"Cooking with Bill" is a little mini-series from this year (2017) that includes 4 episodes of slightly under 3 minutes each (at this point). This is also by Oscar nominee Neil Blomkamp's new production company Oats Studios and it is very different from the rest of it all, not just because it is a series, but also because it lacks Sci-Fi completely. Bill and his (frequently disgusted) assistant Karen show us the newest in kitchen technology. But when they prepare a chicken, some vegetables, sushi and eventually a smoothie, things do not go at all as planned and turn gross fairly quickly. Alec Gillis is a prolific special effects artist with 2 Oscar nominations and Carly Pope is an actress that you may have seen in one or the other blockbuster movie. Their home shopping / cooking show parody is fairly funny all around (with the exception of the vegetable segment perhaps that was the only one from the quartet I did not really like). 11 minutes worth checking out in my opinion.
15 Reviews
Remember that Rick and Morty episode
luisgus-7226813 November 2021
Where they are flipping through channels and some of the most bizarre things came on the TV?
This episode can perfectly fit in one of those. If you squint your eyes and try hard enough you nay find some comedy but lets say "horror gross" is a better genre for it
Was this rock bottom for oatsstudio?
This episode can perfectly fit in one of those. If you squint your eyes and try hard enough you nay find some comedy but lets say "horror gross" is a better genre for it
Was this rock bottom for oatsstudio?
Who even approved this tripe?
CubNutButter6 November 2021
This short serves to make you feel sick and nothing more, apparently that's worth including it in an anthology on Netflix. Do yourself a favour and just skip this one like it's not even there- it really shouldn't be. Meanwhile, there are actually films and shorts out there worth your time and made by people who actually give a cr*p about the film industry and bringing creativity to the screen. This is pointless garbage.
Curios but the lack of comedy in them makes them effective
bob the moo15 July 2017
Bill and Karen present a series of infomercials on the newest cooking appliances which do it all for you – although usually at a high cost.
These short films are a stark contrast with the other material currently released from Neill Blomkamp's Oat Studios. The main two shorts are over 20 minutes long, and feature incredibly high production values; Cooking with Bill is a 1980's infomercial on VHS tape. The 'joke' is the same in each episode – which is to say that the cooking demonstration goes horribly wrong. Often I would phrase that "hilariously wrong" but these films are better for not playing it as a joke, but instead letting it be dark and disturbing. The presence of hair, organs, and other tragic outcomes all are strikingly lacking in laughs, and there is a real sense of horror and repulsion in the two presenters – even though they know they have to do their jobs and sell this stuff.
As simple moments of horror, the shorts work on this basis, however I do wish that there was more obviously to it than that. The harm done by technology, but yet the push of companies to sell what they know are imperfect or incomplete products – there are elements of these in there, but the moments of horror dominate and if there is a subtext, it is very 'sub'. This leaves the shorts as curios to add to the mystery around Oat Studios – but there is a reason that these films have a fraction of the viewers of films like Rakka, Firebase, and Zygote.
These short films are a stark contrast with the other material currently released from Neill Blomkamp's Oat Studios. The main two shorts are over 20 minutes long, and feature incredibly high production values; Cooking with Bill is a 1980's infomercial on VHS tape. The 'joke' is the same in each episode – which is to say that the cooking demonstration goes horribly wrong. Often I would phrase that "hilariously wrong" but these films are better for not playing it as a joke, but instead letting it be dark and disturbing. The presence of hair, organs, and other tragic outcomes all are strikingly lacking in laughs, and there is a real sense of horror and repulsion in the two presenters – even though they know they have to do their jobs and sell this stuff.
As simple moments of horror, the shorts work on this basis, however I do wish that there was more obviously to it than that. The harm done by technology, but yet the push of companies to sell what they know are imperfect or incomplete products – there are elements of these in there, but the moments of horror dominate and if there is a subtext, it is very 'sub'. This leaves the shorts as curios to add to the mystery around Oat Studios – but there is a reason that these films have a fraction of the viewers of films like Rakka, Firebase, and Zygote.
'King awful
minxiepinx8 October 2021
Just disgusting
klorak21 October 2021
Lack of sense of humour. This was the most disgusting thing i have seen lately. Just like a teen-job!!!
