The Cynic

Romesh Ranganathan operates on a low-key domestic irritation that makes his misanthropy feel like a form of long-suffering affection. The centerpiece of this hour is an anecdote about a family trip to Brighton where his wife frantically searches for one of their missing sons, while Ranganathan stands by, daydreaming about what he can do with the spare bedroom if the kid is gone for good.\n\nAt this point in his career, Ranganathan was omnipresent on British television, hosting everything from travel shows to quiz reboots. This Netflix debut, filmed at the Hawth Theatre in his hometown of Crawley, serves as the final stop for his long-running “The Cynic’s Mixtape” tour. It was released alongside a mockumentary about his family’s complete lack of enthusiasm for his homecoming gig, which grounds the special’s focus on the exhaustion of midlife.\n\nHe spends much of the hour focusing on domestic friction, whether he is watching his wife find inventive ways to avoid sleeping with him or trying to pretend her breathing does not annoy him. He also steps outside the house to poke fun at performative environmentalism, the hipsters of nearby Brighton, and racism in British football, before returning to his preferred target: his own middle-aged enfeeblement.