These days, the label of “dark comedy” often, and unfortunately, gets conflated with being an “edgelord”, a comedian wheeling and dealing in verbal schadenfreude, or someone mistaking the defense of free speech with ignoring the fact words can have consequences (and that’s almost never an infringement on their rights).

Any fan of Marc Maron can probably quote word-for-word their favorite bit or their favorite episode of WTF and illustrate that there is another side of the dark comedy spectrum that is dark simply because that’s the genuine, vulnerable reality that it explores (and often makes for some of the most hilarious, human jokes that reminds us that we’re not alone). Maron has operated in such a space for years, but he really puts this notion on display in his latest hour, the HBO special From Bleak to Dark.

Spanning from the very untimely and tragic death of his girlfriend, celebrated filmmaker Lynn Shelton, to more global concerns of the world more transparently falling into entropy, Maron paints his bits delicately with a muted, but sharply nuanced palate.

He’ll dream up faux solo shows that highlight the disturbing future ahead instead of just making the observation of not knowing what to do according to the climate-change-action-gospel of Greta Thunberg or do an extended act out that acutely illustrates the problem with The Joe Rogan Experience and its legion of listeners rather than roasting Joe in a more traditional fashion. Rather than just simply describing what’s wrong with the world in a Seinfeld-ian mode of “What’s the deal with…?” or decrying these times in his advanced age with “Back in my day…”, Maron jovially revels in the existential nature of the present. “I don’t want to be negative, but I don’t think anything is going to get better ever again,” is how From Bleak to Dark opens and, in these times, that feels almost a comforting thing to hear in that we’re not alone in this feeling that lives somewhere in the title of the special.

There are several heavy passages/set-ups that really come from Maron’s penchant for being as vulnerable as he can be, even exploring the idea of him even being able to be funny after Shelton’s passing. The payoffs are all worth it as you can see here in Maron’s story of his first joke he came up while grieving Lynn’s death. It’s a beautifully sad story with a great punchline, which, arguably, could be a tagline for life itself (at least in Maron’s darkly humorous vision of it).

When watching this hour, one might take note of the gorgeous multi-colored cloud filled backdrop, very atypical of a stand-up comedy special from any era. Director Steven Feinartz told us that the backdrop was actually inspired by a conversation between Lynn and Marc about their love of Pacific Northwestern sky. The sheer contrast of Marc’s post-modern gallows humor (ex. his insistence about someone having a tight 5 in a place such as Auschwitz) and the billowy flourishes of color is emblematic of finding the humor in the darkness and, in a more zoomed out perspective, the joy when there seems to be nothing else but despair.

Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark is streaming now on HBO Max.