Reboot (2022 TV series)

Reboot
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Steven Levitan
Starring	Keegan-Michael Key Johnny Knoxville Rachel Bloom Calum Worthy Krista Marie Yu Judy Greer Paul Reiser
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producers	Steven Levitan John Enbom Danielle Stokdyk Jeff Morton
Producer	Keegan-Michael Key
Camera setup	Single camera
Running time	23–31 minutes
Production companies	Levitan Productions 20th Television
Original release
Network	Hulu
Release	September 20, 2022 (2022-09-20) – present (present)

Reboot is an American comedy series created by Steven Levitan. It premiered September 20, 2022, on Hulu.

Premise

Reboot is about the dysfunctional cast of an early 2000s hit sitcom, Step Right Up, who must face their unresolved issues and navigate a vastly different media and entertainment environment when a young writer successfully pitches a reboot of their show.

Cast

Main

• Keegan-Michael Key as Reed Sterling, the Yale-trained actor who played "Lawrence", the stepfather on Step Right Up, before leaving the show to pursue a failed career in theater and film.
• Johnny Knoxville as Clay Barber, the actor and raunchy stand-up comedian who played "Jake", the ex-husband in Step Right Up and is now dealing with a lifetime of alcoholism, drug abuse, and repeated arrests for minor crimes.
• Rachel Bloom as Hannah Korman, an up-and-coming indie film screenwriter who lands a deal with Hulu to revive Step Right Up but is forced into the role of co-showrunner with the sitcom's creator, Gordon, who also happens to be her estranged father.
• Calum Worthy as Zack Jackson, the former child actor who played "Cody", the son on Step Right Up, before going on to a brief career as the leading man in a series of low-budget teen movies.
• Krista Marie Yu as Elaine Kim, the inexperienced studio executive tasked with overseeing the revival of Step Right Up.
• Judy Greer as Bree Marie Jensen, the actress who played "Josie", the mother on Step Right Up, then retired from acting when she married the duke of a small Nordic country before losing all of her money in their divorce.
• Paul Reiser as Gordon Gelman, the aging writer who originally created Step Right Up and maintains the rights to the show, allowing him to co-opt Hannah as lead showrunner.

Recurring

• Eliza Coupe as Nora, Reed's girlfriend and a successful playwright
• Alyah Chanelle Scott as Timberly Fox, a former reality show contestant who plays "Whitney", the adult daughter of Reed's character Lawrence.
• Lawrence Pressman as Jerry, the former director of episodes from the original Step Right Up who returns to direct episodes in the reboot
• Ryan Dietz as Dennis, the first AD of "Step Right Up"
• Fred Melamed, Rose Abdoo and George Wyner as Alan, Selma and Bob, older and experienced comedy writers brought in by Gordon
• Kimia Behpoornia, Korama Danquah and Dan Leahy as Azmina, Janae and Benny, young and socially conscious comedy writers brought in by Hannah

Guest

• Kerri Kenney as Susan, Zack's mother
• Robert Clendenin as Dougie, a struggling actor and old friend of Clay's
• Esther Povitsky as Marcy, Zack's ex-girlfriend
• Stephanie Allynne as Mallory, a Hulu HR representative
• Peter Gallagher as Tyler

