Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson’s Detroiters Is Finally on Netflix

Here’s a rare spot of good news in these turbulent times: Detroiters, the excellent Comedy Central sitcom from Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson, is now streaming on Netflix. If you missed it on TV and Paramount Plus, you can now watch both seasons on the biggest streamer, which is also the home of Robinson’s viral smash sketch show I Think You Should Leave. And if you didn’t miss it, well, you’re probably deep into your first Netflix rewatch already.

Richardson and Robinson created Detroiters along with I Think You Should Leave co-creator Zach Kanin, so it’s not a surprise that the two shows feel like they exist in the same universe. Robinson’s character Tim Cramblin is just as aggressively awkward and clueless as his typical I Think You Should Leave character; Richardson’s Sam Duvet might be more personable and better at reading social cues than Tim, but he’s still a bona fide weirdo out of touch with society in general. Together they run a small, struggling advertising firm in Detroit, and the ads they make for local grocery stores and wig companies could easily be I Think You Should Leave sketches. 

Detroiters is plenty absurd, but it’s also still a sitcom, so it never gets quite as unhinged as I Think You Should Leave can at its most extreme. It’s also just as good at the traditional sitcom bits as the comedy, though, and without ever feeling schmaltzy or saccharine. Tim and Sam’s friendship is sweet and genuinely inspiring, even if they regularly encourage each other’s worst tendencies. Their relationships with their fathers—Tim’s legendary adman dad who lost his mind (played by wrestler Kevin Nash in his best role) and Sam’s strict and demanding restaurateur father (Obba Babatundé)—sum up the show’s strengths: both dads are almost cartoon-like in their exaggeration and affectations, but there’s actual emotion in how their sons relate to them, and how their own issues deeply impressed themselves upon Tim and Sam. Nash’s turn as a swaggering ‘90s Don Draper who now lives in an institution is ridiculous, but there’s a deep vein of humanity beneath the comedy.  The show’s just grounded enough that you actually care for these characters, while still maintaining a loose, ridiculous, almost dreamlike atmosphere that allows for cartoonish side characters and ludicrous situations. 

It’s also a show that’s deeply in love with its location. Detroit isn’t just a backdrop; it’s an ever-present attitude that defines the show and Tim and Sam’s sense of identity. Detroiters takes enormous pride in Detroit itself, and Tim and Sam (both the actors and their characters) take tremendous pride in celebrating and promoting the city they call home. As somebody from Atlanta—a city that, until the last decade or so, was largely dismissed as a barren, soulless, cultural wasteland best known for a confusingly huge airport and the crassest Olympics ever—I strongly relate to Tim and Sam’s love of Detroit, which is misunderstood and fearmongered about by people who don’t really know anything about it. Detroit is a true underdog, and so are Tim and Sam, their ad agency, and Detroiters itself, which aired on a clueless cable network years after streaming had already taken over as the dominant force in TV, and was confined to an unpopular service after it finally hit streaming after cancellation. 

Most importantly, of course, is that Detroiters is absolutely hilarious. It’s every bit as funny as I Think You Should Leave, but with Richardson’s boundless charisma in every episode, instead of just a handful of sketches a season. And like the rest of Tim Robinson’s pre-I Think You Should Leave work, it’s as quotable and rewatchable as his beloved sketch show. I don’t know anybody who’s watched Detroiters and didn’t fall in love with it, and hopefully Netflix will introduce it to the wide audience it always deserved. And who knows: maybe if it’s a big enough hit there, we’ll get another season? If anybody can beat the TV revival curse, it’s Robinson, Richardson, and Kanin.

Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, TV, travel, music, theme parks, wrestling, and more. He’s also on Twitter @grmartin.