General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

w/ Bob & David

w/ Bob & David is an American sketch comedy television series created by and starring Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, released on Netflix on November 13, 2015. It reunited the principals and much of the writing-performing ensemble of Mr. Show with Bob and David, the HBO sketch series Odenkirk and Cross made in the 1990s.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Four half-hour sketch comedy episodes plus an hour-long "making of" special, released at once on Netflix³
Release date	November 13, 2015, at 3:01 a.m. ET / 12:01 a.m. PT³
Premise	After being dishonorably discharged from the Navy SEALs, Bob and David are "back serving our country the way they do best, making sketch comedy," with new characters, new scenes, and new wigs⁴
Critical reception	Metascore 76 from 20 critic reviews (17 positive, 3 mixed, 0 negative); Rotten Tomatoes 89% from 27 reviews¹^•⁵
Rating and status	TV-MA; one season, series ended¹^•⁶
Current availability	Streaming on Netflix, which now lists three of the four episodes⁷^•⁴

Spoilers

Premise and format

Each episode frames a run of taped sketches with on-stage hosting segments in which Odenkirk and Cross appear as versions of themselves, a structure carried over from Mr. Show: one sketch leads into the next through odd segues and an elaborate wraparound sequence, in a manner one reviewer described as funny and often tenuous.⁸^•⁹ The opening sketch of the series has the pair emerging in silver suits from what they believed was a real time travel machine, which turns out to be a deluxe outhouse called the "Real-Time Travel Machine," finding the same small stage and two-drink-minimum crowd they left years earlier, with everyone having aged.⁸

The official synopsis dresses the reunion as fiction: Bob and David, dishonorably discharged from the Navy SEALs, return to serving the country through sketch comedy across "four half-hours of brand new comedy featuring all new characters, all new scenes, and most importantly, all new wigs."⁴ Sketch subjects included a faulty time machine and ambitious New Year's resolutions in episode 1, a fight with Standards & Practices in episode 2, a satire of digital technology as the new gospel in episode 3, and mothers, a boy's controversial trip to heaven, and a skit Bob sneaks in that David hates in episode 4.⁹^•⁷ Recurring characters included Pope Jonah Abromowitz, "the world's first elected freelance Pope"; Gordie McIntosh, the extra Beatle; the digital soothsayer Shangy; and the country music duo Banes and Dunfrey.³

The show mixed taped segments with live in-studio sketches and combined absurdist humor with social commentary. One critic described its tonal range as endearingly old-fashioned (montages of whirling newspaper headlines), scatological (a time-machine toilet), and blasphemous ("Turkey Jesus"), with pointed moments such as Cross playing a filmmaker so an apologist for slavery that he renames it "helperism."³^•¹⁰

Origin

Odenkirk and Cross traced the project to a 2013 live tour they undertook with Brian Posehn, an original Mr. Show writer and cast member. Cross suggested using the approaching 20th anniversary of Mr. Show as the occasion for a tour of brand-new material, possibly ending in an HBO special; Odenkirk, weighing how hard touring was and preferring to write sketches about the present rather than celebrate their past work, proposed making a new show instead.¹¹ They pitched Netflix an all-new series under a different name, and said Netflix gave them total creative freedom over the material and imposed no time limit.¹²

At the time, the pair were far better known for other roles: Odenkirk for Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Cross for Tobias Fünke in Arrested Development.⁸

Cast

Beyond the two leads, the series brought back many Mr. Show writer-performers: John Ennis, Jay Johnston, Brian Posehn, Paul F. Tompkins, Jill Talley, Tom Kenny, Eric Hoffman, Dino Stamatopoulos, and Scott Aukerman, with guest appearances including Keegan-Michael Key, Paget Brewster, Scott Adsit, and Mary Lynn Rajskub.¹^•⁸ Directors included Jason Woliner and Keith Truesdell.¹³

Reception

Critics received the reunion favorably. Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 76, "Generally Favorable," from 20 reviews, with 85% positive, 15% mixed, and none negative; its user score was 8.1 from 39 ratings.¹ Rotten Tomatoes recorded 89% on the Tomatometer from 27 reviews and 86% from audiences, with a critics consensus calling the show "a long-overdue reunion between Mr. Show principals Odenkirk and Cross" and "a suitably hilarious reminder of the reasons for their subsequent individual successes."⁵

Individual reviews varied in emphasis. The A.V. Club's Erik Adams scored it 100 and called it "a hilarious triumph on its own merits," while Entertainment Weekly gave 91, calling it "an edgy gem."¹ More measured takes included RogerEbert.com's 70, which found it felt "like a casual affair" done on a break from projects the pair took more seriously, and Yahoo TV's 70, which judged it an of-its-time sketch show following the same linking-sketch format as Mr. Show.⁹ The Philadelphia Inquirer, at 90, praised it while noting "It's a shame there are only four episodes."¹⁰

Reviewers also placed the show in its comedy landscape. The Daily Beast noted that the series showed how influential Mr. Show had been on a generation of sketch creators such as Amy Schumer, Keegan-Michael Key, and Jordan Peele, and how those newcomers had in turn changed the form.¹⁴ A Washington Post review observed that the Mr. Show name was gone but that other changes from the original were mostly cosmetic.⁸

Availability

The series streams on Netflix, including on the ad-supported tier, and has not been offered for free streaming.⁴ Netflix's current United Kingdom listing shows only three of the four original episodes, with episode 3 absent from the episode list.⁷

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Sitcom and comedy series › Sketch comedy series

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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