Patton Oswalt: We All Scream was released on Netflix on September 20, 2022, with a runtime of 58 mins. This marks Oswalt’s fourth collaboration with Netflix for a comedy special and also his directorial debut for the same. The actor-comedian also took up the writing of his piece, which he performed at the Paramount Theatre in Denver, Colorado.
In this approximate whole hour of comedy, Patton Oswalt picks up pieces of his life that are a result of his ageing transformation and all the experiences he had (or didn’t have) over the Covid lockdown period. While his delivery is spot on and keeps the audience excited for more to come, some discontinuities therein may also result in a fallout.
Netflix’s official synopsis describes the episode as:
Patton riffs on the hazards of aging, his failed shutdown plans and the day his wife turned into a Valkyrie in this stand-up special he also directed.
-Patton Oswalt: We All Scream Review Contains Mild Spoilers-
There’s a raw and direct reality in what Patton Oswalt has to say during his stand-up performance, especially about the shutdowns. He speaks all of our minds as he outrightly claims that 2022 “sounds like a made-up year” that many science fiction movies used to allude to in the past. While the dystopian representation so brought up by those movies isn’t too far from reality, it’s absurd actually to live through it as our present.
The absurdity that was birthed with the outbreak of COVID-19 was not merely restricted to the physical confines of our homes, it went straight to our heads. Patton Oswalt draws up a parallel between robots and human beings, wherein the former are sending TikToks to us from Mars, while the latter are on Earth and are consumed by the misconception of vaccines being injected with poison.
He lists down a bunch of lockdown flashbacks that transport to the same time period. The mirroring habits exhibited by him are a reminder that while most of us might have felt lonesome during that time, we all shared the same thoughts at some point. Starting off with a positive and wholesome attitude, we all believed that we would have ourselves and hones our potential and passions on being cooped up in one place. However, the colourful facade was soon broken down in a matter of weeks, and something along the lines of a “wall of pubes” was revealed, as Oswalt calls it.
And just like that, he bares the real and straightforward truth of all of our lockdown procrastination and failures as a collaborative feat. The discussion of the aforementioned, however, is extended beyond a point that isn’t necessary but the same-minded live audience seemed to have been enjoying themselves through it.
Patton Oswalt engages in dialogue with the audience present around their respective professions. Once again, this too spans for a duration bit longer than is required. While he does so by setting the people up as superhero team-ups (or in some cases, he does not), it also ends up alienating the rest who are not sitting in the front seat. Viewers who may be watching this particular bit on their screens may feel even more dissociated than the ones present.
Thereafter, he comes to his “woke” chapter and entails how his present progressive acceptance of everything may eventually be rendered limiting in the near future. All the points he makes while addressing this issue are more than valid, especially in our absurdist world where tokenistic appreciations and inclusivity are making their way in. You never know when your current appreciation of things may blow up in your face some years down the lane when other aspects may be validated a bit more than our own existence.
Patton Oswalt: We All Scream: Worth the Watch?
Watching this comedy special will make you relive the lockdown period, but not in the same painful way. Patton Oswalt’s address to this global experience puts all its downtrodden sadness aside and humorously takes up selective bits of it that are relatable for almost everyone. It’s not so much a dismissive attempt to erase all the setbacks of our society that were revealed during this period as much as it is about uplifting us all from a dreadful time in our lives.
However, the way he weaves all the instances together as a whole is a bit puzzling. The discontinuities in his narration are ample and don’t make up a sound storytelling technique. Keeping that aside, it’s an endurable comical account that is probably, and strictly, a one-time watch for many.
Patton Oswalt: We All Scream is now streaming on Netflix.
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