Have you ever almost drowned, then subsequently been released from prison only to start looking towards the life you lost while in there? It might not sound like something akin to your experience, but the feeling of relief certainly would be. Feeling stuck in life is exhausting, unnerving, and distressing, but the chance to reinvigorate oneself in a complete reset on life would be enough to finally let you breathe a sigh of relief. Starting outside in the real world would be a frustrating experience, one that Apple’s Government Cheese is eager to tackle with unfortunate results.
Government Cheese follows Hampton Chambers (Emmy nominee David Oyelowo, Nightingale) as he is released from prison and goes back home to the family he left behind. After an initial sentence of two years for check fraud with an additional year added for behavioral issues, Hampton finds it complicated to rejoin the life he once knew. Even getting home to his wife, Astoria (Simone Missick, Luke Cage) sees him struggling for a connection with her. When he comes in the house the first time upon release, he seems to believe he can come back as if nothing had happened. Astoria rebuffs his advances, clearly needing time before accepting him into her life again; she’s been seeing someone in his absence. His sons, Einstein (Zane Moyer) and Harrison (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) are excited to have him back. He has a debt with French mobsters that he’s trying to get paid off, as well as trying to get an invention of his own creation pushed out into the world: a power drill. All of this might seem as if it isn’t connected at all, and you’d almost be correct. His friend Bootsy (Bokeem Woodbine) is here as his partner in crime, literally, to every shenanigan he finds himself in, including an eventual robbery of a synagogue for money. The series pushes together these different plot lines and narratives to the point of convolution with an attempt at comedy that’s dullness pokes and prods at the audience instead of piercing real humor.
Government Cheese finds itself seeking to be different, pushing itself to feel like a show an audience might have never seen before. This attempt alienates each scene from the last, all feeling disconnected and without a flow that feels disjointed and makes the series slog along as the episodes pass by. David Oyelowo is a good choice for the show as he provides a performance that elevates the material he’s been given. Unfortunately, even with a dedicated performance, much of the comedy falls flat upon delivery. The series pushes towards an absurdism at times, others feeling similar to what a knock-off Wes Anderson television show might feel like. The camera swings around to find characters, often feeling strange, a stylized choice that doesn’t reap any rewards for the series. Government Cheese can’t decide if it wants to be surreal, quirky, or incisive, often combining all three to no avail, forcing an awkwardness into conversations. Dialogue delivery feels inconsistent across the season, each scene a different brand of humor than the last. The show’s biggest issue is its presentation: not an ounce of subtlety in a single episode. Each joke crashes down like a hammer, losing steam as each one is delivered. Even small attempts like, “all that poisoned food is probably what made him a criminal,” with a retort of, “probably what made him inventive,” falls flat.
There’s possibility here, which makes the series more disappointing, but it’s never tapped into. The episodes move almost too quickly and don’t find the time to sit with any one situation for more than a few moments, the break-neck speed of some scenes undercutting any emotional development or attachment from the audience that might have been possible otherwise. The series meanders through tone throughout the episodes, often feeling larger than life but without a single performance to match it. Perhaps if the series was able to focus on one thing it wants to be, it would be able to position itself to moved more easily through emotional shifts. As Hampton moves through life finding himself in new situations that provide a divine intervention with him — like him having a moral dilemma in the middle of the synagogue robbery — it could have been easy to make him feel like any man finding a new path for himself. Instead, he feels like a character created for a television series.
The performances aren’t bad, they just don’t feel calibrated to fit this particular show. When every actor seems to be working on a different project, it becomes difficult to understand exactly what the series is attempting. The quirkiness of the show cements an abnormality in tone, one that possibly could work if fashioned the correct way, but here it feels awkward and off putting. Oyelowo consistently heightens the material he’s been given, but the other actors seem lost in what the end-goal of the series is supposed to be. Bokeem Woodbine is the most grounded performer across the ten episodes, he’s able to make everything he says fit into the exact tone of the series. If every actor on the show was able to do this, it might have been slightly better, though still difficult to overcome the side-winding the narrative does every 15 minutes. Government Cheese wants to make points about the prison system, religion, higher powers, divine interventions, family life, and losing and reconnecting with family through adversity, but can’t master the art of tying them all into one another. By the time the season ends, it’s a jumbled mess that never quite makes you laugh, cry, or really feel anything other than relief.
Government Cheese is a series that wants to be so much more than it eventually adds up to being. It seeks realism while feeling like a fictional narrative, only breaking through in small moments thanks in large part to Oyelowo’s commitment to his character and Woodbine’s serene realism. While the rest of the performers attempt to configure performances that might match the energy of their performances, it isn’t enough to create something with an effect on the audience. Sitting through 10 episodes might trigger an unknown lactose intolerant upon watching.
Grade: C-
This review is from the 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival. All 10 episodes of Government Cheese will premiere on AppleTV+ April 16, 2025.
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