Comedians Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner make being a terrible person appear a lot less terrible. In their Hulu comedy Difficult People, they’re able to convince others that their questionable moral decisions are the only course of action. Obviously, pretending that you just came out is the best way to get the attention of the hottest guy in the gay bar. And when given the choice between coffee and day wine, day wine is the only way to go.Â
These scenarios are straight out of the show’s current season, in which Eichner and Klausner have hit their stride. Season one felt like a pair of best friends trying to figure out how to make their inside jokes translate to a larger audience who, for the most part, had no idea who they were. In season two, it’s like a reunion with old friends, and it makes for a stronger show.
The duo have a sharp point of view about the world and all the things they hate in it: hipsters, people who exercise, happily married couples, anyone who has any sort of success—really everyone and everything but themselves and dogs. That’s not to say they’re inconsiderate, just that they choose to be empathetic only when it’s to their benefit. They’ll start a charity, but only because people who start charities end up with hot husbands and their own TV shows (they’re looking at you, Dan Savage). Sometimes they even accidentally do good deeds: in episode two they cut through a crowd while complaining about condo prices and inadvertently shield a woman from violent protesters outside of an abortion clinic. But even at their worst, Eichner and Klausner are so charming they can do whatever they want.
Season two also features some heavy hitters as guest stars, including Tina Fey and Nathan Lane,  who play hilarious versions of themselves, plus the always on-point Andrea Martin and James Urbaniak as Klausner’s overbearing Jewish mother and boyfriend, respectively. Each supplementary character serves as a vehicle for parody about show business or psychiatry or feminism or public television—Urbaniak’s character works at PBS and wants nothing more than to be able to eat lunch with the “cool” kids who work on the Jeremy Piven show Mr. Selfridge.
But in the end, this show is about Eichner and Klausner, and this season they carry themselves with a confidence that says they know they’re stars and don’t need anyone else’s opinion about it. It’s that disregard for others’ approval (and the freedom Hulu offers that a prime-time network might not) that makes Difficult People one of the most original and entertaining comedies out there.
Difficult People New episodes streaming on Hulu on Tuesdays