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	Prod. code
1	"Step Right Up"	Steven Levitan	Story by : Steven Levitan Teleplay by : Steven Levitan and John Enbom	September 20, 2022 (2022-09-20)	1QSE79
After meeting with executives at Hulu, Hannah gets the green-light to revive the sitcom Step Right Up with the aim of making it more "adult" by having the original cast play older versions of their characters. When production starts, the cast, including Reed Sterling, Clay Barber, Zack Johnson and Bree Marie Jensen, return and see each other for the first time since the original show ended. Reed is now a struggling theater actor who hasn't starred in a major role for decades, Clay is a recovering alcoholic with a lengthy arrest history, Zack is a C-lister who still lives with his mother, and Bree is a bankrupt divorcée who takes the role only because she needs money. Against Hannah's wishes, the studio brings in Gordon to act as co-showrunner, resulting in her quitting the production. Gordon's stubborn refusal to update the show as Hannah originally intended leads the cast to secretly visit her at home, successfully begging her to return and stop him from ruining their chance at a comeback. Reed suddenly has an epiphany when he recalls how Gordon had given his character a "dark secret" and realizes that Hannah doesn't want to work with him because he is her estranged biological father.
2	"New Girl"	Carrie Brownstein	David Feeney	September 20, 2022 (2022-09-20)	1QSE02
Gordon and Hannah's professional relationship continues to sour between Hannah's unresolved anger towards her father for abandoning her and Gordon defiantly refusing to take responsibility. Former reality show contestant Timberly is cast as Lawrence's adult daughter Whitney; her acting abilities begin to improve when Reed offers to coach her, but an envious Bree manages to sabotage her rehearsal performance with awful acting tips. When Zach’s mother Susan visits him on set, Clay finds it inappropriate and decides to help his co-star by asking her to stop. Susan, picking up on Clay's emotionally scarred psyche, manipulates him into having sex with her instead. Bree comes clean to Timberly after Reed points out that she's doing the same horrible things to her younger costar that had been done to her earlier in her career. This results in a powerful episode of Step Right Up where Lawrence confesses to Whitney how much he regrets not being in her life. Hannah realizes that this is Gordon's way of apologizing for being an absent father.
3	"Growing Pains"	Jaffar Mahmoud	John Quaintance	September 20, 2022 (2022-09-20)	1QSE03
An uncomfortable Clay attempts to break things off with Susan by having an actor friend impersonate an HR representative and lie about how such an "improper relationship" would force the studio to fire him; Susan sees through the ruse but understands and tells Clay that she is always around if he needs a hook-up. Zack is clearly upset until Clay recognizes that all he wanted was a father figure in his life and decides to start spending more time with him outside of work. Bree gets emotional when the wardrobe department fits her with Spanx so she looks younger on camera. Wanting to help, Timberly offers to take her out for drinks. Hannah and Gordon clash again when they both hire their own writers, who prove unable to agree on anything and wind up wasting an entire day of work. Hannah is about to give up when she accidentally improvises a joke that everyone finds funny, convincing both sides that they can in fact work together. Reed calls Bree to try and deal with his long-repressed feelings for her, unaware that she and Timberly just finished having drunken sex.
4	"Girlfriends"	Chris Koch	Josh Levine	September 27, 2022 (2022-09-27)	1QSE04
Bree and Timberly deal with the aftermath of their drunken sex, and Bree expresses her sexuality. Hannah decides to come out to her father, who is accepting of her. Reed and Clay convince Bree that Timberly slept with her to weaken her career, however this is proven false. Zack takes Elaine on a tour of the lot.
5	"What We Do in the Shadows"	Jaffar Mahmoud	Caroline Fox & Josh Levine	October 4, 2022 (2022-10-04)	1QSE05
Zack is upset that his ex has custody of their dog so Hannah tries to help. Bree joins a women's group that seems like a Ponzi scheme only to get lost in the woods on a wellness retreat. She calls Clay, who is on the way to an AA meeting to celebrate thirty days sober. Reed and Gordon go out to dinner.
6	"Bewitched"	Beth McCarthy-Miller	Andrew Gurland	October 11, 2022 (2022-10-11)	1QSE06
Zack asks Hannah to help him find out if it's okay to ask out a coworker. When she does, the writer's room uses it as an opportunity to insert itself into her personal life. Reed ends up staying in the same hotel as Bree and they reconnect with a game they played in the past. Clay starts to make amends for past actions which results in him upsetting the director.
7	"Baskets"	Viet Nguyen	Dave King	October 18, 2022 (2022-10-18)	1QSE07
Hannah supervises a looping session with Clay before realising how terrible he is at reading lines. Bree joins the writers room where she pitches bizarre ideas. Reed agrees to play basketball with Reed and is surprised to find out he is playing against kids.
8	"Who's the Boss?"	Chris Koch	Steven Levitan	October 25, 2022 (2022-10-25)	1QSE08
Bree is surprised during an interview and ropes in Reed to make herself seem less pathetic. Reed's girlfriend surprises him with a visit. Gordon and Hannah are notified of a change in leadership at Hulu that could impact the shows future. Clay is about to buy a house, with Zack encouraging him, and then discouraging him.

Production

On August 5, 2021, the series was given a pilot order by Hulu, and on January 11, 2022, was given a series order.

Casting

Alongside the series announcement, it was confirmed that Keegan-Michael Key and Johnny Knoxville would star in the series. On September 22, 2021, it was announced that Leslie Bibb would join the series as Bree, alongside Rachel Bloom as Hannah, Michael McKean as Gordon, Krista Marie Yu as Elaine, and Calum Worthy as Zack. On January 11, 2022, it was announced that Judy Greer had replaced Bibb as Bree Marie Jensen. In February 2022, it was reported that Paul Reiser would play the role of Gordon in the series, replacing McKean.

Reception

Audience viewership

According to the streaming aggregator Reelgood, Reboot was the 9th most streamed program across all platforms, during the week of September 22, 2022 to September 28, 2022. According to the streaming aggregator JustWatch, Reboot was the 4th most streamed television series across all platforms in the United States, during the week of September 25, 2022. According to Whip Media, Reboot was the 7th most streamed original series in the United States, during the week of October 9, 2022, the 6th during the week of October 16, 2022, the 7th during the week of October 23, 2022, and the 5th during the week of October 30, 2022.

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 85% approval rating with an average rating of 6.9/10, based on 33 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Reboot hardly reinvents the Hollywood satire with its meta jokes that could have used more bite, but its more conventional qualities—namely a delightful cast—make for a mirthful enough watch." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 70 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

External links

• Official website
• Reboot at IMDb