REVIEW: ‘The Chair Company’ Episode 5 – “I won. Zoom in.”

In the previous episode of The Chair Company, things were a bit more introspective and slow. Now, in The Chair Company Episode 5, creators Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin hit the gas on their HBO series. Directed by Aaron Schimberg (A Different Man) and written by John Solomon, “I won. Zoom in.” is a gut-bustingly hilarious episode that’s also deeply cinematic and stressful. Without further ado, let’s dive in!

As The Chair Company Episode 5 begins, William “Ron” Trosper (Tim Robinson) and Mike Santini (Joseph Tudisco) are on their way to meet with Steven Droyco (Bardia Salimi), the former Tecca employee we met in Episode 3. Droyco claims that he saw the Red Ball Market Global CFO, Ken Tucker, somewhere, and when Ron and Mike arrive at the bar, we find out exactly where.

As it turns out, Ken Tucker’s face is being used on a bar matching game. Ron is understandably disappointed at the realization that “Ken Tucker” is likely just an actor used for various projects, deducing that Red Ball Market Global is a shell company with a fake board of directors. 

Steven is still incensed at his former boss at Tecca, who made him work in the nude. As it turns out, this was a bit of a prank: the person whom Steven was supposed to be the boss of pranked him, taking on the position of his boss and making him work in the nude. Therefore, Steven tried to prank his “boss” by retrieving the latter’s excrement from the toilet and returning it to him with the exact date and time he had used the toilet.

The Chair Company Episode 5 relishes in its absurdity, with new reveals and hilarious hijinks.

Whenever he tried to reach in and grab it, Steven’s hand got stuck and let out a massive scream, the same scream heard in the first episode. There’s another mystery solved in The Chair Company Episode 5, though it seems a lot of The Chair Company‘s previous plot threads are panning out to be dead ends. 

Mike stays back to continue playing the matching game, as he’s attracted to one of the women used in said game. As it turns out, this is a smart play, as Mike discovers the name of the actor playing Ken Tucker is Oliver Probblo. The Chair Company Episode 5 then transitions back to the office environment, where Douglas (Jim Downey) has returned to work in a wheelchair.

He talks in a hilariously overwrought fashion about how he had to survive under the fridge. Then, he tells Ron that he’s going to review the mall plans to ensure ADA compliance. Not only does this moment give one of the show’s myriad collection of supporting characters another funny moment, but it also presents yet another compounding obstacle for Ron to deal with. 

Ron goes to meet up with Mike in his ramshackle apartment, where Mike is once again listening to his dirty radio program as the other neighbors are heard through the walls, screaming and fighting. Through the extremely overwhelming environment that recalls the sensory overload of mother! and Beau is Afraid, Mike reveals that Oliver Probblo has agreed to meet in a bar outside of Dayton, Ohio, doing a local production of A Christmas Carol nearby. Under the cover of night, Ron and Mike drive there, with heavy synth music blaring, suggesting a significant vibe change. 

A more theatrical development delivers surprises and cringeworthy laughs.

At the bar, we meet one of the funniest supporting characters thus far, Oliver Probblo (Alberto Isaac) himself. The highly theatrical (and very drunk) Oliver alternates between complaining about his ill-fated production of A Christmas Carol and arguing with the bartender about having to give up his ID as collateral for a Moscow Mule in a copper mug.

When Ron brings up Red Ball Market Global, Oliver knows nothing until he shows him the photos. Oliver recalls that those photos were part of a class designed to help him be the “life of a party” and that he emailed the woman who took the photos repeatedly to try to obtain them for his own portfolio.

Oliver claims that the woman’s name was “Maggie S” and that he’ll be able to find the full name on his iPad. But first, he has to go do cocaine, as he says this is a “coke bar.” If you expected The Chair Company Episode 5 to calm down and give more straightforward answers, you haven’t been watching the same show as I have.

As Ron waits for Oliver to get back, he notices a patron about to dip their elbow into the soup accidentally. The patron takes great offense to this, trying to pick a fight with Ron. Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Oliver pays for his cocaine with Ebenezer Scrooge’s money, unbeknownst to his dealer. 

Once at the bar,  The Chair Company Episode 5 hits the gas pedal and never lets up.

Back at the table, The Chair Company Episode 5 truly begins to go off the rails as the bar patron starts dipping his elbow purposefully in the soup to make Ron angry. The patron gets in Ron’s face, taunting him. That’s when Ron, in a rare decisive moment, punches him in the top of the head. The bar erupts, and Ron, Mike, and Oliver bolt out. You’d think the tussle would end there, but no… the angry mob follows the group to Oliver’s apartment. 

As Oliver tries, unsuccessfully, to find a Maggie S on his iPad, chaos ensues as a horde of beautiful attempts, then succeeds, in storming into Oliver’s second-floor apartment. During the scuffle, a woman, Oliver’s acting teacher, who had bolted herself into her room to avoid paying rent, comes out and starts yelling at Oliver.

During this sequence, I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t even breathe. Little did I know, it was about to turn into a full-on action movie because Oliver’s coke dealer, seeking damages, takes Oliver’s iPad, leading Ron to chase him through the stairwell.

Instead of finding the culprit, Ron ends up in a room where a sweaty, balding, shirtless man is making out with a woman. The man begins to freak out, claiming that Ron is a private investigator looking to bust him for cheating on his wife. Ron desperately attempts to get a hold of this situation and finds a way out whenever the man tells him he needs to make a video kissing the woman, so the man has collateral of Ron cheating. This scene is uncomfortable and goes on way too long, which makes it all the more hilarious. 

As Ron is allowed to exit the room, he’s knocked out with the iPad by the coke dealer. Ron awakens in the hospital, and Mike agrees to take him home. Ron falls asleep in the car, awakening once again in a strange location: outside of Mike’s daughter’s house.

Poor Ron really can’t seem to catch any breaks, but his suffering brings joy.

As Ron looks on and witnesses Mike having what appears to be a heated exchange with his daughter, Mike gets back in the car and tells his family that it’s tough, but he considers Ron family now and that he doesn’t want Ron to pay him anymore. The Chair Company Episode 5 ends on a sweet moment of each man going back to their homes, Mike watching a heavily pornographic version of A Christmas Carol and tearing up.

After a couple of middling but still decent episodes, The Chair Company Episode 5 knocks it out of the park. As light as it is on progressing us further down the rabbit hole, The Chair Company Episode 5 is nonetheless an uproariously hilarious piece of television that manages to be as stressful as anything else on prestige television. I still find myself saying quotes and recalling situations from this episode.

I can’t wait to rewatch The Chair Company Episode 5 specifically, and that’s the mark of a show that’s firing on all cylinders. They said it couldn’t be done, yet there’s another perfect episode of The Chair Company in the books, courtesy of this one.

The Chair Company Episodes 1-5 are now streaming on HBO Max. New episodes air every Sunday.

Previous Episode | Next Episode