Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Maxxx’ On Hulu, A Cringe Comedy About A Disgraced Boy Band Star Trying To Make A Comeback

After Hulu’s recent purchase of the American rights for a number of British series, they’ve decided to premiere a bunch of them this week, in order to promote a British binge-a-thon of sorts (they call it a “British Binge-cation”). One of the series is Maxxx, created and starring O-T Fagbenle, who stars in Hulu’s biggest series, The Handmaid’s Tale. But will O-T’s star power help this series?

MAXXX: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: In the grungy dressing room of a small club, a middle-aged man is going “BoyTown back in the house… Well, BoyTown minus 2.”

The Gist: The middle-aged man is Maxxx (O-T Fagbenle), the least popular member of the former boy band BoyTown, who is trying to make a solo comeback. His son Amit (Alan Asaad), whom Maxxx adopted during the height of his fame, comes backstage to tell his dad that he’s already late getting on stage and the club owner is threatening to cut him. He feels he’s too big to go on on time, but finds out how much everyone hates him when people throw stuff at him almost as soon as he starts his set.

He’s also desperate to win back his girlfriend, Jourdan Dunn (playing herself), and he goes into a tailspin when he sees a clip from her appearance on Jonathan Ross’ talk show that she’s found a new love. So he devises a reboot plan: First, hire his cousin Rose (Helen Monks) as his personal assistant. She’s so obsessed with him, that Amit reminds Maxxx that she’d “stab you and take your skin as a trophy.” The two of them stay in her Maxxx-poster-laden room in her parents’ house, where she’s been on her own for quite some time.

The second step: Win back the band’s old manager, Don Wild (Christopher Meloni). Wild is uninterested, but when he’s given some info about the sales a reunion could generate — yes, even CD sales — from Tamzin (Pippa Bennett-Warner), an Oxford grad who’s there to pitch an avant-garde act she wants to manage, Wild gives both of them a challenge. Tazmin, who he assigns to manage this reunion, and Maxxx need to get the group back together pronto. “No one wants a three-fingered handjob,” he tells them, meaning it’s all of BoyTown or nothing.

They first try to talk to Rico (Luti Fagbenle), but Rico curses him out over intercom. Then they go to the other member of the trio, Lucky (Javone Prince), but contrary to his nickname, Lucky is in a coma, a victim of a wild lifestyle. When Maxxx tries to slap Lucky awake, it finishes the poor guy off once and for all.

At Lucky’s funeral, Maxxx is excited to see all the celebrities, so he interrupts the eulogy of Lucky’s mother to sing and encourage Rico to get up and join him. Rico refuses, Tamzin is humiliated, and Don tells her “this is the three-fingered handjob no one wants.”

Our Take: The broadcast history of Maxxx is definitely checkered; based on a series of shorts written and produced by Fagbenle, half of its six-episode first season aired in the UK on a youth-oriented cable channel before it was pulled. There’s no date for the remaining three episodes to air, meaning that the entire series is appearing in the States before it appears in its native country. After watching the first episode, we understand why.

As much as we enjoyed Fabgenle in The Handmaid’s Tale, it feels like he’s out of his element here. He’s tried to create a cringe comedy in the spirit of The Office, except set in the music world. But the first episode is all desperation and sad-sacky cringe, which would be OK if it was funny. Unfortunately, we didn’t laugh once at the first episode.

It’s been proven that you can do cringe comedy about the music industry, but in FXX’s Dave, Lil Dicky is not just making fun of himself, but he infuses the fictional version of himself with equal amounts of confidence and imposter syndrome. Maxxx has none of the latter and all of the former, to the point where he’s completely delusional. Cringe comedy doesn’t work if the main character doesn’t have even a little bit of an idea how his actions affect others; heck, even David Brent had some occasional moments of clarity during The Office‘s two seasons. Maxxx doesn’t know he’s pissing people off, and doesn’t care.

Meloni was a good addition as Don Wild; he’s there to chew the scenery as an over-the-top music magnate. But it feels like he’s the model of a music magnate circa 2005, when BoyTown was likely at its peak. We can’t imagine any manager, whose acts’ revenue are being decimated by streaming, acting like Wild does (well, maybe Scooter Braun, but still…). But it’s good to see someone at least have the ability to be funny in this ensemble.

Bennett-Warner’s eggheaded character Tamzin feels like she’s there as the scold to keep Maxxx in check rather than a true equal. No matter what she says to him in the first episode — “I’m your boss,” — it all feels like lip service when he goes off and does humiliating things like interrupt Lucky’s funeral. She, and the show, deserve better.

Sex and Skin: Nothing.

Parting Shot: After completely humiliating himself, Maxxx sits down and says, I think that went well. Tamzin can only look on in astonishment.

Sleeper Star: Monks is decent as Maxxx’s obsessed cousin Rose, but we also think that if the show was written about Asaad’s character Amit, as the normal son of an arrogant, drug-addled former boy band star, it could have gone in much funnier directions.

Most Pilot-y Line: When one of Don’s guards comes from behind Maxxx and puts him in a choke hold, Maxxx says, “You can’t do this!” Don responds, “I pay him to do this!”

Our Call: SKIP IT. If you want to watch a cringey but hilarious show about the music business, go find Dave, which is also on Hulu. Maxxx will just make you cringe.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Maxxx On Hulu