This show is a ride with a very particular and goof-ball if not almost insecure voice. If you learn to anticipate that voice, much like Angie Tribeca, it's a show that can grow on you and has solid genuinely funny moments. there's shows that feel like they're stuck in an "ongoing joke" like Master of None, and shows that try to relate the ongoing joke of their perspective while still managing to actually write jokes and cast people with funny personalities and timing. This is the latter. The "meta" segments and commentary I'm not sure particularly help the show, but I think they speak to that underlying and constant doubt and fear related to mental health. You can't "just be awkward" or some version of the uncomfortable and inappropriate adults in your life, and as you start to reinforce ideas about yourself, the impending doom of going crazy seeks to undermine that as well.

I like that I was prepared to kind of write this off and think it too quirky or hard to pin down. But over the course of a few episodes you start to see that this is as structured while trying to remain true to the source as Bamford can perhaps manage. It's not hard to distinguish between 3 eras of story telling, it stays goofy but not absurd throughout, so when something particularly off-kilter happens it doesn't make you go "not again!" Halfway through I don't anticipate it changing too dramatically and have been happy to stay on for the relatively short ride. I'm also well aware I'll likely never be able to manage half as good as she has.