My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman

Maybe the best show Letterman have ever done. A rock solid start with Mr Obama. Well done Letterman and keep up the good work in the following episodes.

I always enjoyed interesting guests in the various late shows having a bit more time to tell an interesting story. However, even if they had the full 10 minutes, you felt like you were missing out as they had to be cut off after one or two anecdotes. Additionally, the ad breaks always disrupted the flow of the conversation and even if you decided to catch up the day after on YouTube, you'd have to search for all the various clips in the correct order to have seen it all.

All of that is now gone. "My next guest needs no introduction" allows Letterman to do what he seemingly always wanted to do - just have an in-depth conversation with an interesting guest, but without any interruptions. You can tell he's enjoying this and he seems to be willing to make the most of this new format. In the first episode, we have already seen him put a lot of research into his guest, Barack Obama. Future episodes will show us whether Letterman will continue to put as much effort into his job as interviewer, but I have very high hopes and think this show will continue to be revealing and entertaining.

Overall, I quite enjoyed the first episode and I have very high hopes for the episodes to come.

It should come as no surprise that this is Dave Letterman's element. A more or less free-form talk show. Unlike his more structured network shows, his personality comes through in more serious dialog and not just his signature humor. With a single guest, Dave has adopted a more conversational interview style. And the result is a more relaxed and engaging interview. Each interview is accompanied by related but much more personal clips than one expects from a typical talk show.

Heart Warming interviews. Very interesting and surprising.

Sometimes Letterman had guests you wanted to see more of, rather than the 5 or 6 minutes they were allotted on his previous shows with CBS and NBC. Consider it done now with Dave's new Netflix show, "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction".

Gone are (most) wise cracks and self deprecating humor Letterman was famous for on his late-night shows. There's no band, no lengthy witty monologue about current events, and really no set either. Filmed in a college auditorium in New York, the "set" is two leather chairs and a table sitting in the middle of a large stage. Lights, cameras and other technical equipment are sometimes seen in various shots throughout the program but that's the whole feel of the show; it's not an error and it fits nicely with the format.

We see a different Letterman here than the one we're used to. A white-bearded, easygoing fellow who appears to be a lot more chill and in his element. There's no pressure to keep people laughing and tuning in, and it shows on screen (that's not a bad thing). There's no hard-nosed journalism, thankfully. Consider it like this: two friends chatting about life, and you the viewer, are invited to listen in. Very personal questions, and very personal answers that are from the heart.

Letterman talks with the kind of guests you wish you saw more of when they were on his late-night shows. "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction" (and yet he does introduce them) is nearly an hour long, broken up with brief produced segments to keep the flow going. You probably won't catch every episode; rather you'll want to see the ones with people you admire or those whom always have something interesting to say. And that's OK; that's just the kind of show it is. Personally, I tuned in to the first episode with Barack Obama (his first talk show appearance since leaving office), and I'll probably watch the next episode with George Clooney, where Letterman makes a surprise visit to the Clooney home. Unlike many Netflix shows the entire season has not been released all at once.