Joel McHale is returning to once again lampoon pop culture with his unique brand of mordant wit and edgy quips. Since The Soup ended in 2015, McHale has focused on his acting career. He's headlined a sitcom and built up his film and TV resume with some impressive credits that include a role on the X-Files revival. Now he's gone back to the format that made him famous with his new Netflix series The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale. He recently addressed the similarities between his new show and The Soup and explained why he isn't sweating what E! has to say about it:
There's Tosh.0, there's Rob Dyrdek [Ridiculousness]. They are essentially the same format. Like The Daily Show, it's not like SNL could say, 'Hey, you're making topical jokes on a fake news show.' I don't know how E! feels about it. They must have known I was going to do something like this. But so far they haven't sued us. There is nothing left the same. We changed the color of the backdrop from Kelly Green to Forest Green. Come at me?
Joel McHale shared his thoughts regarding his recent career moves and the inevitable comparisons that can be drawn between his new Netflix series and The Soup, and let's face it: if there can be a million crime procedurals, there shouldn't be any limit on the number of clip shows. McHale also discussed how his new show came to fruition, revealing that fans of The Soup should undoubtedly be grateful to director Paul Feig, who McHale credits with spearheading the new show. The vacuum left in the absence of McHale's particular style has been felt.
The first season of The Joel McHale Show will only last 13 episodes. Unlike The Soup, which principally focused on entertainment, the Netflix series will take aim at pop culture in general, including entertainment, sports, politics, celebrities, and the internet as a whole. So where does Netflix fit into this picture? In his interview with IndieWire, McHale shared the difficulties that came at E! when he took jabs at the network's expense and the network didn't exactly appreciate it. The Netflix show could be entirely different, as McHale explained that the folks at Netflix have been pretty cool at making fun at themselves, but the "quality of the programming" is "so high that it's a little bit harder." Based on his work in the past, it's probably safe to say that he'll find a way.
While Netflix has a lot of high caliber shows, that doesn't mean McHale will be unable to find the humor in an out-of-context clip or two. That being said, taking on a Netflix show may be a little more difficult than it seems. New episodes of E! network series are released on a weekly basis, whereas new seasons of Netflix's scripted series are infamously released in bulk. That could make sifting for clips, especially relevant and spoiler-free ones, a lot harder. Not impossible, just harder. For more options of what to watch on Netflix, check out our 2018 Netflix premiere schedule.
