John Mulaney’s new special resists any kind of sentimentalizing or sermonizing about the subject of drug abuse.
has become one of the most beloved comics of his generation not because he has moved with the cultural currents but because he has self-assuredly resisted them. An approachable but cosmopolitan Midwesterner who often wears a three-piece suit while performing, Mulaney has long offered—at least at a glance—a clean and wholesome counterweight to vulgarity, vitriol, and ever-intensifying political polarization.
It is unusual, in our current era of media saturation, for a public figure to defy our expectations. With lives that are overdocumented and stage-managed public personas, a reputation-altering headline seldom arrives. And so the news, in December of 2020, that Mulaney was checking into rehab for drug addiction was a genuine bombshell, especially because of how violently it punctured the image his audience held of him.
“Baby J,” which is now available on Netflix, is the fully formed, mainstage-ready version of Mulaney’s addiction material. Directed by Alex Timbers and soundtracked by David Byrne, the title cards describe the piece as “A Wide-Ranging Conversation,” suggesting that perhaps the show will be shaggy, loose, and confessional. But “Baby J,” while certainly confessional, has nothing unvarnished about it.
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