Written by Amanda Clark
SmartLess: On the Road is a documentary that brings the tour of the podcast SmartLess — which is hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes — Â podcast tour to life.
Being able to see the behind-the-scenes of their thought process throughout the tour is incredible as it allows viewers to relate more to the podcast hosts and have more of an understanding of how the podcast works with visuals. The choice to film it in black and white compared to color makes it feel more cinematic and Oscar movie-esque.
Each episode of the six-episode series is approximately the same length as the SmartLess podcast episodes, and each episode takes place in the six different cities Bateman, Arnett, and Hayes hosted their 10 different tour shows, with some cities having multiple shows.
But the length of each episode is not the only similarity between the show and the podcast. Just like the podcast, only one of the three gentlemen knows who the special guest is going to be, with it being a surprise to the other two since they are rotating who gets to bring a guest for each of the 10 shows on the tour. This also means the audience doesn’t know who is coming on stage until the person reveals themselves. And they didn’t end each show without finding a way to incorporate their iconic cheesy goodbye as they do in SmartLess.
This time, the viewer can see the three hosts’ reactions before and after the show, which — if someone is here just for Bateman, Arnett, and Hayes — might be more captivating than the few minutes of the guest on stage with them. Of course, only they really know if they’re just putting on a show the entire time the camera is on, but it really seemed like the three are just being themselves and having a good time with one another, in the sense that they constantly make fun of each other the way some friends do.
Bateman has the characterization of the loose yet uptight dad figure (just like most of his roles in film or TV), Arnett is the younger child who always needs attention and will do anything for it, while Hayes has the representation of the older brother who reacts to the other two with sarcasm.
There isn’t a dull moment in the show except for a few minutes from one of Bateman’s guests — Max Tegmark, who is a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a physicist, cosmologist, and machine learning researcher. One thing Bateman, Arnett, and Hayes didn’t do was try to cover up how poorly this guest went, which is something to commend because they could have covered up the audience not having a good time watching Tegmark basically giving a lecture on AI. They could have not addressed the situation after it happened as well, but they did talk about it to learn from the situation because Hayes then switched out one of his guests that he thought might have the same audience reaction.
Changing the guest and showing us all of the behind-the-scenes moments allows viewers to see just how much Bateman, Arnett, and Hayes are concerned with making sure each show runs smoothly while they have fun. The viewers get a sense of how each person acts in their daily life and the impact going on tour has on people.
The other guests on the tour include Will Ferrell, Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with brief appearances from: Bradley Cooper, Andy Richter, Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco), Mark Cuban, Matt Damon, Hayes’ sister Tracey, Kevin Hart, Jimmy Kimmel and Jennifer Aniston.
SmartLess: On the Road is a documentary that is the perfect way to relax and laugh at how childish these adults can be.
SmartLess is now streaming on MAX.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DMMOgzyR1A
