Everybody's Live with John Mulaney premiere: The good, bad and ugly

I love John Mulaney. I've seen his stand up live several times and practically memorized his comedy specials.

While I am happy he is getting the chance for an ongoing series, this show is painful to watch. I zoned out so many times I thought I had unknowingly taken an edible.

The weekly show is a continuation of his original show, Everybody's in LA. The reboot with a new, fresh title is coming to us because, as Mulaney jokes, everybody hates LA.

The good from Everybody's Live with John Mulaney

Let's start with the positives. Legendary actor Richard Kind is John's lovable sidekick. He is best known for his brief role in Night Court - just kidding, he's been in about 30,000 movies and TV shows since including Only Murders in the Building, Big Mouth, American Dad, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the previous John Mulaney show, John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch. The brief banter between John and Richard is the best part of the show by far.

Mulaney's monologue is also classic and as on-point as usual. From joking about his scandalous relationship with wife Olivia Munn and their two children - "you guys are cool with one kid," referring to the negative press he received for the timeline of his divorce, to moving on with Munn, to fathering their son Malcolm. He also included some great throwbacks to his youthful appearance, comparing himself to a disappeared boy.

The guests were also a refreshing surprise, even if their conversations were lackluster. The panel included journalist Jessica Roy and Michael Keaton (yes, that one) first, followed by Mulaney's SNL buddy Fred Armisen and musician/activist Joan Baez joining them later in the show.

There were also some additional surprise pop-up guests throughout the ending skit, which was also incredibly random. Shout out to Christopher Lloyd, who keeps on keeping on as one of several dozen Willy Lohmans. Cypress Hill was also a delightful addition as a musical guest.

The bad

The strangest thing about the whole episode, though, is his opening joke about his drug addiction becoming the audience's problem, really does feel like a problem. I have seen John Mulaney stand up both sober and high as a kite (him, not me), and the pace of the show and random chaos felt very much like one or both of us were tripping.

The first skit flashes to Mulaney using a telescope to observe his neighbors in an apartment building, for example, and for some reason, each and every apartment features one person knocking out the other with a lamp. I wanted to like it, but I just didn't understand where it was coming from and why it went on so long.

Then there was a repeat appearance from Saymo, an AI robot who also appeared on Mulaney's previous sketch show. It popped in and out so quickly and randomly, it seemed like they just realized they had it sitting around and might as well get use out of it. We already have a dystopian threat running amok in this country daily, no need to bring the robots into it.

The conversational topics with the guests were quite broad and seemed plucked from out of nowhere, with the exception of promoting Fred Armisen's...sound effects album. I kid you not, that is a real thing aptly entitled 100 Sound Effects. So, if you find yourself in need of some unhinged ASMR, now you know.

The ugly

Another odd addition to the show, because they keep piling up like a freeway crash in Los Angeles, is Tracy Morgan's appearance in the audience as King Latifah. Whether it was part of the skit or, more likely, Morgan's personality, he fumbled his lines, continuously coughed throughout the bit, and honestly just fell flat. Other than being able to say "with an appearance by Tracy Morgan," I'm not sure why that particular sketch exists.

The last takeaway from the hot mess express was live call-ins from the audience. Financial advice and lending money is always a light-hearted and charming conversation piece. You can tell the calls are live because they were some of the most uninteresting characters with problems so mundane I'm not sure how they've made it this far in life.

And the final caller could NOT stop repeating "John" in reference to Mulaney in every single statement. Even John was ready to change his name and enter witness protection by the end of that call.

To his credit, this was the first episode of the new version of the show, so I am truly hoping it only goes up from here. It certainly can't get much worse. I love you, John Mulaney, but I am not in love with Everybody's Live...yet.

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