TV SHOW REVIEW: Chris Rock's "Selective Outrage" Netflix Special

Did Netflix's First Live Comedy Special Ever Live Up to the Hype?

I caught the brand-new Chris Rock “Selective Outrage” special on Netflix Sunday, which aired live on the streaming service the night before. It was the first live comedy special in the history of Netflix, making it quite the event and apparently came with pre and post game shows as well, giving it a sporting event feel (I only saw the actual comedy special).  I’m sure there’s far more eloquently penned and detailed reviews of this show out there but for what it’s worth, here’s my quick take on it.

PROS: It was great to see Rock back doing comedy specials and after last year’s Oscars, the anticipation was sky high. I enjoy comedy specials but don’t usually specifically seek them out—I sort of just have them fall into my laptop when browsing streaming services like Netflix. Not this one though----I was eagerly anticipating this show.  For the most part I thought Rock delivered well. Even at 58 he still looks young, was owning the stage and his cadence and phrasing is as good as ever. I thought the Meghan Markle acting surprised that the royal family is racist bit was peak content and the Beyonce/Jay Z Burger King and Michael Jackson/R Kelly jokes were great too. Of course, most of us were here for the Will Smith stuff and mishap aside, it was good if not raw as Rock balanced jokes with understandably pent up anger.

CONS: I was ultimately here for the Will Smith/Jada Pinkett Smith revenge stories/jokes and that didn’t come until literally the show’s final handful of minutes, which at some point made bits that preceded it feel like time filler. Let’s face it---everyone wanted to hear his response to last year’s Oscars and were only going to gloss over some of the other stuff. Also, one of the drawbacks of doing a live show is just that---it’s live.  That means there’s no redo’s and Chris botched the movie title of his joke and lost all his momentum in the process. Lastly, I felt like at least some of Rock’s other content fell a bit flat, including four ways people can get attention and abortion bits.

VERDICT/GRADE: It’s truly a mixed bag for me as some stuff had me laughing out loud while others went directly past funny and into uncomfortable territory. While I liked the uniqueness of this comedy special feeling like a sporting event, perhaps it would’ve been better off were it produced and edited.  Even Rock acknowledged he “fucked up the joke” which under normal circumstances could’ve been easily fixed in post-production. Also and this isn’t necessarily a criticism, but I was at least mildly surprised so much of Rock’s venom felt directed at Jade as opposed to Will but then again, maybe I should’ve expected that.  Don’t get me wrong—I’m no less of a Chris Rock fan today than I was before, he’s still one of the all-time greats on the stage----this special simply didn’t move the needle for me as much as I thought it would. Selective Outrage was just alright for me.  Grade: C