Ellen DeGeneres: Relatable

Relatable fulfills a number of missions within its hour-plus running time. It is smart, genuinely funny and true to the comedian’s brand, and it reminds us that DeGeneres, the daytime figure synonymous with kindness and incredible gift-giveaways, also is entitled to her darkness.

Relatable, but especially enjoyable.

Not all of Ellen DeGeneres: Relatable is that sharp, carefully crafted, or, frankly, as interesting [as her opening gambit]. As she moves into the middle of the hour, DeGeneres uses a few bits that feel directly imported from a monologue on Ellen. ... The sharpest, most deeply felt material comes when DeGeneres instead grapples with her feelings about her celebrity status, and the simultaneous gift and burden of her role as a daytime talk show host.

As refreshing as it is to hear DeGeneres open up in a more nakedly honest way than we are used to seeing, she’s at her purest comedically in the special when she returns to the type of observational humor that made her famous in the first place.