My Review "Neal Brennan: Blocks"

Neal Brennan: Blocks is Netflix's latest comedy stand up special for 2022. I've been following some of his work for a little bit now and I can say I'm a bit of a fan of his work. This one felt a lot more personal than his other specials although he does expose a little bit about himself in each of his specials. There's more of a deep dive in this special.

The special starts off pretty innocuous. He talks about the display that he has on stage. It's a display set up by an artist friend of his. I like it and he has a bit of fun with it then and throughout the show. This was perhaps a very clever tool to help him throughout the show.

He then goes into some of the interesting observations that he's made over the time. I like some of the observations that he made as I would never have thought of some of these things. The social climate has changed a lot in the last few years and he kind of nails a lot of those issues.

I particularly like his observations on gun control issues and liberal versus conservative perspectives. Although he is a self-proclaimed liberal he does have a perspective that is somewhat in the middle of things. He can see where each side is coming from and paints a pretty clear picture as to how each side has their good side and their bad side. Being a liberal he can identify more of the bad things that come with being a liberal as he's closer to that side.

He also gets into relationships and the expectations that come with relationships. This goes into a deeper dive into his family history as to why he is the way that he is today. I'm surprised that he dives even deeper than that and then talks about some of the mental health issues that he's suffering from today.

The mental health issue is quite extreme and he goes on to explain the lengths to which he's gone to try to help himself get better. It just goes to show that someone as successful as him is able to have real issues and problems with mental health. Even with money and opportunity he's not able to battle all of the demons that he has inside his own head.

I waited and waited for the punchline but there really was no punchline to that portion of the show. It was kind of a public service announcement to help people learn that they're not alone in their struggles. It's incredibly powerful to witness however it's not something comedy watchers are expecting.

Still there is a lot of comedy in this special. The first three quarters of this special are genuinely funny. His observational work is really well done. He has a dry and self loathing delivery for all of his jokes. It's like watching a really dark version of Conan O'Brien delivery. Yet somehow it still works.

I think I have a vested interest in this show because I've been following his work for a while so now I'm here watching because I'm for the person. The jokes are a really fun part of this show but the person also makes this show interesting as well.

Overall, this isn't a show for everyone. There are some really funny jokes in here but be warned there are some extremely depressing lows in here as well. These lows are on purpose, he's intentionally placed these personal anecdotes for us to understand what he's going through. I have to give this special a 7 out of 10. It was a fun show but even the lows were a little low for me.