Are you watching The Chair Company, Tim Robinson’s new HBO show? I’m watching it, but man, it’s not always easy. I’m watching because the show is obviously good. Robinson has figured out ways to translate his absurdist social-ineptness comedy into the conspiracy-thriller genre, and he’s created a truly compelling fusion. It’s just hard to watch someone make so many bad decisions in a row. I did two episodes back-to-back once, and that was a mistake. You need to space those bad boys out.
Sunday night’s Chair Company episode was especially chaotic and especially funny, and it ended with a needledrop: Aimee Mann singing the Carpenters’ 1971 hit “Rainy Days And Mondays.” Aimee Mann has been in the air a lot lately. Years ago, she wrote the songs for a stage adaptation of Girl, Interrupted, and we just learned that the play will finally debut next year. Also, I rewatched Magnolia over the weekend, and the Aimee Mann songs in that movie hold up so well. There’s no way that picture works without her. I wonder if the inclusion of Aimee Mann in The Chair Company was a deliberate callback to Magnolia.
Mann’s take on “Rainy Days And Mondays” is as sharp and crystalline as you might expect, and it’s already out on streaming services. It sure seems like she recorded this specifically for The Chair Company, though it would make sense in Magnolia, an extremely rainy movie. Below, listen to Mann’s cover and the Carpenters’ original.
