''Bust Down'' is an American comedy television series co-created by and co-starring

Langston Kerman Langston Kerman (born April 23, 1987) is an American actor, writer, and comedian. He has acted in shows including ''Insecure'', ''High Maintenance'', '' Bless This Mess'', '' The Boys'' and '' English Teacher''. Kerman is a writer and co-star on H ...

Jak Knight Jakim Maulana (November 6, 1993 – July 14, 2022), better known by his stage name Jak Knight, was an American actor and stand-up comedian. He was best known for his roles as DeVon in the animated Netflix sitcom '' Big Mouth'' and Jak in the Pe ...

Chris Redd Christopher Jerell Redd (born March 25, 1985) is an American comedian and actor. After several years performing stand-up comedy, Redd was hired to join the cast of the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' ahead of the show's 43rd s ...

, and

Sam Jay Samaria Johnson (born January 13, 1982), better known as Sam Jay, is an American comedian and writer. She is best known as a writer for ''Saturday Night Live'' (2017–2020), her Netflix comedy special ''3 in the Morning'' (2020), and as the co-cr ...

. The series premiered on

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred t ...

on March 10, 2022.

Plot

The series follows a group of friends working low-wage jobs at a casino in

Gary Gary may refer to: *Gary (given name), a common masculine given name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name Places ;Iran * Gary, Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan Province ;United States *Gary (Tampa), Florida *Gary, Ind ...

, Indiana.

Cast

as Chris, a valet *

as Sam, a cook *

as Langston, a janitor *

as Jak, a stockroom worker * Phi Tran as Tiki, Sam's sidepiece * DomiNque Perry as Nina, Sam's girlfriend *

Freddie Gibbs Fredrick Jamel Tipton (born June 14, 1982), better known by his stage name Freddie Gibbs, is an American rapper and songwriter. He signed with Interscope Records in 2006 and recorded his debut album for the label; however, its release was cance ...

as Chauncey, the casino's HR manager *John Douglas as Rocko, a velet.

Production

''Bust Down'' was produced by

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a division of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming#Universal Studio Group, Universal Studio Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which, in turn, is ...

and

Lorne Michaels Lorne Michaels (born Lorne David Lipowitz; November 17, 1944) is a Canadian and American television writer and film producer. He created and produced ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1980, 1985–present) and produced the ''Late Night (franchise) ...

Broadway Video Broadway Video is an American multimedia entertainment studio founded by Lorne Michaels, creator of the sketch comedy TV series ''Saturday Night Live'' and producer of other television programs and movies. Broadway Video also held the rights to m ...

. Michaels was executive producer with Hilary Marx, Andrew Singer, Richie Keen, and Guy Stodel, as well as series creators and stars Langston Kerman, Jak Knight, Chris Redd, and Sam Jay. They described the show as predominantly about friendship and their intention for the show's comedy to be "raunchy, irreverent, and complicated." The series premiered on

on March 10, 2022. All six episodes were released simultaneously.

Episodes

Reception

The series received mainly positive critical reception. It holds a score of 76/100 on review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. Angie Han of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' praised ''Bust Down'': "the series’ comic voice is admirably bold — and if you’re left cold by one joke, there are usually three more coming right on its tail." ''

Ebony Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', which also includes the persimmon tree. A few ''Diospyros'' species, such as macassar and mun ebony, are dense enough to sink in water. Ebony is fin ...

'''s Savannah Taylor described the show: "abandoning the appeal of respectability politics and good-mannered humor, this show...is the definition of doing hood rat stuff with your friends" and praised the comedy as "just straight up, raw Black tomfoolery."

Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American writer. He is a former columnist and film critic for the '' Chicago Sun-Times'', where he wrote for 39 years dating back to 1986 until his departure in 2025. He co-hosted the television s ...

rated the series 3/4 stars and hailed the "biting social commentary, some ridiculously effective over-the-top physical shtick and a steady stream of laugh-out-loud moments" but also noted that the show "“will have some viewers bailing within the first 10 minutes of the premiere episode." Nina Metz gave ''Bust Down'' 3/4 stars in the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' and called the creators and stars "goofy as hell, but also intelligent and thoughtful and self-aware, which allows them to take on otherwise touchy subject matter."

References

External links

Official website
* {{Peacock (streaming service) 2020s American black sitcoms 2020s American workplace comedy television series 2022 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings American English-language television shows Peacock (streaming service) original programming Television series by Broadway Video Television series by Universal Television Television shows set in Indiana