Extremely disappointed. I really enjoyed all his previous specials and the times I've seen him live in the past.
If you think about it, there weren't many "jokes" in this special at all. He tells a few stories, none of which having much of a payoff. The story about his mom getting high, about his injury, about his kids.. all of them go nowhere and are pretty standard stories for stand-up with no surprises, no punchline.. nothing. He tries to make callbacks to previous bits throughout to show that he has some sort of grand flow, but instead it's just forced and unfunny. The "controversial" topic bits had no joke to them either (spoiler: his kid saw his dick, he makes a taboo statement, and that's it. No joke or purpose to the story). The audience laughter sounds to be mixed louder than it was in reality as well. His delivery is obviously established enough to keep the crowd engaged, but the actual content is boring as hell.
This was one of the worst standup specials I've seen in quite awhile. Maybe Tom is just content with life, creatively empty from doing so many podcasts, and doesn't have anything new or exciting to share. Sucks to have him on the front of Netflix with such a subpar release though.
If you think about it, there weren't many "jokes" in this special at all. He tells a few stories, none of which having much of a payoff. The story about his mom getting high, about his injury, about his kids.. all of them go nowhere and are pretty standard stories for stand-up with no surprises, no punchline.. nothing. He tries to make callbacks to previous bits throughout to show that he has some sort of grand flow, but instead it's just forced and unfunny. The "controversial" topic bits had no joke to them either (spoiler: his kid saw his dick, he makes a taboo statement, and that's it. No joke or purpose to the story). The audience laughter sounds to be mixed louder than it was in reality as well. His delivery is obviously established enough to keep the crowd engaged, but the actual content is boring as hell.
This was one of the worst standup specials I've seen in quite awhile. Maybe Tom is just content with life, creatively empty from doing so many podcasts, and doesn't have anything new or exciting to share. Sucks to have him on the front of Netflix with such a subpar release though.