.