• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, March 17, 2022

Sometimes, but all too rarely, a TV show comes along that is a spot-on document of our social and cultural times.

“Life & Beth,” premiering Friday on Hulu, is just such a show. It springs from the fertile, creative mind of Amy Schumer (pictured above), who establishes herself with this show as one of the current moment’s keenest observers.

“Life & Beth” is not about COVID-19 or the war in Ukraine or any other “current moments” now occurring in the greater world.

Instead, “Life & Beth” ventures no farther than the inner and outer lives of a woman pushing 40.

Perhaps not too surprisingly, the outer life that this woman named Beth presents to the world is far different than the inner life she lives inside her head -- a common phenomenon.

Schumer, who happens to be 40 herself, plays Beth and also wrote and directed the premiere, according to the end credits.

She may have written and directed the whole thing but this kind of information is not provided on the proprietary website Hulu maintains for TV reporters and columnists.

Nevertheless, it is pretty clear that “Life & Beth” is her show. In the first episode, we learn the basics about Beth’s life.

She works as a sales rep for a wine distributor, and she lives in a cramped Manhattan apartment with her high-energy boyfriend who works at the same company.

She has a fraught relationship with her mother, and her relationship with her sister is not much better. Their differences stem from issues they both have with Mom.

Soon into the premiere episode of “Life & Beth,” it becomes clear that Beth is unhappy about all of the above, and conceals her unhappiness from everyone.

Episode One opens with Beth on a sales call to the two self-absorbed owners of a chic New York restaurant. About four minutes into this scene, I realized I loved this show.

The love continued throughout the first half-hour episode, despite a scene centered around a specific bodily function that was jarring and unnecessary -- although it did serve as a response, you might say, to something that was said earlier.

After the set-up in Episode One, something happens in the life of Beth that she would never have expected. What happens afterward is the focus of the rest of the series.

What more can I say? The job of choosing and then watching a new TV show a couple of days in advance of its premiere is always a mixed bag. 

Schumer’s “Life & Beth” made for a much better workday than most, for which I thank her. 

“Life & Beth” premieres on Friday (March 18) on Hulu.