With ‘Bupkis’, Pete Davidson Re-Petes Himself to Diminishing Returns: TV Review
variety.comAlison Herman TV Critic “Your life is fascinating,” a friend tells comedian Pete Davidson, in character as comedian Pete Davidson. “I don’t know what it’s like to live it, but goddamn, do we have fun watching it.” It’s never a good sign when we have to be told, rather than shown, how interesting a person or project is meant to be.
Yet that’s precisely the position in which “Bupkis” decides to put itself. The Peacock comedy is the second Davidson vehicle to draw heavily from the “Saturday Night Live” alum’s autobiography, after “The King of Staten Island” in 2020.
In the style of director Judd Apatow, that feature film was already bloated; “Bupkis” takes the movie’s two-and-a-half-hour tale and stretches it out for another four, to diminishing returns. “The King of Staten Island” and “Bupkis” share a protagonist, played by Davidson: a habitual stoner from New York’s least glamorous borough who lost his father, a firefighter, at a young age. “The King of Staten Island” coats this true-to-life premise in a thin veneer of fiction, casting Davidson as an aspiring tattoo artist named Scott. “Bupkis,” by contrast, drops the act.
Its hero isn’t a Pete Davidson type but the actual Pete Davidson: a celebrity who has an entourage, dates A-listers, and yes, made a movie about himself. “Marisa Tomei played me!” crows his mother, now played by Edie Falco — an equally high honor.
Read more on variety.com