‘Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein’ Proves David Harbour Needs a Sitcom

Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein is strange. It’s a standalone comedy experience untethered from any series or cultural moment. Why did Netflix decide to release a half-hour mockumentary lampooning British televised plays of the 1980s right here, right now? No clue! The tone is surreal, the comedy is deadpan, and the leading man is… dramatic actor David Harbour?! See, I told you it was strange!

Harbour’s an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Tony nominee for his dramatic work, and his TV credits are stacked with dramas (Stranger Things, Banshee, Manhattan, The Newsroom). He’s known for playing gruff and tumble dudes, no-nonsense law enforcement figures or people with very serious jobs like White House Chief of Staff or a nuclear bomb scientist. When you think of David Harbour, you think of a tough-talkin’ SOB that you don’t wanna cross. And Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein proves he needs to star in a sitcom already.

David Harbour is funny. He’s as good at comedy as he is at drama! This doesn’t come as a surprise if you follow him on social media or see him in interviews. Remember, this is the guy that crashed a senior photo because a student’s request got 25K retweets! He may look hard, but Harbour’s got a silly side–and Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein finally shows it off.

In the fake autobio-doc about Harbour’s fake father (played by Harbour), the man also known as Hopper gets to truly do it all. You get to see him play a fictionalized version of himself, being deadly serious about silly things like recreating his dad’s chili recipe. Then you get to see him play a fictionalized version of his father, David Harbour Jr., an Orson Welles-ian blowhard who’s as out of place on an MTV-esque ’80s talk show as he is on the set of a restaurant commercial. Then you get to see him play his “father” playing Frankenstein (the doctor) playing Frankenstein’s monster in natty yet torn period garb and an upper crust affectation that I can only describe as “Frasier reads Charles Dickens.” Harbour does it all.

This comes hot on the heels of Stranger Things 3, released earlier this month. There’s actually a strange bit of symmetry to these two pieces, as Season 3 finds Hopper being bigger, meaner, tougher, and heartier than ever. Harbour swings for the fences with Hopper in every scene, diving into fatherly frustration with Eleven and meaty emotional desperation with Joyce Byers. And he does all of it while essentially cosplaying, and gradually turning into, Magnum P.I.

It’s great. And it’s also funny. And again, David Harbour needs to star in a sitcom already.

You know he can handle it! He just spent a season of Stranger Things playing a fraught father and engaging in some literal Sam and Diane tension with Winona Ryder. He followed that up with Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein, going totally Looney Tunes. You gotta wonder since he also executive produced Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein, did Harbour help get that gig off the ground because this is the kinda stuff he wants to do but no one casts him?

Change that, Hollyweird! Cast David Harbour in your funny things! Not only does he know how to play off his at times intimidating demeanor for laughs, he also knows how to be straight-up goofy. He is exactly the kinda guy you want on a sitcom, playing an incompetent authority figure or a big-hearted dad with a lot to learn. Harbour’s even got a lot of Broadway experience, so he knows how to perform in front of an audience. I’m just saying, as a diehard proponent of the multi-cam art form, I’d love to see Harbour give us full Ted Danson realness on a sitcom on the level of a Cheers. If he can pull off Sam Malone swagger while punching corrupt Mayors, he could easily do it onstage for laughs.

The strangest thing about Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein is that it took us this long to realize how funny Harbour is. Comedy’s tough, but Harbour gets it. I want more of it.

Stream Frankenstein's Monster's Monster, Frankenstein on Netflix