Editor’s note, October 10, 4:10 pm: On October 10, 2024, Netflix announcement That John Mulaney will host a live weekly talk show for the streamer as early as 2025.
John Mulaney’s new, just-concluded Netflix comedy limited series, Everyone is in LAFeel experimental in many ways. Not only is it Netflix trying out an interesting format — the show debuted live on May 3 and played in a series of six nightly live episodes last week — but it also feels like Mulaney is soft-launching a side gig.
As host to a motley crew of Los Angeles natives and city-invading comedians, Mulaney seems to be testing the waters for what kind of comedy his audience wants from him now. His 2023 confessional special Baby J won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing and looked at his recent struggles with sobriety, but it drew mixed reviews from critics — some of whom seemed Skeptical at best That Mulaney has done enough to bare his soul to the rest of us.
After a rough few years for Mulaney, such cynicism seemed to be the prevailing sentiment about the comedian. Notably, 2021 saw him enter rehab for drug addiction. Shortly after his release, it became clear that it was Mulaney chose to end her marriage The six-year-old began a relationship with his then-wife Anna Marie Tendler, and with actor Olivia Munn – described in Timeline as “tight” As soon as Mulaney filed for divorce the rumor Rumors of an affair are leaked, followed by news that Moon is pregnant.
The scandal struck a chord with a public unusually attached to its protagonists in a pandemic-era culture, and Mulaney’s crimes have sparked both a backlash and a heated discourse about whether our parasocial relationships have become too warped. The period severely damaged Mulaney’s relationship with his core audience, once full of people who responded to his idealistic appeal. These people don’t seem to be able to move on easily – not even by April 2023, when Mulaney, Baby Jsuggested a way forward through a more traditional path: an emancipatory confession
Jump to May 2024, and perhaps, if one hasn’t completely set a clear course for comics, two will try: Enter, a willfully random daily comedy talk show built around a threadbare of excuses. The show’s raison d’être: LA is weird. Solution: Get an unexpected fun guy and locals together to talk about how weird LA is. Host: A comedian famous for his own likable random quirks.
Mulaney appears to have his bases covered. “We’re only doing six episodes,” he explains in the introduction Everyone is in LA“So the show will never hit its groove.” If this flops, it’s good. Mulaney jokes that she doesn’t know why she’s doing the show, which serves as a side event to Netflix’s sprawling LA Comedy Festival. Netflix is a joke. “I need structure,” he says, a non-rationality that doubles as a subtle reminder for some viewers that we’re looking at someone who has a history of addiction and is likely on the road to recovery.
That’s about as deep as this show gets, however; Although we get a few gestures at socio-cultural issues like environmentalism and the persistent problems of LA traffic, they’re handed to us by, for example, a coyote wrangler or a gonzo helicopter journalist. Mulaney has featured famous comedians, yes, but everyone from hypnotherapists to former OJ Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark. (And really, what could be more L.A. than that?) Between conversations, Mulaney features pretaped sketches from more guest comedians and The Daily Show-style comedy correspondent. As if that’s not chaotic enough, he also has call-in guests. At one point in episode five, a seismologist sits quietly while a caller describes being woken by an earthquake while sleeping naked. These probably aren’t the talk show bits you’re used to.
Mulaney’s week of flying with the city also works well for Netflix. Despite years of trying Netflix talk shows are a thing to doAnd despite occasionally bringing back David Letterman to do one-off long-form interviews, the platform has never nailed the format before. The nightly program seems to be producing a small effect; It currently sits at number 10 on the Netflix US Top 10 Shows and has been up and down the charts for most of the week.
Not a bad start; what a start, Exactly, remains somewhat unclear. Netflix could use this show as a pilot entry for other temporary hosts of similarly themed efforts — in other words, more Appointment TV. It certainly seems like the whole week, kicking off with Kat Williams’ live standup special Folk woke up And uncomfortable Roast of Tom BradyIt was a testy make-or-break week for Netflix and live programming.
Or maybe Netflix will do it again next year during its next Comedy Fest; Perhaps in a few months, Mulaney will move to another strange American city with another strange band of guests. It’s an interesting idea: what would a series like this look like if it took both it and the city more seriously? As much as we’ve absorbed about Los Angeles from decades of cultural immersion, what would visitors make of it if we didn’t know as much about the city? I’m not saying Everyone is in Boise It’s the way to go, but I’m saying I’d probably look at it for local color.
Whether that’s enough to restore Mulaney to the top of the comedy world seems equally uncertain. The main attraction of the show, all told, has less to do with gathering guests than watching Mulaney’s effortless banter. Night after night, Mulaney embraces all the awkwardness of live comedy, and doesn’t always embrace it: often the guests are hostile; Sketches don’t always land; Callers are very eager to grandstand. Mulaney skips it like Dance Dance Revolution and he knows this particular song by heart. As a host, he is fab.
Yet the idea of Mulaney as a talk show host on an ongoing basis seems like a net loss rather than a gain. Of course, he is can Combine the comedy titans and make sure they don’t run more than an hour, but he’s probably fit for better things. If the influential criticize Dr Baby J It came down very lightly on Mulaney’s self-incrimination Everyone is in LA His genius is directed entirely outward; It is deliberately light, deliberately shallow. Edges have meaning, but they usually have nothing to do with why we love Mulaney. Arguably the best moment of the series, in fact, doesn’t involve Mulaney at all, but rather a foreshadowing part of the second episode that reunites key members of the LA punk scene. They sit around reminiscing, then fly off and write a silly punk song together.
It’s funny, it’s shocking. But it’s not as funny or poignant as Mulaney himself can be when he’s alone on stage with his flaws and thousands of people willing to laugh and then forgive them. If Everyone is in LA If it brings his audience closer to the suspension of hostilities, it will be well worth it.
Update, October 10, 2024: Updated with news on John Mulaney’s upcoming talk show for Netflix.
