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Many of us aspire towards a better tomorrow. We fantasize about an idyllic future free from the creatively-stifling tyranny of the nine-to-five. We dare to dream the impossible dream of abandoning the soul-sucking trinity of hellish commutes, pointless meetings, and innate chit-chat to bask in the revitalizing hue of two simple, life-altering words: I quit. Not me, of course. I love my job. I wake up whistling “Walking on Sunshine” and go to bed sporting a smile as wide as the Mississippi because every single day at Decider, a place where my editors love every article I write, is a daydream from which I hope I never wake.
Quitting your job is the ultimate fantasy, but before you roll the dice on the invigorating uncertainty of betting on yourself, I highly suggest you watch the Season 2 finale of Comedy Central’s Corporate.
Penned by Jessica Gao, “The Fall” is an honest depiction of what it’s really like to quit your job and pursue your dreams. The episode begins with office drone Matt (Corporate co-creator Matt Ingebretson) coming to the immensely relatable realization that he doesn’t have to settle for the “death by a 1,000 cuts” monotony of a nine-to-five job. “My life could be better than this,” Matt says before quitting Hampton DeVille to pursue his dream of starting a record label. As Matt embarks upon the great vocational unknown, his officemate Jake (Corporate co-creator Jake Weisman), who earlier in the episode opined that Matt would never quit because “nothing ever really changes in life,” receives a promotion.
Matt’s guarded optimism vs. Jake’s abject nihilism is the heart of the series. That relationship can best be summarized by one of my favorite moments of the 2019 TV season. During the cold open, Matt and Jake’s boss Christian (the always enjoyable Lance Reddick) warns of an upcoming apocalypse and instructs everyone to grab a “Go Bag.” Matt grabs two and gives one to Jake. Nice, right? Jake’s response: “I have no interest in surviving the apocalypse.”
As someone who once quit a long-term day job to pursue a different career, I found Matt’s plight deeply, painfully relatable. Quitting is both exhilarating and petrifying as you find yourself at a peculiar nexus between idealism and reality. Matt almost immediately realizes that starting a record label is a terrible idea, so he pivots to an equally lousy scheme: opening his own bar.
One of the many reasons I enjoy this show is because of its wholly unique point-of-view. Despite Jake’s nihilistic rhetoric, the show’s not so much pessimistic as it is painfully pragmatic. It acutely skewers the drudgery, hypocrisy, and everyday annoyances of office life in a truthful manner. Corporate doesn’t purport to be above the misery; it’s just there to mine humor out of the inevitability of it all. Matt quits Hampton DeVille because he believes it’ll lead to a “better life.” After a failing at starting a record label, owning a bar, and becoming a chef, a now broke Matt finds himself back in the familiar grasp of his old friend misery. Why? Because as Jake previously pointed out “nothing ever really changes in life.”
Matt eventually returns to Hampton DeVille, Jake gets demoted, and the episode concludes in the same manner in which it began. Such is life.
“The Fall” skillfully plays with the common misconception that quitting your job will act as a magic elixir for all your problems. Sure, it may bring temporary joy, but leaving a crummy employer doesn’t fundamentally change who you are. This episode shouldn’t act as a complete deterrent, however, because, well, it’s just a TV show. If you want to quit, do it! Just make sure you have a solid plan, robust savings, and that you’re not leaving your steady job to open a record label.
