Tom Segura's Netflix show 'Bad Thoughts' thrives on unhinged, 'really messed up' dark comedy
Bad thoughts — we've all had them. But the kind of twisted thoughts that are circling the mind of comedian, podcaster and writer Tom Segura are definitely not for the squeamish. Infamous for his dark comedic style, Segura's new project, a series of short cinematic tales, co-written, co-produced, co-directed, and starring him, also enters the darkest of sides. Still skeptical? On May 13, ' Bad Thoughts ,' a six-episode series, crashes onto Netflix like a fever dream. It's so unhinged that your brain might file a restraining order.
Transforming 'bad thoughts' from someone's head to 'Bad Thoughts' on Netflix took years, but it all paid off when Segura, and his creative partners, finally went full throttle on creating some wildly messed up movie magic. 'I thought it would be fun to stream one episode of something scripted and produced on YMH Studios. Just to see if there was an appetite for that. That was the idea,' Segura says.
'We shot that one episode in April of 2021, and it was so expensive to do, and post took a really long time, so it was almost 2022 when we were like, here it is,' continues Segura. 'Our agents looked at it and they were like, 'You have to shop this. We know you can do something with this.' I was in the middle of my tour at that point, so it wasn't until 2024 when I was like, OK, we have to get on this.'
Although streaming on YMH Studios was the original intent, the comedian, who has five specials on Netflix, figured shopping it around couldn't hurt. 'I was going to take it to HBO, Amazon and all the places. I just was like, 'I have a relationship with Netflix, so I'll show it to them first to see if they're interested,'' he says. Tom Segura in 'Bad Thoughts.'
After viewing it, Netflix didn't hesitate to green-light the series. 'It's six episodes, but we got to use two of the stories that were in the original presentation,' Segura says. 'Two of the three are in the actual series, and you can tell because I weigh 40 pounds more in them.'
Kirk Fox , a stand-up and actor, is a master of hilarity who regularly lights up arenas as a feature for Segura on the road. Fox didn't skip a beat at saying yes to working with Segura's intensely wild script for his scenes in 'Bad Thoughts.'
'We all have bad thoughts, but Tom has found a way to make them as funny as they are scary. And he directs the way he exists. Seamless. Economy of words. He knows what he'd like to see in a scene and makes it clear to all,' Fox says.
Emerging from his early retirement is Rob Iler, the actor primarily known for his role on 'The Sopranos' as A.J. Soprano, or as the co-host to Jamie-Lynn Sigler on the ' Not Today Pal ' podcast, which streams on YMH Studios. On this podcast, you can hear Iler discuss never wanting to act again, but ultimately, he couldn't resist getting in on 'Bad Thoughts.'
'Tom and Christina [Pazsitzky] have always been extremely supportive, so when Tom asked if I would do him a favor, and it was outside of the Hollywood world, it made me feel like it would just be friends making a fun show. That drew me in,' says Iler. 'Seeing Tom have the balls to spend this much money and believe in himself, and then trusting me with part of that, it seemed like a bad choice on his end, but I was down for the ride.'
Tom may have chosen the members of the 'Bad Thoughts' cast, but that didn't stop him from being completely floored by their performances. 'Everyone was so good. Did you know Rob Iler's last acting gig was 'The Sopranos,' and then this? And it's completely by choice. The guy gets called and offered roles still, and when people see him in this, they're gonna be like, oh, yeah, this guy's an incredible actor.'
Several recognizable TV and film actors, including Shea Whigham and Dan Stevens, brought even more major-level acting chops to the series, Segura says. 'It was also really fun to watch Shea on the monitor do all these little things, and to have these facial expressions, and then you realize you're with an experienced cinematic actor,' Segura continues. 'We were all just mesmerized by it. We didn't like to repeat too many of the actors, but Dan Stevens came in and was so good that we had him for another role, and Kirk Fox is just unbelievable too. You're just like, oh my God, he's so damn good.' Tom Segura in 'Bad Thoughts.'
No spoilers from us but not addressing the unforgettable opening scene would be a disservice because it demanded some, shall we say, vulnerability. 'It's my ass—. It's not great, I know it's not, but I just had to deal with it,' says Segura. 'It's funny because when my ass was first exposed, I was very self-conscious and covering up. After 30 minutes I was just like, just look at it. I don't care anymore! When you see the later episodes, it's the other side. You get full frontal.'
At its core, Segura's trademark mix of humor and darkness is what truly ties together this wild collection of short films. 'Some get really messed up, but there are all different styles to these stories,' Segura says. 'I feel like I went to film school and got to make 15 short films with all of these different genres and different characters. And I got to apply what I love, a fun twist.'
