Look at You

Taylor Tomlinson uses her second Netflix hour to speak frankly about her mental health, a topic she approaches with the timing of a seasoned theater comic rather than a confessional oversharer. The hook of the performance is her revelation that she has bipolar disorder, a diagnosis she says she reverse-engineered by googling her prescriptions. To explain life on medication, she introduces an analogy comparing psychotropic drugs to arm floaties, arguing that while they might look silly, they stop you from jumping into the deep end of the public pool and making your inability to swim everyone else’s problem.

Filmed at the historic Wilbur Theatre in Boston, the special caught Tomlinson at a pivotal career moment. Her 2020 debut, “Quarter-Life Crisis,” had turned her into a major pandemic-era breakout, and this follow-up solidified her reputation as one of her generation’s most polished writers. Where her previous hour relied on the frantic energy of a young comic trying to prove herself, this show features deliberate, dramatic pauses that allow her darker punches to register with maximum weight.

Beyond medication, Tomlinson discusses self-sabotage, which she illustrates by explaining how she ghosted her therapist, and the lingering grief of losing her mother to cancer at age eight. The set is bookended by a bit about getting panic bangs during a depressive episode, a desperate bid for attention that she compares to doing mushrooms for the first time. Her ability to control a room while detailing her worst panic attacks cemented her status as a major touring headliner.