Netflix recently released its “W/ Bob and David” sketch comedy show. The show features many of the same collaborators that the pair had in the ‘90s, offering “Mr. Show” with Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”) and David Cross (“Pitch Perfect 2”), many are calling this a reunion or a revival.

New show, reunion, no matter what label they give it, they should have left the past in the past. In the 16 years since “Mr. Show” went off the air, Odenkirk and Cross have both gone on to many individual successes as writers, actors and, in Odenkirk’s case, directing and producing.

The show opens up with the pair coming out of a time machine that looks an awful lot like a giant Porta John, having traveled the distance between the shows, when the rest of the cast show up to inform them they have been in there for 16 years. In a sketch comedy show that is hit or miss at best, they should have opened up swinging for the fences, coupled with “Mr. Show.”

While there are a few funny bits over the four episode run, they take too many chances with skits like the interview of the filmmaker who made “Better Roots” which refers to slaves as helpers. As well as the sketch which involved a guy who can make women appear behind him when he refers to them using the ‘C’ word. Both are sketches which may leave them in hot water with a lot of people.

There is also an early sketch which shows men at a card game talking about New Year’s resolutions, such as wanting to be a television judge, a mega successful film director, one guy who wants to be elected the first Jewish pope and a guy who wants to create the next big thing in cell phone technology. All very lofty goals, but when one guy says his resolution is to give up meat for his health, everyone mocks him.

This is one scene that will come back around toward the end of the series, which in addition to odd transitions from one sketch to the next are things that worked quite well for “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.”

These techniques are the only thing “W/ Bob and David” seems to get right.

Maybe it’s an older generation thing, but in the last 20 years or so there have been many sketch shows that were great, such as “In Living Colour” and “MadTV.” But many of the others just didn’t make the cut and were gone almost as quickly as they appeared. A good sketch show needs to go big or go home, by having skits that work off/ mock current events and controversies to challenging certain stereotypes and pushing the envelope. “W/ Bob and David” may have attempted to do this, however all that were involved may have been stuck in the past and trying the same old tricks that brought them success with “Mr. Show.”

Some of the skits work, but most do not. They may have success with this show if they let go of the old and focus on the new. It seems that the pair have simply reunited because they both had free time from their other projects. Go back to the drawing board guys, maybe in another 16 years you will get it right.

Rating: 4 out of 5