On the other hand, the idea was okey and the acting was pretty good. I don't know how did they produce such a waste!!!
On the other hand, the idea was okey and the acting was pretty good. I don't know how did they produce such a waste!!!
Uncomfortable Gross-Out Comedy
whiterose-5482810 October 2021
Cooking with Bill is a series of shorts about the titular fictional 80s cooking show. The "joke" of every episode is that Bill uses some kind of cooking device which ends up producing a gross and gory mess. That's pretty much all there is to these shorts.
Personally I did not find this series of shorts funny or even entertaining at all, in fact watching them made me feel very uncomfortable and perhaps not in the way that was intended. The shock at the end of each episode is completely predictable and there's no continuity between the episodes at all. When I first started watching them I assumed they were going to progressively get worse as they went on but instead they just reset at the start of each new episode, Bill cuts his hand open in the first one and then he's completely fine in the next.
Even the worst of Blomkamp's work is usually passable at best but this was just terrible, I'm not sure what he was thinking with this and with his name behind it I expected more.
Personally I did not find this series of shorts funny or even entertaining at all, in fact watching them made me feel very uncomfortable and perhaps not in the way that was intended. The shock at the end of each episode is completely predictable and there's no continuity between the episodes at all. When I first started watching them I assumed they were going to progressively get worse as they went on but instead they just reset at the start of each new episode, Bill cuts his hand open in the first one and then he's completely fine in the next.
Even the worst of Blomkamp's work is usually passable at best but this was just terrible, I'm not sure what he was thinking with this and with his name behind it I expected more.
It is so bad that is gold 😂 😂 😂
vangelisj28 November 2021
dumb and not funny
trevormoores11 November 2021
Order Now!...
azathothpwiggins21 July 2019
We've all seen those absurd "cooking show" infomercials, complete with annoying host and his robotic, amazed-on-cue sidekick. Well, Neill Blomkamp feels our pain, offering his idea of what should really take place on these shows (if there truly is a god!).
COOKING WITH BILL makes -sometimes, very bloody- mincemeat out of Bill and the perfectly empty-headed Karen, hearkening back to that old SNL skit about Julia Child with Dan Aykroyd! Great stuff for lovers of a darker sort of parody...
COOKING WITH BILL makes -sometimes, very bloody- mincemeat out of Bill and the perfectly empty-headed Karen, hearkening back to that old SNL skit about Julia Child with Dan Aykroyd! Great stuff for lovers of a darker sort of parody...
Gross and pointless
mmartic-2193713 December 2021
Cooking catastrophes
paultapner19 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Four short films, all of which are run together if you watch it as part of oats studios on netflix. Total run time just under nine mins this way.
Nine very long mins.
In a parody/pastiche style of cooking shows, Bill cooks. Karen watches in amazement. Then things go wrong. Nastily so.
Repeat three more times.
Some might find the way things get nasty to be appealing. Or funny. But it's played dead straight. So it's just nasty. And not the least bit funny as comedy, either black or otherwise.
Horrible stuff. Avoid.
Nine very long mins.
In a parody/pastiche style of cooking shows, Bill cooks. Karen watches in amazement. Then things go wrong. Nastily so.
Repeat three more times.
Some might find the way things get nasty to be appealing. Or funny. But it's played dead straight. So it's just nasty. And not the least bit funny as comedy, either black or otherwise.
Horrible stuff. Avoid.
Wonderful
gianmarcoronconi22 January 2022
Fantastic spoof of 80s informercials
GoBriGo-WSea31 October 2023
Warning: Spoilers
The parody is excellent, right down to the staticky VHS look and feel. The lighting and set design are spot on. Even better is the writing, which makes it believable enough that anyone watching would assume it's a genuine video from that era. Alec Gillis totally nails the presenter character with his mannerisms, facial expressions and lame condescending comments to his audience. "Isn't that something" he states, right after suggesting that one day you might be eating sushi on air-o-planes. When the informercial takes a dark turn towards the end, watch Bill's facial expression as he tries to mask the disappointment or horror, so as not to dissuade his audience from buying the monstrosity he is demonstrating. I find these shorts, especially the sushi one, hilarious and worth rewatching for dark amusement. Alec is a special effects guy, but wow, he can really act.
See also
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