Tom Segura and Jeremy Konner, making the most of their imagination, really try to justify the title of the latest Netflix series, Bad Thoughts. I wouldn’t deny that at first I thought that each episode of the series was going to deal with a particular theme or subject, and by mocking the established status quo and making use of satire and other literary devices, it was going to talk about some deep philosophical aspects of life. But Bad Thoughts wasn’t about that. Tom Segura and his team have chosen themes, like health, communication, love, etc., and then just let their imagination run wild. Through their weird and at times utterly disgusting scenarios, they have tried to push the limits. It is as if they are constantly checking what the breaking point of a person is; what is that point beyond which they’ll get offended? The makers walk on thin ice, toying with the overly sensitive mindset of the people, with the explicit intention of transgressing the unspoken laws of “wokeism.” The best part is that they try to repackage a joke as if they are trying to find a way to deliver it without being sent to prison. I won’t deny that it was a guilty pleasure to watch certain scenes and just be amused by the audacity of the writers. All in all, Bad Thoughts is literally a compilation of extremely intrusive thoughts that might make you feel uneasy or disgusted.
Episodes 1-2: When A Job Goes Wrong
It is really fascinating the kind of strange and weird places your imagination can take you. Tom Segura firstly imagines himself as a seasoned covert agent who has been tasked with neutralizing a target. He considers himself to be in the league of some of the most sought-after secret agents, such as Daniel Craig’s James Bond and Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. But things almost never go as per our protagonist’s plans. He had three cardinal rules that he apparently abided by at all times, or at least that’s what he liked to tell people. The agent said that he always made sure that no child or woman got hurt during his mission. He also stated how it was important to maintain one’s composure at crucial times. But then he shot a woman, missed the actual target, and then literally pooped in his pants, and to put a final nail in the coffin, he shot a newborn too while trying to commit suicide due to embarrassment. After that, the man had no option but to take his own life because there was no possible way for him to maintain his credibility.
The second scenario takes us to an old age home where a new joinee, Massimo, does something that makes the elderly residents extremely happy. The owner of the old age home finds out that Massimo had been making sure that the carnal desires of the residents were taken care of. But the moment the man gets to know that one of the elderly women is pregnant with his child, he leaves his job and escapes from there.
The third scenario is probably the most relatable, where a man named Evans, during a board meeting, notices the IT guy, Cyrus, watching explicit content on his VR glasses. Evans is distracted and annoyed, but Cyrus is smart enough to gaslight him and make it seem like it was he who was at fault. This particular story showcased a classic case of office politics where the biased attitude leads to people covering up for another employee and turning a blind eye towards their shortcomings. I mean, you could actually feel Evans’ frustration when he is made to feel like he is the one who is at fault even when it was evident what Cyrus was up to.
Episodes 2-3: What’s The Real Meaning Of Success?
Through a couple of stories, the writers question what the actual meaning of success is. Tom Segura talks about how the word could have different meanings for different people. For some it might mean being satisfied with the kind of job they do, and for some it might be about the amount of money that is credited to their account every month. There are people out there who feel a sense of accomplishment when their work has an impact on the lives of the people, and then there are people who feel that success has nothing to do with the legacy you build or the impact you have on society. We saw that an accomplished actor had just lost interest in his work. Known for his heart-thumping action sequences, the man had started using body doubles, as all he wanted to do was to take advantage of his female co-actors. His legacy, his body of work, didn’t give him that feeling of accomplishment or contentment. Contrary to the actor, we are made privy to a musician who goes to extreme lengths to write an original song. The musician kidnapped a bunch of people and asked them to tell him about their struggles in life so that he could be inspired and write a song. To one person, his work, the applause that he earned, mattered the most, and for the other, it was just about using his position, his privilege, to indulge in all manners of debauchery. Where the actor just didn’t care about the quality of films he made, the singer was ready to lie, and go to any extent, to create some good, soul-touching music.
Episodes 3-4: How To Cope With A Dysfunctional Family?
