John Mulaney’s talk show of the weird

Published May 10, 2024 4:15am ET



Everybody’s in LA, John Mulaney’s six-part Netflix live talk show, loosely about Los Angeles, is a lesson in the promise and peril of taking artistic risks. Created to coincide with the “Netflix Is a Joke” humor festival, the show teased its ad hoc premise with winking promos depicting awkward vox pops with real Angelenos, promises of talent “equal to, but not necessarily, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and David Letterman,” and framing that warned viewers that the show will kind of, well, make things up as it goes. Fair play, and kudos for the moxie — though some viewers will enjoy this thrown-together meal even as others wish Mulaney would discard freestyle cooking and return to the comic equivalent of a Julia Child recipe. 

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