This Anthology Series From A Star Of The Office Is Criminally Underrated

The Office‘s B.J. Novak is most widely known for playing Ryan Howard, but his off-screen talent deserves just as much acclaim. In addition to writing 15 episodes of The Office, Novak wrote the 2014 collection of short stories One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories, and the 2022 movie Vengeance (also his directorial debut). All in all, Novak has established a distinct and wonderful voice in the writing world.

Perhaps the best display of that voice is in his all-too-short-lived 2021 anthology series The Premise. While other anthologies are held together by a collective genre or tone, Novak himself acts as the glue that holds The Premise together. The episodes range from funny to deadly serious, poignant to strange, but Novak’s memorable writing style makes the show cohesive and culturally relevant.

The Premise Is A Perfect Anthology

Promotional materials for the show announced “B.J. Novak Presents The Premise” underneath a description declaring it “an anthology of now.” Novak introduces each episode and its “premise“, reinforcing that the through line of the show is the way his unique storytelling style inevitably circles back to a point of cultural relevance.

The FX series was canceled after only five episodes, but in that short time, The Premise managed to deliver comedy, drama, suspense, and just plain intrigue. Episode topics ranged from gun violence to social media and many things in between, with each episode posing such an unexpected circumstance that it forced the issue to be thought about in a new way.

The first episode, “Social Justice Sex Tape,” centers around Ethan, a man who captured a police altercation in the background of a sex tape filmed in his apartment. The footage could exonerate a Black man falsely accused of assaulting an officer… if the embarrassing tape is played in full and Ethan’s character is analyzed before the court.

The whole situation escalates to increasingly zany and outlandish points of comedy, but it ends with a single, sobering exchange that proves that all of this wackiness did indeed have a point. “You said I’d be a hero for this,” Ethan laments to his lawyer after being thoroughly humiliated on the stand. Her reply: “I didn’t say you’d look like one.”

The Premise Is Star-Studded

B.J. Novak is not the only big name featured on The Premise. Ben Platt and Ayo Edebiri starred in “Social Justice Sex Tape” as Ethan and the lawyer attempting to utilize his tape to reveal the truth. And that was only the first episode — the anthology format allowed for new faces every week, while the low commitment of only one episode made the show accessible to bigger stars.

Later episodes were led by the likes of Jon Bernthal, Kaitlyn Dever, Lucas Hedges, Lost’s Daniel Dae Kim, and more. Had The Premise been picked up for more episodes, there would have certainly been more celebrities, out-of-pocket stories, and relevant commentaries in its future.