Quibi, the latest entrant in the Streaming Wars, launches on Monday. And because Quibi stands for “quick bites,” here’s a quick-bite review of one Quibi’s quick bites.
In the grand alignment chart of television series, the original Punk’d was the ultimate chaotic evil. Ashton Kutcher would cackle with glee while watching Beyoncé ruin Christmas and making Justin Timberlake cry, and we cackled with him. The Quibi reboot is a chaotic neutral at best—host Chance the Rapper is too classy and good-hearted for the role; he takes no pleasure in wreaking havoc on any of his guests. And while those guests manage to be relatively entertaining—I’d watch Megan Thee Stallion paint her house for eight minutes, let alone react to a “gorilla” trying to enter her SUV—the star power falls short compared to the Punk’d of the past. Still, though I recognize only about a third of the names assembled (Sabrina Carpenter? Miles Brown?), I’ll give Chance a … chance. But only if he can make at least one of ’em cry.
