Hormonal Beast

Lynne Koplitz spends her first solo Netflix hour acting like the unfiltered aunt who corners you at a holiday dinner to explain why she never had kids. Performing at The Kaye Playhouse in New York City, Koplitz centers her set on a blunt defense of women’s moods, arguing that women are not crazy, just intensely hormonal. To prove her point, she details the horror of puberty, noting how differently men would behave if they discovered at thirteen that a human being could grow inside them. She also charts the other end of the timeline, explaining her mother’s menopausal meltdown over a platter of cold cuts in 1985.\n\nThe premise that men are simple creatures who require nothing but sex, food, and silence is well-trodden ground, but Koplitz’s stage presence makes the familiar territory work. Having spent over a decade as a protege of Joan Rivers (to whom this hour is dedicated), she possesses the stage command of a seasoned New York club veteran. She keeps the set highly conversational, pivoting easily from basic relationship tropes into surprisingly dark jokes, including an outlandish bit about her niece. Released in 2017 after Koplitz spent years opening on the road for Chris Rock, the special drew mixed reviews for its reliance on gender-essentialist setups, though her blunt, conversational delivery kept the crowd on her side.