Astronomy Club is clever, ambitious, self-aware and completely ridiculous

Variety

The Kenya Barris-produced Netflix sketch show from the black sketch comedy troupe Astronomy Club is "so dense with fully-formed jokes, wry social commentaries, and wild left turns that you’d be forgiven for wondering if you accidentally dropped into the show’s second season rather than its first," says Caroline Framke. "There are sketches about a life or death hair emergency, the chain reaction of biases of people sizing each other up from either side of a locked apartment building door, and a harrowing disaster from the perspective of its gingerbread-men victims. There’s one about a support group for Magical Negroes who can’t let go of their need to help white people (think Bagger Vance), and another about Robin Hood getting a lesson in the intersection between class and race when he tries to rob a wealthy black family." She adds: "With only six episodes, there’s not a whole lot of time for everyone to differentiate themselves, and yet the Astronomy Club manages it just fine by making the time it does have count."

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• Astronomy Club is the crown jewel in a groundbreaking year of black sketch comedy: "Layered, high-quality, and as smart as it is absolutely ridiculous, Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show takes on the world at large but can drill down deep into contemporary black culture to excavate fresh insights that lead to rolling-on-the-floor laughs," says Malcolm Venable. He adds: "Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show scoots under 2019's closing door just in time to be part of an unprecedented year for black sketch comedy. In August, A Black Lady Sketch Show from Robin Thede premiered on HBO — bringing the game-changing perspective of four black women to the overwhelmingly male and white sketch comedy arena. Just a few weeks prior, IFC unveiled Sherman's Showcase, the brilliant high-concept variety/sketch hybrid series about a make-believe musical showcase in the vein of Soul Train."
• Astronomy Club is an A+ sketch show skewering Hollywood's "C+" on race
• How Astronomy Club grew from the first all-black sketch team at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre