Hannah Gadsby: Something Special

After a two year hiatus, Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby returns with a new and surprisingly “feel good” Netflix special.

Hannah Gadsby first hit the mainstream in 2018 with her debut Netflix special Nanette, wherein she took a creatively nuanced approach to telling humorous stories about her experiences as a lesbian living in Australia. Her second special Douglas, released in 2020, also followed a similar formula. Part of what made these specials stand out, and contributed to Hannah’s success, was that in each of these specials there comes a point in the show where she dedicates a portion of the time to tackling a serious subject, free of jokes. Although choosing to take a moment and address  a serious topic is not uncommon among comedians, dedicating an entire segment of a show to it is. 

Regardless, such a choice undoubtedly played a big role in her rise to fame and stoked interest for this newest show. Many fans, myself included, were likely anticipating a new special with the familiar formula of finding humor in the more tragic parts of life. However, in Something Special Hannah chooses to take a more standard approach to the structure of her show and style of comedy.  

On the one hand, this decision gave the light hearted material more room to breathe while also letting a more grounded sense of Hannah’s genuinely humorous personality come through. While this choice left the show unimpeded by the weight of heavy topics, it also seems to have produced a slightly unfortunate and undesired effect. Without a strategically placed portion of the show being dedicated to specific content, the overall structure of this special felt disjointed.

The first part of Something Special stays true to the Gadsby formula wherein she vaguely informs the audience of what they can expect throughout the show. It is during this introductory portion when she explains that this will be “a feel good show,”  meaning that there would be no traditional excursion into heavier content. However this, along with the news that she’s gotten married since the last time we’ve seen her, and the disclaimer that she would not be covering current events, is the only insight she gives as to whats to come. For me, this was the first sign that the structure of the show was going to be a bit off. 

While the essence of Hannah’s unique style is maintained throughout the show, including the use of anecdotes about her love life as a backdrop for humorous insights into human nature, and lighthearted jabs at heterosexuals, it felt as though something was missing. This isn’t to say that their needs to be an impromptu TedTalk in the middle of every single show, but a show does need glue to hold it together. And it felt as though this show was missing some of that glue. 

The first half of Something Special is essentially spent laying the groundwork for the second half of the show. Here, Hannah discusses her views on marriage proposals and weddings, and tells a few stories about some of the mishaps during her own engagement. Though there is nothing inherently wrong with this structure or this content—it often works very well for most comedians—it does depend on the first portion of the show having a consistent underlying theme and a strong base (the glue if you will) that allows it to stand on its own. A consistent theme that is prominently expressed through rock solid material at the beginning of a show is meant to lay the foundation for the second half, which should be full of heavy-hitters that unexpectedly tie the entire show together with a neat bow. 

In Something Special it seemed as though part of this formula was missing. Taken together the show works as a whole. However, the first half is entirely dependent on the second half. Many of the jokes at the beginning are decent and most of them do land, but they primarily forgettable. It isn't until we reach the crux of the show where the callbacks start happening that Gadsby begins to truly gain her momentum. The material in the last third of the show is where the bigger picture becomes much more obvious, and the overall effect of what she was going for becomes clear. 

Hannah Gadsby’s particular style of comedy is rather unconventional to begin with and is definitely of an acquired taste so it will be interesting to see how both old and new fans respond to this new take. This isn’t to say that the more lighthearted material resulted in a lackluster show. In fact, I would like to see Hannah take this care-free approach in another special that is perhaps given a little bit more time in the oven.