Lady Dynamite

In watching Maria Bamford’s new show, Lady Dynamite, I'm reminded of Ted Hughes’ poem Bayonet Charge: in it, a soldier so overwhelmed by battle longs - ‘to get out of that blue crackling air his terror’s touchy dynamite.’ The soldier is traumatised, his fuse has reached its conclusion; he is about to blow into irrevocable breakdown.

Bamford’s war doesn't involve the fields of battle but the arena of the mind. A comedian with bipolar II disorder, she has undergone psychiatric assessment for suicidal thoughts. Her condition manifests itself as hypermania, a stranglehold of euphoria that is sometimes too difficult to wrestle. The comedian as manic depressive is less common than the press would like you to think. Most are maladjusted, but few are clinically unwell. What unites Bamford with another diagnosed ‘manic,’ Spike Milligan, is a phenomenal work ethic and a surreal lunacy that borders on genius. To be touched by madness is no great thing, but there’s no denying that it gives people a different worldview, which in the right hands can be conducive to comedy.

Bamford then has blown up in both senses of the word. One of the most in-demand comedians in America has been forced to cancel shows in the past because of her struggles with mental health. Unable to fully exorcise this mania, Bamford has harnessed it into brilliant, discombobulating comedy. Hers isn’t the tight narration of other comics; she is the scatter-gun ratatating a flurry of voices into the skulls of adoring audiences. She has the surrealism of Steve Martin, the facial tics of Jim Carrey and the mimicry of Peter Sellers; the fact that the emotional resonance of her material is not undimmed by these performance skills makes her very special indeed. 

Lady Dynamite is neither written nor directed by Bamford, but it is very much her vehicle. Mitchell Hurwitz, creator of Arrested Development, and Pam Brady, writer for South Park, maybe chauffeuring the thing; however it’s Bamford’s mental health story that’s telling it where to go.

The series begins in a way like no other. Bamford parodies the transformative lies of hair commercials by dancing around the city with the manic energy of a pixie dream girl. The reverie breaks when an assistant tells Bamford to get into the van because the show is about to begin. Fans of the fourth wall: this show is not for you. Through having characters discuss narrative sequencing to having them argue over the episode’s message, Lady Dynamite joins Community and Arrested Development in taking a postmodern sword to straight sitcom.

The mad opening to Lady Dynamite.

In Hurwitz working with Brady though, Ivy League smarts are blended with street smarts to create a comedy that strokes your chin and tickles your belly. For example, it is surely Brady whom is responsible for the character, agent to the stars, Karen Grisham. Grisham is a South Park cartoon in a Hollywood setting, shooting obscenities like an automatic Tourette’s gun. Also, Episode 2 where Maria goes out with Shane, a bisexual recovering meth addict, has Brady's handprints all over it. When Shane says, “it’s long time since I’ve been straight in a bar,” Bamford takes this to mean heterosexual when in fact he means from meth. When he goes on to say, "I used to take it in my mouth. I used to take it in the shower and sit on it…" we’re dealing with Cartman levels of penile humour. Regardless of how high or low the comedy goes, an intelligent seam runs through it.

For all the house of card layering of narrative and dialogue, the most special moments are when the show folds in on itself and focuses on Maria’s earlier mental collapse. These flashbacks to Minnesota are moving because they demonstrate her resilience in the face of illness along with the loving support of her family. In therapy Bamford discovers music’s healing powers; consequently she responds by initiating her unsuspecting family into a band and booking them a gig. (This is not a world away from her real life where she once had her dad open for her in a biker club). Another touching moment is where her dad defends her honour in the face of ignorant abuse: "My daughter has Type 2 Bipolar which is defined as long-term depression with agitated hypermania. But it does not define her."

The flashback to Bamford's mania.

Essentially, Dynamite is a show that blows the lid off the traditional sitcom and attitudes to mental illness. It is a weird animal that won’t be for everyone. Stick with it past its disorientating first episode though because there every alienation device is thrown at it – parody, postmodernism and intertextuality – making it more of a cerebral exercise than a comedic one. However, Episode 2 is a rude doozy that through sensitive plotting and insensitive subject matter elicits huge laughs.

My instinct tells me that you’ll either love her or loathe Bamford's sitcom. No one will deny though that it is a work of a febrile mind.  So why not jump in and swim around in it for a while? You might find you enjoy the water.

Lady Dynamite is available on Netflix.