Amy Schumer seems to be managing fan expectations with her Growing Netflix standup special

Newsday

"Amy does as Amy is, and what’s she’s done in the intervening years is get married and get pregnant," says Verne Gay. "Per Growing, both have been fulfilling and complicated. As intended, they also lend extra meaning to the title. She's grown since 2017, and that's complicated, too. In fact, Growing feels a little like a show that's been engineered to manage fan expectations, or literally stage-manage them, as if to say, this is the new Amy Schumer who's a lot like the old Amy Schumer but new nonetheless. Approaching 40 (she's 37) and motherhood, some evolution is expected and probably necessary. But the transition can't be easy — especially for Schumer."

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• The insights Amy Schumer offers don’t feel new, and some of them are downright exhausted
• Schumer finally, consciously evolves: Growing marks the point where she's been under fame’s magnifying glass long enough to have undergone real change
• Growing signals a shift from the more bawdy, single-gal humor of Schumer’s earlier specials
• Schumer also joins a growing trend of women in comedy embracing their pregnancies on stage