'My favorite quality in Tom is his openness to suggestions,' Fox says. 'He may not use it, but he will certainly give it a thought. That's what makes Tom a great comedian too, he's always listening because you never know where you'll find a great tag for a joke or a great line in a scene. Tom was built for this, and the world is about to experience it.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
2 hours ago
- UPI
Jake Weary: Playing charismatic Cane on 'Waterfront' is a game changer
1 of 3 | Holt McCallany (L) and Jake Weary star in "The Waterfront." Photo courtesy of Netflix NEW YORK, June 21 (UPI) -- Animal Kingdom and Walking Dead: Dead City actor Jake Weary says he wanted to star in The Waterfront because the new Netflix drama gives him the chance to play a type of character he doesn't usually get offered. "It was a character that I've never really explored before, someone who is really outwardly charismatic and charming and trying to use his charms to get certain things and manipulate people," Weary, 35, told UPI in a phone interview Thursday. "I'd always played more introverted characters and characters that are harboring secrets and there's just a lot of darkness," he said. "There are elements there with Cane, but I think, for the most part, he's someone that actually smiles. I usually play characters that just scowl all the time, so I thought it was kind of a nice game changer for me." Now streaming on Netflix, the show was written-produced by Dawson's Creek and Scream creator Kevin Williamson. It follows the Buckleys, a wealthy North Carolina family as they try to save their fishing empire by smuggling drugs. Weary plays Cane Buckley, while Holt McCallany plays his father Harlan, Maria Bello plays his mother Belle and Melissa Benoist plays his older sister Bree. "I always thought Cane is kind of the glue that kept the family together," the actor said. "I feel like he's the one that creates the big Buckley family group chat, just to check in with everybody," he added. "When he notices that the family is in dire straits, he really jumps at the opportunity to take the bull by the horns and fix things." Weary and his co-stars quickly bonded when they arrived on the show's set in North Carolina. The actor described himself and Bello as "besties" and said they frequently text since she has been working out of the country and haven't been able to see each other for awhile. "And me and Holt have this really, really strong relationship, too, because I think there are a lot of parallels in our lives," he added. "We both had mothers who were big-time divas. His mother was a ballroom singer and my mom was a soap opera actress," Weary said, referring to McCallany's mother, entertainer Julie Wilson, and his own, Guiding Light icon Kim Zimmer. "We both grew up on the East Coast and have similar interests and can, literally, talk for hours. Having the two of them together [Bello and McCallany] together was just a dream come true." Further connecting the cast and crew was the fact that Hurricane Helene ravaged North Carolina while they were there. "There's a lot of people on the crew whose homes were affected by the hurricane," Weary recalled. "You could see how it brought the crew together. Everybody was super-supportive of each other," he said. "It was just really beautiful to see." One perfect Holt McCallany scene to welcome you to The Waterfront. The new series from Scream and Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson is now playing. Netflix (@netflix) June 19, 2025
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
The Gilded Age Cast IRL: See How the Season 3 Stars Look Out of Costume
Like the time period from which it gets its name, The Gilded Age is all about excess. From the characters' lavish homes to their stunning gowns and jewelry, it's like every day is the Met Gala — and the servants aren't the only ones serving. Here at TVLine, we live for a good fashion moment as much as Mrs. Fish lives for drama at the opera, but it's easy to get lost in the 1880s fantasy. Sometimes we forget that there are present-day women buried under all those corsets, bustles and bonnets. More from TVLine Casting News: Andor Subs In for Kimmel, Connie Britton Joins Steve Carell Comedy and More Casting News: Severance Duo on Millionaire, Steve Carell Comedy Casts Bridesmaids Vet and More The White Lotus: Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood Reveal a Rick and Chelsea Sex Scene Was Cut From the Finale ('It Was So Powerful') But not today! In preparation for The Gilded Age's Season 3 premiere (Sunday, 9/8c), we're taking a moment to remind you what the HBO drama's cast looks like when they're not dressed in period-accurate costumes. And you might be surprised by some of the things you see. For example, did you know that Louisa Jacobson is actually a brunette underneath her blonde Marian Brook wig? Or that Ben Ahlers rocks a no-nonsense mustache when he's not playing baby faced jack-of-all-trades John Trotter? Prepare to learn all that and more as you peruse side-by-side comparisons of this season's Gilded Age series regulars (along with a few noteworthy Season 3 guest stars) out of costume, primarily using red carpet photos from the show's June 12 premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Scroll down to see the Gilded Age stars as they truly are, then drop a comment with your thoughts. Did anyone catch you by surprise? Best of TVLine 20+ Age-Defying Parent-Child Castings From Blue Bloods, ER, Ginny & Georgia, Golden Girls, Supernatural and More Young Sheldon Easter Eggs: Every Nod to The Big Bang Theory (and Every Future Reveal) Across 7 Seasons Weirdest TV Crossovers: Always Sunny Meets Abbott, Family Guy vs. Simpsons, Nine-Nine Recruits New Girl and More
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
The Creator of Scream Has a New Netflix Hit. It's Salty, Soapy, and Fully Adult.
