True Story – Season 1 Episode 1 “The King Of Comedy” Recap & Review

The King Of Comedy

Mike Tyson once said, “Everybody has a plan until you get punched in the mouth.” That quote is unbelievably true in life – and it forms the crux of Netflix’s latest drama/comedy mash-up. As we cut across to Kevin Hart, episode 1 of True Story begins with this wildly popular comedian speaking somberly about what he’s done to make it to the top.

Only, in this story Hart is playing a guy called Kid, who finishes an appearance on The Ellen Show and heads back on a flight. Unfortunately he’s stuck with a pretty obnoxious fan who continues to probe him over the N word joke Kid has added to his comedy routine. Kid’s bodyguard, Hersch, starts to grow impatient and grits his teeth.

Touching down in Philadelphia, Kid is greeted by Carlton, his brother. They’re both staying at the Four Seasons, which costs $5000 a night. Of course, this just seems to reinforce how rich and famous Kid actually is. By contrast, Carlton isn’t doing too hot. He’s lost his restaurant, he’s losing his business and is $600,000 in debt. However, Carlton remains positive, pointing out he still has his liquor license.

Todd is concerned about Carlton re-entering Kid’s life, believing he’s going to drag the guy down. With these concerns playing heavy on his mind, Kid heads out to party with Carlton. However, things take a turn for the worst.

Kid wakes up in his hotel room with one of the ladies from the club (Daphne) lying face-down, dead. But how? Well, it seems like she’s overdosed on pills. Kid’s life is about to change forever, with everything spiraling out of control. Calling an ambulance is out the question, given it will bring the police in, so Carlton decides to cover for his brother. He’s going to call Greek gangster Ari.

Ari has a wickedly dark sense of humour and he gives Carlton a set of strict instructions to follow. While he handles the body, Ari gives Kid his terms. He wants $500k a month for a year.

Kid is put in really difficult position but with little choice, he agrees to the terms. Off the back of this, Kid phones Terry and makes it out that he’s going to transfer money to Carlton. Of course, that’s a lot of money and he needs to declare it to the taxman. However, that would also bring unwanted attention back to him. Time for Plan B.

Kid loses his temper and chokes out Ari with a cable, killing him outright. When Carlton shows up and sees what’s happened, he’s shocked.

The Episode Review

True Story gets off to an okay start, although it certainly drags its heels to get to the good stuff. The opening 20 minutes are pretty slow, taking its sweet time to flaunt all the wealth and riches Kid has amassed over time. Did we really need to know the hotel is $5000 a night?

Given the rest of the episodes are around 30 minutes or so, I’m not sure why we got more screen-time for all this wealth. The obnoxious fan on the plane, for example, added absolutely nothing to the show beyond pointing out that some people don’t have boundaries.

As soon as Kid wakes up with the dead body though, things do start to move along with more pace and as Kid’s life starts to fall apart, it’ll be interesting to see how deep the rabbit hole goes on this one.