The comedy series Difficult People ran for three seasons on Hulu, from 2015-2017. It follows the lives of 30-something aspiring comics Julie Kessler (Julie Klausner) and Billy Epstein (Billy Eichner) as they live and struggle to make a career in New York City. At night, Julie and Billy often take the stage together to perform stand-up, but this isn’t enough to pay the bills. Julie spends her days as a TV blogger, writing recaps for TV shows and tweeting mean but funny tweets—one of which recently almost got her cancelled. Julie lives with boyfriend Arthur Tack (James Urbaniak), who works for PBS. He’s a bit of a pushover, and Julie is constantly leaving him in the lurch to spend time with gay BFF Billy. Julie is also regularly hounded by her mother Marilyn (Andrea Martin), who is a shrink. Meanwhile, Billy works at a cafe owned by married couple Nate (Derrick Baskin) and Denise (Gabourey Sidibe). He and coworker Matthew Ellis (Cole Escola) despise one another and are constantly making catty barbs at one another. In the second season, transgender activist Lola (Shakina Nayfack) also joins the staff at the cafe.

I never watched Difficult People when it originally aired because I didn’t have access to Hulu at that time, but I was pleasantly surprised as I binged through the series on this Blu-ray release. The series plays out like your typical sitcom with the characters getting into ridiculous situations each week that lead to many laughs. Each episode usually features both separate storylines for Billy and Julie as well as some combined antics. The pair is constantly coming up with schemes to advance their careers, but things usually end up going south. Billy and Julie have no qualms about speaking their minds, even if they come off a bit rude or catty. And this often leads to some hilariously awkward situations. They’ve known one another for 16 years and have become the best of friends. They know everything about one another—they are closer than most married couples, and really have no boundaries with one another. Julie and Billy are always looking for the next acting or comedy gig, or any other money-making opportunity (such as bottling library water fountain water), and along the way they cross paths with many celebrities.

Some of the series’ recurring characters include Arthur’s boss at PBS Gaby (Tracee Chimo), Billy’s brother Garry (Fred Armisen) and his wife Rucchel (Jackie Hoffman), fellow comic Andrea Mumford (Shannon DeVido), Marilyn’s publisher Veronica Ford (Lucy Liu), Billy’s third-season boyfriend Todd (John Cho), and Matthew’s fiancé Elmer (William Bogert). Over the course of the three seasons, the series brings on many amazing guest stars, including several SNL alums. Some of the folks who appear on the show include Nate Corddry, Kate McKinnon, John Benjamin Hickey, Kathy Najimy, Amy Sedaris, Malina Weissman, Ana Gasteyer, Debbie Harry, Seth Meyers, Sandra Bernhard, John Mulaney, Nyle DiMarco, Julianne Moor, Stockard Channing, Vanessa Williams, Patton Oswalt, Jane Krakowski, Victor Garber, John Turturro, Rosie O’Donnell, Susan Lucci, Jessica Walter, Jami Gertz, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Joel McHale, Sally Kellerman, Danny Aiello, Mink Stole and Justin Vivian Bond. There are so many great guest appearances, such as John Mulaney as a potential love interest for Billy, until he sees that this guy dresses in old-timey clothes and rides a large-wheel bike.

There are also so many celebs appearing as heightened versions of themselves, including Andy Cohen, Ken Burns, Luann de Lesseps, Sonja Morgan, Tina Fey, Kathie Lee Gifford, Tony Hale, Nathan Lane, Method Man, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kate Pierson, Maury Povich, Marc Shaiman, Martin Short, Larry Wilmore, and Micky Dolenz. Tony Hale is absolutely hilarious, trying to get a job at the cafe because he still regrets giving up his restaurant job when he “made it big” on VEEP.

Difficult People was originally supposed to be a series for USA Network, but was ultimately picked up for Hulu. It’s a fun half-hour comedy that moves quite quickly, with some really humorous storylines for all the characters. It does a nice job of weaving in the ensemble cast, like Julie’s mother and boyfriend, and Billy’s cafe family, into the stories. The show makes a lot of Twitter and celebrity references throughout the series, which may have been of-the-moment at the time, but sometimes feel a little dated watching a decade later. The folks behind the series must have seen the writing on the wall, because the season 3 finale flashes back 16 years to how Julie and Billie first met, which helps the series finale really come to an emotionally-satisfying conclusion.

Universal has released the complete series of Difficult People on Blu-ray. We were sent the release for review from AV Entertainment. Each season resides on its own disc, which are placed on a swinging tray in a standard-sized Blu-ray keepcase. The case also contains a booklet with a short 3-page essay “Difficult People: Ode To A Beautiful Friendship” from RogerEbert.com critic Matt Zoller Seitz. The visual presentation is solid with a generally clean and clear picture that captures the vibrant look and colors of the series. The audio track provides clear dialogue throughout. The discs also include brand-new commentary tracks from stars Julie Klausner and Billy Eichner on three episodes—one from each season—as well and an hour-long Vulture Festival Panel that took place in 2015.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (11:26:20)

Blu-ray:
• All 3 seasons/28 episodes of the series on 3 discs.
  • Season 1 (2015) – 8 episodes: (3:04:11)
    “Library Water”, “Devil’s Three Way”, “Pledge Week”, “The Courage of a Soldier”, “The Children’s Menu”, “Even Later”, “Premium Membership”, “Difficult Christmas”
  • Season 2 (2016) – 10 episodes: (4:03:07)
    “Unplugged”, “Kessler Epstein Foundation”, “Italian Pinata”, “Blade Stallion”, “Patches”, “36 Candles”, “Carter”, “Hashtag Cats”, “Cedar Cove”, “High Alert”
  • Season 3 (2017) – 10 episodes: (4:19:02)
    “Passover Bump”, “Strike Rat”, “Code Change”, “Rabbitversary”, “Cindarestylox”, “Bernie and Blythe”, “Fuzz Buddies”, “Criminal Minds”, “Sweet Tea”, “The Silkwood”
• 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

• Commentaries
  Writer/star Julie Klausner (“Julie”) and star Billy Eichner (“Billy”) provide really entertaining brand new commentaries on three episodes of the series, one episode from each season. They discuss some of the inspirations for the scenes, point out changes and improvisations, and share lots of fun behind-the-scenes stories about making the series. It’s really fun to have them look back on the series 10 years later.
  • Episode 101 – “Library Water” (22:58)
  • Episode 203 – “Italian Pinata” (25:13)
  • Episode 302 – “Strike Rat” (25:49)
• Vulture Festival Panel (1:03:40)
  Vulture’s Margaret Lyons moderates this entertaining panel from the 2015 Vulture Festival, where Julie Klausner, Billy Eichner and Amy Poehler discuss the series and comedy in general.

Final Thoughts:

Difficult People is a fun and quirky sitcom with an extremely talented ensemble cast, and an amazing array of guest and recurring stars. Some of the celebrity and pop culture references may feel slightly dated 10 years later, but the series is still quite fun and humorous with wacky characters you just enjoy watching to see what hilarious antics they get up to next. Universal’s Blu-ray release looks and sounds great and even includes some brand new commentary tracks as well as a vintage panel from 2015. This is recommended for any fan of the series or cast.