The Waterfront If things continue at their current pace, all of television is in danger of turning into a genre that I like to call 'Yellowstone, but … ' Of course, we have the Taylor Sheridan show's many prequel spinoffs, but their success also seems to have inspired waves of Westerns and dramas about locally powerful families who have fallen on hard times. The latest 'Yellowstone, but … ' show is The Waterfront, now streaming on Netflix, where it has immediately shot to No. 1 on the charts. This is a story set in a seaside town, following the locally powerful Buckley family, owners of a fishery, a restaurant, some beautiful houses, and undeveloped tracts of coastline, who have—you guessed it—fallen on hard times. Like the Duttons trying to hold on to their Yellowstone Ranch, the Buckleys need to arrest their downward mobility; their attempts to do so without betraying their beliefs, or one another, will be the meat of the story. The Waterfront is a Kevin Williamson show, set (like his Dawson's Creek) in coastal North Carolina, so it's full of salty, beautiful people who do soapy things. But unlike Dawson's Creek and Williamson's latter-day hit The Vampire Diaries, this is a full-on adult show, with no teenage romance, and with moments of hyperviolence that startled me into audible exclamations of 'Oh!' Adventuresome Netflix viewers looking for 'Outer Banks without the treasure hunt' will likely find themselves confused, and hopefully minimally traumatized, by this one. The Waterfront stars Holt McCallany, the granite-faced father-figure standout from Mindhunter and The Iron Claw, as the patriarch Harlan Buckley, whose own father was involved in the drug trade, but who has been running 'clean' businesses for a couple of decades, ever since his father's illegal activities ended in his death. Maria Bello plays Harlan's wife, Belle, who tolerates her husband's drinking and affairs, for reasons that are somewhat hard to parse. Jake Weary is his golden-boy son, Cane, a former football player and reluctant participant in all this crime who becomes the heart of the show, and Melissa Benoist is his daughter Bree, an addict in recovery who, we find out, has good reason to hate her family. Will the Buckleys, having trouble keeping their businesses in the black, get back into running drugs? You bet they will! And for the sake of the show, it's a good thing they do, because that's what brings Grady, a drug dealer played by Topher Grace, into the mix, significantly livening up the action. Grace has gotten really good at being in on the trick that his face plays on you. You see those features and think 'preppy; professional-managerial; Connecticut.' But there's something creepy about a guy that clean-cut; a Topher Grace villain knows it. Here, as Grady, Grace creates a really weird—maybe not always successful, but always interesting—villain. Topher Grace and Holt McCallany are the most recognizable actors on the show, and The Waterfront has placed them in opposition to one another, playing contrasting versions of powerful manhood. After the Buckleys eliminate the middleman they've been working with, they find Grady, who has a big drug operation set up in a farmhouse heavily populated by hired badasses, and try to do business with him. Grady at first looks like a vest-wearing tech bro, but we find out he has—as Harlan says—'no code.' We first see how disturbing he is when Grady orders his men to turn a minigun mounted on a truck on a henchman who's displeased him and is running away across a field. Grady jokes about how loud the gun is, and mocks how the guy's body jumps around as it's riddled with bullets, while Harlan stares, shocked. Grady is there to show us that some people shouldn't have power, to draw a contrast between his infatuation with it and our heroes' supposed reluctance to use it. But he's also kind of funny, which is good, because the dominant feeling you get from spending time in the world of the Buckleys is one of hungover, self-serious misery. (In that way, this show is, indeed, 'Yellowstone, but … ') Out of some sociopathic impulse of friendliness, or maybe in order to control the situation, Grady cozies up to the Buckleys, showing up at their restaurant, convincing their teenage grandson Diller (Brady Hepner) to go on a hunting trip, and directly asking Harlan if they can become like family. When Harlan, Grady, and Diller walk in a field, hunting quail, the series best gets at the contrast it's trying to draw between these two men. Grady is a guy who loves violence but doesn't really know how to use a gun. Harlan tries to teach Grady how to aim, how to be disciplined with his hunting rifle; Diller, taught by Harlan, already knows. McCallany's calm, paternal intensity, heightened by being thrown into this situation with an unpredictable and dangerous person, ramps up by the moment, until he gives off a wave of gravitas that makes you believe that indeed, Harlan is the kind of father who can be so-so, but who has (as Bree puts it) 'moments of spectacular.' But just as often, when McCallany and Grace face off, the manic energy rolling off Grady crashes into the stone-faced Harlan in a way that's less effective, giving McCallany less to do. In one scene, as the two debate the terms of their relationship, Grady describes Harlan as having 'resting stress face'; Grace pulls down the sides of his mouth, making a perfect simulacrum of McCallany's. That's funny! But it also makes Harlan into more of a caricature—something the show needs to break down, rather than build up, since it's picked such a perfect Big Daddy actor for its Big Daddy character. This first season of The Waterfront sets more tables than the waitresses at the Buckleys' seaside restaurant. We see Cane's moral dilemmas, Bree's tragic history. But the best seeds it sows are in the relationship between Harlan and Belle. Belle is the kind of wife who accepts the appearance of Harlan's out-of-wedlock son with barely a blink, but also one who tries, behind Harlan's back, to sell a piece of land in a development deal that goes against Harlan's principles but that would have gotten the family out of the drug business for good. This scheme aside, in this season, the parents are mostly on the same page. But by the end, we see that we may get a lot of McCallany vs. Bello next time around. That's a good idea. Yellowstone always suffered because John Dutton had no plausible opposition inside his family. (Jamie does not count.) If The Waterfront is about a family managing its own decline, it only makes sense that in such a family, Mom and Dad would, quite often, find themselves fighting.
