‘Bupkis’ Is a Bust

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve watched a first episode as terrible as Bupkis, Peacock’s new vehicle for Pete Davidson and his semi-autobiographical tale.

It’s labeled as a comedy, which is unfortunate as nothing happens in the first episode that is funny.

Bupkis stars Pete Davidson as some version of himself, Edie Falco as his mother, Joe Pesci as his grandfather, and Brad Garrett as a family friend whom they consider an uncle figure. All are better than this.

The opening scene finds Davidson with a virtual headset Googling himself only to be disappointed in the results. From there, he searches for porn. Naturally. (As with the adage “you get what you pay for,” nothing surprising occurs in Bupkis.) And this next scene actually takes place: as Davidson finishes masterbating, his mother enters with his basket of laundry. She gets his end result on her shirt. In the next scene, she’s still wearing the shirt: she’s about to do Peloton and doesn’t want to waste a change of clothes. This is the great Edie Falco.

Both that bit and others should play more like a Farrelly brothers’ movie but instead tries to shock for the sake of shocking which makes it all forced, expected, and lame.

In their first scene together, Pesci’s character Joe reveals to Pete that he’s dying. Pete assumes this means he wants to get laid. Naturally. He arranges a sex worker to meet them for a boys’ night out. Uncle Roy (Brad Garrett), in a surprise to Pete, joins them for the evening. Of course it’s Uncle Roy who ends up sleeping with the sex worker, not Grandfather Joe. Due to a hip complication, Uncle Roy cannot complete the task. So it’s up to Pete to help his elderly family friend finish the act by pushing and pulling him from behind. The way its shot is meant to evoke Pete fucks his Uncle Roy. I mean, if you find borderline incest hilarious, this show is for you!

The crass nature of it all would be forgiven if any of it added up to subvert expectations. There’s no humor. Nor is it sad, which would’ve at least been interesting.

Here, Pete Davidson is one note: can you imagine him being sincere?

Bupkis is the show where you know Pete Davidson is going to say “pussy.” Which there’s nothing wrong with saying. It’s just what’s expected: and he does.