Hannah Gadsby: Nanette

It's fascinating how almost everyone here gives this 1 star or 10 stars, but in a way it makes sense. This is billed as a comedy special, but it goes far afield of that, which means if you don't want to follow when she veers from comedy then you'll hate it (likewise if you don't find the comedy parts funny), but it also means if you admire things that break all the rules and try to find a new way to tell stories then you're likely to be thrilled. Although I can't help but suspect there's also an element of politics in which some people are rating one star because they're offended by who she is and other people giving it 10 stars because they love who she is, with neither of these groups actually considering how this works as a piece of theater. Which, from my point of view, is quite well but not perfectly.

For maybe half the show it's a very funny stand-up routine. I've never seen Gadsby before, but she's sharp and clever and genial and very good at what she does.

But she's also questioning what she does, and begins to explore the ways in which comedy, in going for the laugh, can hide or distort the truth. It's not funny, but it is fascinating, and the way she tells you the story as joke in the first half then revisits the full truth of it in the second is rather amazing.

But she goes beyond both comedy and deconstructing comedy. She gets into the experience of being the "other," she gets into her considerable anger, and then explains why she doesn't really want to just appeal to anger, and she makes some fascinating points about art and the way we mythologize artists.

At times I thought it was a little slow. At times the seriousness wore on me. But it's brilliantly structured and she's an incredibly smart and insightful woman. And she can be both very funny and searingly, powerfully emotional.

In the special she says she's considering giving up stand-up. If she does, I'll be very eager to see what she replaces it with. She has a lot to say.

This is well worth seeing, but if you just want to see someone telling jokes for an hour, you might want to skip this. Cause it sure ain't that!

I would have gladly given this a higher rating if was properly placed in the genre to which it belongs.

As a humanities lecture with some forgettable humor tossed in, it's outstanding. As a character study of a severely broken woman it's fascinating. As a standup comedy show it's a dismal failure. Her material includes competent but hardly memorable jokes that go on for way too long.. Her ramblings about men didn't offend me -do people think this is the first time our gender has heard any of this? It's hardly the groundbreaking work it pretends to be.

I've noticed some unfortunate things from reading the reviews on this, though. If you're only mildly entertained by dull, razor thin feminist baiting tripe you're some sort of incel. Women aren't above criticism, and if you're going to touch on this subject you don't get to call anyone who disagrees with you a misogynist and leave it that. It's too simplistic. And it takes away all accountability for your failure to entertain.

The message I took away from this was unfortunate - men want comedy (most of the top tier comedians are male), women want validation. And that's truly a sad, cynical attitude to walk away with. She makes a better public speaker preaching to the choir because, as a comedian, she does little to dispel the tired stereotype that women aren't funny.

Thank God for Kathleen Madigan.

I had never heard of Hannah Gadsby before so this was a pretty random choice. A happy choice.

I'll give you some context: I have a fairly busy life, with two children under five, a job and a half, a boyfriend and a divorce in progress. I had not had a night alone in a long time, and, let me tell you: I was excited about MY time alone in MY house. Hannah was the perfect date for the occasion.

I also identify with "tired". Other than that I am an heterosexual white woman in her prime. This should be irrelevant but reading the other comments seems necessary to mention, because NO, this content does not appeal only to a particular community as some want you to believe. I am a woman, but the male attention I received throughout life, being heterosexual, feminine, said attractive, was quite different from Hannah's experience. One experience does not invalidate the other.

This content is about connection and Hannah makes us feel connected.

There is a less colorful community in which Hannah and I are together. I'm also a funny person, and I've been using humor all my life to deal with my frailties. It's something that has been in my mind lately, the need to be vulnerable to create real connections, something I struggle to achieve, I'm still working on it sitting in my world protected with walls of jokes that I'm not yet ready to knock over. and so I bow before Hannah Gadsby because, wow, this was bold and brave and we, from this other community, needed it. Thank you Hannah.

A wonderful show about comedy and about jokes. But it is not comedy and it is not jokes. And that's not an insult! It's a beautiful and moving performance but we should take it for what it is and appreciate that Ms Gadsby is doing her OWN, more difficult to categorize thing. Putting her in the same category as, I dunno, Ali Wong, is a disservice for them both.

The most intelligent, thought provoking, funny, angry, heart wrenching, truthful, historically political and important comedy program I have ever seen.

An amazing artists puts it all out there like it's never been put out there before. Truthful, angry and in your face and literally laying her soul bare. I have never seen anything more powerful. She made me laugh and cry.

Hannah could be the voice of political satire, or just an amazing political figure or anything else she chooses.

Thanks for not being self depreciating!!!!!!! You raised the bar of what comedy is allowed to be and what it can do!!!!!!!