Netflix debuted “Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney” last night, so I had to watch it. I’ll frankly watch the standup comedian read the dictionary, but after last year’s “Everbody’s in LA,” I was excited to see what he had cooked up.
So, I was a bit surprised to see how much remained unchanged. I’m not disappointed — I’d have been distraught if Richard Kind wasn’t back doing his best Ed McMahon impression. But I thought going into it that it would be more like a brand-new show.
Instead, we got something more akin to season 2 of last year’s weeklong talk show, which Mulaney as much as admitted in his opening monologue.
But there is one massive change between “Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney” and “Everybody’s in LA.” It’s now weekly instead of nightly, and it’s the one thing above all else that this show gets right.
Weekly episodes can fix rookie mistakes
Despite hosting a six-episode talk show last year, Mulaney is essentially new to hosting a live talk show. In his opening monologue, he admits that 10 months is “just enough time” to forget how to do the show.
The good news is he doesn’t seem to have missed a step. In terms of quality and feel, the new show feels like a continuation of the old one.
Joan Baez dancing to Cypress Hill performing “Hits from the Bong” with a 17-piece orchestra should go down in the annals of TV history.
The bad news is that talk shows often miss bits, whether they’re live or taped. Unless it’s “Last Week Tonight,” a show so perfect nobody should even try to replicate it, a bit or two is likely to fall flat.
And last night a bit or two definitely fell flat. The opening monologue was a bit meandering, the first interview segment with Michael Keaton and Jessica Roy didn’t pop and while I love Tracy Morgan, the “King Latifah” bit teetered frequently between absurd and unhinged.
But some things worked, and they worked in the old show, too. The “Willy Loman Focus Group” segment will be talked about like a great “Saturday Night Live” sketch.
I definitely want more live music, too. Joan Baez dancing to Cypress Hill performing “Hits from the Bong” with a 17-piece orchestra should go down in the annals of TV history.
By going weekly, Mulaney can take a step back and see what worked and what didn’t, getting a whole week to set things right and work out the kinks. That’s a huge boon for the show and it’s the biggest thing Mulaney and Netflix got right for a show that so far is getting more things right than not.
