REVIEW: John Mulaney opens a vein and shares a brutal story in ‘Baby J’

Johnny, we hardly knew ye.

The John Mulaney who takes center stage in “Baby J” still brings the snark. But he also opens a vein.

In this, his first post-rehab Netflix special, the former “Saturday Night Live” writer bluntly tells about the celebrity intervention, the manic quest for drugs and the depths to which he sunk before the kill-or-cure moves he made.

It’s a funny special, but it’s also a brutally honest one. In order to get money to buy drugs, he charges a Rolex, then races to sell it for half what he paid. He gets in trouble for ordering food from Outback and doesn’t skimp on talking about his cocaine habit. (Think twice the next time you change a baby in a restroom.)

Mulaney still has that deliberate delivery and bounce in his step. Now, though, you understand why he seemed so wired in past outings.

Unlike others, he isn’t begging for forgiveness or looking for sympathy. He’s simply telling his story (with great style) and hoping the dust will settle. Of all his specials, this one doesn’t seem eager to please. It is what it is. And that’s what makes “Baby J” so fascinating. If you’ve followed his career in the past, you know he was always the smartest voice in the room. Other comedians may have had clever lines and well-told stories but he knew how to one-up all of them. Now, he’s not trying to make sense of his situation. Like an attorney, he puts it out there and hopes the jury decides in his favor.

Like Bo Burnham, who made the best COVID-era comedy special, he has his own bar of excellence. At times, you can sense he’s touching it.

Taped in Boston, “Baby J” goes back to those early days and includes a story about a brush with the law. Remarkably, two of his friends were also named John. When the officer got to him, he knew he couldn’t say his name was “John,” so he opted for “Baby J” and a persona was born.

While Mulaney always stood out in a comic crowd (he got airplay on “SNL’s” “Weekend Update”), he came across as someone who – if he did drugs – had addiction in check.

As “Baby J” reveals, he didn’t. The 40-year-old details just how bad it was and how skilled he was at hiding it.

When those boldface friends moved in for the intervention (on Zoom and in person), he was still working the room. Thanks to the cocaine habit, he was thinner than his COVID-heavy friends. And with a new “SNL” haircut, he figured he looked better than any of them.

To get prescription drugs, he consulted a list of worst doctors and contacted the worst of them, figuring he’d be compliant. Sure enough, Mulaney managed to get what he wanted. But he also – thanks to those friends – managed to get out.

Laughs abound in the special, particularly when he details that precocious pre-teen John who grew into the smarty others wanted to be around.

When he leans into the world of celebrity, we see how the business may have been a contributing factor to his slide. He does a great bit about Pete Davidson and Al Pacino and comes out of the experience bruised, not beaten.

While “Baby J’s” honesty is admirable, we can only hope it’s lasting. Even in this dark world, John Mulaney’s too good to lose.