Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t seen at least the first two episodes of Peacock’s yet Bupkisso be warned!
For anyone who has been waiting Pete Davidson’s Bupkishis first post-SNL TV series to show the popular comedian in a highly respectable light, the first cold open for Bupkis destroyed those expectations in no time. (Or not so short order, if at all talks about Davidson’s BDE are on par.) Peacock’s latest original comedy has largely done the same with any speculation that it won’t include a close-up of a penis, whether real or prosthetic. This is a series that isn’t afraid to go anywhere for the sake of comedy and authenticity, and delivering that dual approach was part of what guided showrunner Judah Miller’s creative process.
CinemaBlend spoke with Miller beforehand Bupkis‘ big streaming debut for the rocking growing crowd Peacock Subscriptions, and I had to question the choice to begin Davidson’s fictional world with such a crazy opening sequence. (For those still reading without watching, this includes Pete enjoying VR porn and not wanting to finish his unbothered mother, played by Edie Falco.) For Miller, part of the challenge of staging such an unforgettable opening was to know that they would have to continue at the same pace throughout the season. In his words:
yes I think part of our goal with the pilot was to make a pilot that was really fun, which is sometimes difficult when you’re creating a lot of characters and information. But Pete and I felt that a lot of people come into it with preconceived notions of Pete or know little about Pete. so our goal was to make a really insanely fun pilot. And then I think the challenge for us was, can we start the way we started and then have a relentlessness and an ever-escalating build out of that open? Which I also think we managed to do. Then to somehow turn something that didn’t seem like heartwarming and make it heartwarming was our goal. And I kind of feel like we were able to pull that off, even though when we were coming up with it, we weren’t sure if it was going to work or not.
I love taking the “Do you think you know Pete Davidson?” idea and promptly countering it by blowing a load on my mom’s shirt, which she was perfectly fine with continuing to wear all day so as not to waste any more laundry. If nothing else, it becomes clear that Bupkis offers a heightened world beyond Davidson’s actual reality, which is aided by the sheer amount famous cast members like Joe Pesci around Davidson. That said, quite a bit of his personal experiences and family history were put into the show, largely for emotional purposes. (Not to mention playing opposite her real-life girlfriend Chase Sue Wonders one more time.)
But even with the bar set as high as “sprinkling your own mother,” Judah Miller said that sticking to the idea of being ruthless with the stories helped create a season whose wildest moments somehow matched and possibly surpassed the opening sequence. (Everyone’s mileage will vary.) As the showrunner put it:
Ruthless was a word we threw around a lot when talking about the show. We wanted the show to have something that felt relentless in the comedy and in the emotion, and I think that was one of the forces that made it what it is. [Laughs.]
Not to mention the crazy mayhem that ensues in the later episodes, Bupkis delivered another over-the-top NSFW scene in its second episode, “Do As I Say, Not As I Do,” when Bobby Cannavale’s Uncle Tommy shows young Pete the proper way to approach peeing in a urinal by removing the sheath. While I won’t make personal presumptions about the authenticity of the male genitalia shown on screen, I asked Judah Miller about where the line is drawn these days when it comes to showing a penis in a streaming comedy like this. According to the showrunner, this line has gone the way of the dodo, as he explained:
Yeah, I don’t think there’s a line anymore. I feel like in the world we live in today, I think there used to be a line, but I feel like now there’s no line. I think part of what people appreciate about Pete Davidson is that he’s fearless and very open about exploring the intimate aspects of his real life. And so I think that, I don’t know, showing masculinity seemed like part of the tone of what we were going for, I guess. Without being without, without being gratuitous for it. That’s the challenge. Can we still keep it classy? Ours was our question. And I hope we did. Delicious, delicious manhood.
HBO is usually where TV viewers can easily find male nudity on display, whether or not it includes Inheritancepictures of dick or catch monologues from EuphoriaThis is Eric Dane. I’m not entirely sure where these and other cases fall on the “taste” scale, but I feel that Bupkis” the bathroom scene somehow felt as raunchy as such a moment could be. Although the context of the story is 1000% necessary, as “drunk older guy sticking his dick out in front of his underage nephew” could apparently also be the start of a true crime docu-series.
All eight episodes (opens in new tab) of the new comedy are available to stream now, with more fun to come 2023 TV Premiere Schedule when Bupkis is ready.