Comedian John Mulaney is going live on Wednesday nights for 12 weeks on Netflix. NPR's TV critic says that in the first episode, Mulaney seemed to be enjoying the absurdity of the whole setup much more than any of the actual content he was presenting.

John Mulaney officially returned to late night this week. After debuting "Everybody's in LA" during Netflix's comedy festival last year, the comedian debuted the first installment of his new 12-episode show on Wednesday night.

As a longtime Mulaney fan, I was vaguely concerned that the tony allure of a primetime slot would tempt him toward pat, predictable late-night jokes and sketch formats. As it turned out, however, I needn’t have worried.