The most successful material in The Return is the stuff that both has nothing to do with Apatow’s career and feels pleasantly nostalgic for the kinds of comedic discoveries Apatow would make as a younger man (noting that when a man has an orgasm he’s “succeeding and failing at the same time”). In trying to capitalize on the current comedy boom, Netflix might hasten its collapse. How many people have watched the Netflix special from, say, Rory Scovel, a great comedian with cachet in alternative scenes but not much in the way of a mainstream profile? It’s safe to assume that audience was smaller than the one for Jerry Seinfeld’s Netflix special, but how much smaller? Did Netflix see any benefit, according to its metrics, from paying Scovel a higher-than-usual sum (because yes, Netflix pumps out the money even to smaller comics) for an exclusive special that it didn’t do that much to promote and that was followed by another new special just a few days later? How long will that weekly schedule last, if 2017 winds up being considered a failure by Netflix based on numbers that it doesn’t share? We have no way of knowing. And because Netflix doesn’t release much in the way of viewership numbers, we don’t have that scientific of a way to measure how successful this strategy has been.
#TOP COMEDY MOVIES FROM 2017 TV#
Network execs and TV critics might worry about Peak TV, but Peak Stand-up has been here all year. They scooped up rights to new specials from the biggest names in comedy, from returning legends (David Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld, Judd Apatow), to now-disgraced marquee attractions (here’s looking at you, Louis.) And on top of that HBO, Comedy Central, Showtime and other networks continued to release new stand-up specials throughout the year. Netflix released a brand new hour-long stand-up special every week this year. If any year was going to prove that thesis right, it should’ve been 2017. There’s going to be a crash, they think, usually soon, and they’re trying to position themselves as strongly as possible within the industry before that happens. I’ve interviewed dozens of comedians since then, and almost every conversation has eventually come around to discussing the “comedy bubble.” There are more people doing comedy in more venues and through more media outlets than ever before, and so many comedians are positive that this can’t last much longer.
I took over this section at the beginning of 2015.