'The Vince Staples Show' Review: A Netflix Series for Those Missing 'Atlanta' and 'Dave' (2025)

Upon first glance, it might be easy to brush off The Vince Staples Show as an Atlanta or Dave wannabe. After all, just like those two shows, the Netflix limited series is headlined by a notable name in the world of rap, dabbles in surrealism and absurd humor, and, in the case of Dave, has the star playing an exaggerated version of himself. There are also clear influences from Curb Your Enthusiasm and the recent Pete Davidson series Bupkis in how this new series tackles celebrity in a more cynical light than something like Entourage.

Yes, all those similarities are present throughout The Vince Staples Show, but it would be unfair to label it as just another celebrity vanity project on Netflix. Vince Staples isn’t new to this kind of comedy. Yes, the Netflix series gives him a longer runtime and a bigger budget to toy with new ideas, but he’s been making comedy shorts on YouTube since 2019 for a web series with the same title as this new Netflix show. As a result, The Vince Staples Show is one of the most confident new series of 2024.

What Is 'The Vince Staples Show' About?

It’s hard to even try to describe the plot of the five-episode series, especially because there is no overarching plot. All five episodes are only loosely connected, with each one having Staples wind up in a different situation that starts as ordinary but escalates into the absurd and weird.

The first episode has Staples trying to get bailed out of prison while bickering with his new cellmates, the problematic guards, and his mother and girlfriend on the phone. The second episode dares to get a little weirder, initially starting as a plot about Staples wanting to get funding for his breakfast cereal, before descending into a story where he acts as a negotiator during an armed bank robbery. The rest of the episodes see Staples attending a family reunion, feuding with a theme park mascot, and having a surprisingly violent encounter with an old classmate.

The series tackles weighty topics ranging from the prison system to internalized racism, faux white liberalism, and police brutality, all without ever running the risk of preaching or leading to their messages overtaking the laughs. The way that The Vince Staples Show can segue some of the topics into humor is just as impressive. It's never trying too hard to be edgy; the series has its own way of expressing itself, and it's mostly successful.

'The Vince Staples Show' Brings a Unique Sense of Humor

Much like Donald Glover and Dave Burd, Staples has a very specific sense of humor that’ll either click with viewers or leave them scratching their heads. Fans of the musician or absurdist comedy will find themselves right at home. The Vince Staples Show toys around with surrealism, including underground magic shows and chicken restaurants as well as turning problematic tropes of the magical Black man into something literal. Viewers won’t know what to expect at the start of each episode, and that’s part of the fun.

While it is common for some shows to take their time to truly find themselves, that's never the case with this limited series. It helps that Staples is fully comfortable on-screen; he doesn't care about trying to be charismatic, and he's also fine with portraying himself as somebody who often acts in his self-interest, even at the expense of others. While the title might seem like it's alluding to a series that is nothing more than a vanity project, it feels much more like Staples, alongside writers Ian Edelman and Maurice Williams, was simply given a budget and able to do whatever the hell he wanted.

Why Is 'The Vince Staples Show' Only a Netflix Limited Series?

The setup of The Vince Staples Show has a lot of promise for a potential ongoing series. Each of the five episodes runs at or around 20 minutes with a uniquely amusing plot. It poses the question: why is Netflix intent on making this a limited series? As enjoyable as the series is, these episodes are just barely scratching the surface of what it wants to be and the sense is that there is more to be explored. Each episode has its own identity, whether a pure satire, a send-up to Kill Bill, or something more along the lines of the aforementioned Atlanta or Dave, but at the same time, The Vince Staples Show never gives time for its characters to develop, change, and become more fleshed out.

Some episodes are also more effective than others, particularly the first two, which fully revolve around Staples and the seemingly ordinary situations he walks into that spiral into something much more bizarre. As the series progresses, it also wants to give time to those like Andrea Ellsworth as Vince’s girlfriend Deja, and Vanessa Bell Calloway as Vince’s mother. However, the subplots they’re given, which revolve around being racially profiled and sibling rivalry, are pointless once the series ends. The season seems confused about whether it wants to have an over-arching narrative, be serialized, or play out more like an anthology. Regardless, none of this results in The Vince Staples Show losing any of its entertainment factor. There is never a dull moment on-screen, and the series succeeds in being completely unpredictable, making it difficult to look away.

There has been recent discussion about whether more artist-driven series are fading away as streaming services and cable networks become more conservative about the types of shows they greenlight. Series with more straightforward narratives are what are proving to be the most successful, but The Vince Staples Show proves that other, non-traditional types of programming can still have a place on TV today. Much like The Curse, Atlanta, and Barry, this is a show where the creative team is more than comfortable doing their own thing, rather than just giving an audience what it wants, and the finished product is all the better for it.

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The Vince Staples Show

REVIEW

The Vince Staples Show perfectly blends surreal humor with clever commentary for a short but successful limited series.

Pros

• Each episode feels self-contained and unpredictable, with plenty of laughs.
• The series is able to have social commentary without ever feeling too preachy or that it overtakes the jokes.
• Much like Atlanta and Dave before it, the star isn't afraid to be self-deprecating.

Cons

• Certain subplots revolving around the side characters feel out of place.

The Vince Staples Show is now streaming on Netflix in the U.S.

Watch on Netflix