‘The Break with Michelle Wolf’ On Netflix: Thankfully, No One Will Ever Confuse Michelle Wolf For Bill Maher

Netflix has all the time in the world, but this weekend’s debut of The Break with Michelle Wolf had no time for a theme song. Just bring out your host, have her introduce the night’s (well, whatever time of day you’re watching it) topics, have the audience applaud, then get on with the show.

If anything, the beats dropped by Wolf’s DJ are somewhat reminiscent of Real Time with Bill Maher‘s theme on HBO.

But Wolf’s voice and point of view would never be confused for Maher’s. Which is not only a good thing, but also a funnier thing. As Wolf points out to viewers who may not have seen her HBO special (“Nice Lady”), her White House Correspondents Dinner keynote last month, or her performances on Late Night with Seth Meyers or The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. “Yes, this is my real voice,” Wolf says, “So I’d like to welcome you and I’m also assuming your dogs.”

In the past few years, we’ve witnessed an explosion in the number of half-hour talk shows fronted by comedians.

Wolf wants you to know hers will not be like any of theirs.

“It’s literally a break,” Wolf says. “I’m not going to try to teach you anything or discuss political policy with you. I guess I’m sorta like a cable news show in that way.”

“We will joke about whatever we want. Seriously. We’re on Netflix. We don’t have any sponsors!”

So she follows that with what amounts to not so much an opening monologue, proper, but a more traditional, topical stand-up comedy performance. Joking about the NFL’s national anthem policy, staging a Miss USA pageant during the #MeToo movement, the cake-maker who refused to write the “Cum” in Summa Cum Laude, the Royal Wedding, and Mario Batali.

Other segments include Sports Smash (spoiler alert: not so much about sports, save for the sound effects), and The Breakdown, in which Wolf and a guest — Amber Ruffin, a former coworker of Wolf’s on Late Night, for the debut — joins her to joke about a topic. In this episode, Wolf and Ruffin explain why they don’t want to have children, and do so with hilarious horror stories from their friends who have become moms, as well as more Batali jokes.

Wolf goes straight for Batali’s looks and wardrobe with her jokes, because as she says, who will stand up for a sexual predator? Oh, and don’t worry, supporters or defenders of Wolf, she has more jokes at the expense of White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Which she now carefully notes: “That was a joke about her ugly personality. She has the Mario Batali of personalities!”

The 27-minute episode’s segments are broken up by pre-taped vidoes, such as this one portraying Wolf as a “Strong Female Lead” in a new Netflix docu-series.

There’s also a recurring joke about fake follow-ups to the Amazon Echo, but while the premises are understandable, the punchlines lack a certain bite. The videos could use more absurdity, more subversiveness, something.

Thankfully, there’s nothing lacking in Wolf’s stand-up and commentary, which prompted you to watch The Break in the first place.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch The Break with Michelle Wolf on Netflix