Some portions are striking and fun, some feel like incomplete approaches to an idea that’s not fully there yet, some are simply overworn premises without enough oomph to distinguish them. On the other side is the special itself, which is not quite ephemeral, but it’s close. On one side, there’s the heaviness of Macdonald’s death and his memory. At moments, they attempt to discuss the special as a special, but it’s very hard when everyone wants it to be a wake. They speak about him warmly they talk about what kind of a person he was, what it was like to be around him. After roughly an hour of material by Macdonald, sitting at a desk and staring into a camera, the Netflix special continues with a roundtable discussion from several comedians who’d worked with Macdonald and knew him well (David Spade, Adam Sandler, Conan O’Brien, Molly Shannon, Dave Chappelle, and David Letterman). Filmed before Macdonald was about to undergo a medical procedure and meant as a record in case he could not perform the special in front of a crowd, Nothing Special is laden with the awareness of why exactly it exists in this form. The presentation of it underscores that monumentality. Filmed at home in the summer of 2020 as Macdonald was undergoing cancer treatment, Nothing Special carries the huge weight of being a prolific, influential, beloved comedian’s final work, a last special viewed only after his death.

Norm Macdonald’s final comedy special, released posthumously on Netflix, is an exercise in feeling your way through opposing tensions.

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