Tom Segura and his team of writers find the most bizarre way to represent the dysfunctionality that exists within a family. I mean, a parent could be disappointed in their child, a child could feel embarrassed by the actions of their parents, or a person could be jealous of their sibling or suffer from an inferiority complex. There are a number of situations where a conflict might arise between family members. In the first story we saw that an elderly man had written a skit for his grandson, which was possibly the most racist and radical piece of writing the entire school had ever witnessed. The son, i.e., the father of the little kid, knew what his father was capable of, and he just wanted to run away from there. In the end, he took solace in the fact that other participants were probably even worse, and his father’s crooked sensibilities just seemed normal in front of them. In the second story, Tom Segura found himself in a setting that resembled the set of a French art film. Tom wanted to sleep with a beautiful woman, but she set a condition and said that he could only do that if he slept with her sister first. Her sister’s face protruded from her back, like Voldemort had latched itself onto Professor Quirrell’s head. To say the least, the scene will disgust you, but our protagonist still ends up fulfilling the condition because, as he puts it, he was just too aroused to stop himself.
Episodes 4-5: Is Everything Fair In Love And War?
Tom Segura lets his imagination run to the wildest corners, and through these two stories, he just about nullifies all the glorification of love and romance that we witness so often in our movies and also in real life. There is a wife who wants to sleep with another man whom she had watched an advertisement on television as a part of her dying wish. The husband is in a dilemma where he doesn’t know what is the right thing to do. I mean, how could he let his wife sleep with another man? But then he finds himself “cancelled” and called selfish by the entire hospital staff, as he was not letting a cancer-stricken woman fulfill her last wish. The wife had the raunchiest demands, and she very sincerely wanted the guy to fulfill all the conditions down to the smallest details.
In the next story, Tom Segura found himself stuck on a plane where a vertically challenged person questioned him about one of the jokes he’d cracked about people like him. The irony was that the fan (if you can call him that), really enjoyed the joke, and he did not hesitate in saying it out loud. But then, how could people call it offensive when the person on whose expense the joke was made, liked it? That’s also when Tom found out that both the pilots had passed away during the customary act (as the air hostess said it was the most normal thing to do) of indulging with each other sexually, and the air hostess, who found Tom pretty offensive, asked him to fly the plane. To make matters worse, even the air traffic controller took offence at Segura’s previous comedy sets to the point that he was ready to let the plane crash. But then a pilot arrived out of nowhere, and he offered to indulge in the same customary act with Tom. Tom denied it at first, but then he felt that it was better to indulge sexually than to go out and face that short man, who nearly got him thrown off the plane.
Episode 5: What Can Miscommunication Lead To?
I believe the stories under this particular theme were unusually relatable. They focused on how words can be misleading and how communication goes haywire if the person does not hear every little detail properly. Also, this theme talked about the importance of context and how truth could be used as an exception when judging what’s derogatory and what’s not. Like there was a person in one of the stories who used his self-made analogy where he stereotyped homosexuality. The people around him found it extremely offensive until a gay person got up and defended him. The gay person believed that whatever was said was completely true. The perceptions of the people changed immediately as they realized that stereotyping could only be considered a vice until it is proven to be a fact.
The story of Evans and Cyrus, who were a part of the same organization, is carried forward, and we get to witness what happened after the latter laid the foundation of his bizarre entrepreneurial venture. Cyrus took his love for VR games to the next level, and he targeted Evans and made sure that his reputation was tarnished. In the game, the main character looked exactly like Evans, and the mission was to molest him and trick him into indulging with aliens sexually. There came a time when Evans was sitting with his father in a cafe, and everybody recognized him. They called him names, and he felt humiliated. Back in the day (as we saw in the “Jobs” segment of the show), Evans had made sure that Cyrus didn’t get the cake that was cut for somebody’s birthday in the office. Cyrus made sure that he took revenge for that action in the next installment of his game, where Evans had to do something really disgusting that obviously involved a cake.
The coffee story was probably my favorite of the lot. A man walks into a coffee place, and he gives specific instructions on how he wants his coffee. The staff do not listen properly, and they bear the consequences of not adhering to their customer’s demands. It was funny because we all have been through that frustration where, despite being extremely clear about what we want, the staff gets it all wrong.
Episode 6: What Is A Health Freak’s Biggest Nightmare?
The last story of Bad Thoughts shows us what peak male fantasy looked like and how the baseless fear of everything going bizarrely wrong troubles men even in their dreams. Tom decided to join a gym with the hidden aspiration of enhancing his masculinity and a secret desire to present himself as an appetizing platter in front of his female counterparts. But while signing the gym membership forms, which contained all the terms and conditions, he feared what would happen if things got out of hand (literally). He goes through a whole traumatic episode of people shaming him and his sexual organ to the point where he has to take an extreme step. At the end we came to know that Tom was just imagining all those things. He was scared of what might happen, but then he shed all those fears, because it felt worth the risk.
