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Who Is Martin Mull?
A warm, unhurried tribute to a comedian who was also a painter. Critics praise its tenderness and the room it gives Mull's art, and the film turns out to be as much about grief and mortality as about the laughs.
Bob Saget started it and Neil Berkeley finished it, so it carries a sense of loss. It is no exhaustive biography, but if you want a portrait of Martin Mull rather than a filmography, Who Is Martin Mull? is among the better things Netflix has put out this autumn.
Dir. Neil Berkeley, Bob Saget · 2026 · 94 min · on Netflix
The setup
Martin Mull spent half a century being funny in other people's projects. He was Garth Gimble on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and that role led to its satirical talk-show spin-off Fernwood 2 Night. He was Colonel Mustard in Clue, and a familiar face in Roseanne and Arrested Development. Before that he was a satirical songwriter who performed among thrift-store furniture, and all along he was a trained painter. He died in June 2024, aged 80.
This documentary asks the question in its title. Bob Saget, his friend, started it and directed much of it; Saget died in 2022, and Neil Berkeley finished the film. It is built from interviews with Mull himself and with the people who knew him, among them Steve Martin, Tom Waits, Patton Oswalt and David Alan Grier, plus Mull's family. The film arrived on Netflix on 7 October 2026.
What works
Reviewers agree on the main thing: this is a tribute with feeling in it. Brian Tallerico at RogerEbert.com gives it three and a half stars out of four, and What's on Netflix's Rendy Jones goes to four out of five. Others are warm too: the Wall Street Journal calls it "somber but affectionate", and Decider says it gives viewers a better understanding of Mull.
"a tender, personal examination of a career shot through with poignancy"
Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
The most interesting argument comes from Defector, whose reviewer reads the film as a quiet subversion of the usual showbiz documentary. It begins in familiar territory, with archive clips and old friends telling stories, and then turns toward painting, sobriety and what a long life leaves behind. Painting matters here: Mull trained at the Rhode Island School of Design and had his first serious solo show in 1980, and reviews say the film gives his art real room alongside the comedy. Reviews also describe a late shift into a meditation on mortality, helped by how many of the people in the film are no longer alive.
What doesn't
The complaints are small. The sharpest is about a cameo: Jones is annoyed by a Netflix executive appearing among the interviewees and writes that no Netflix documentary needs one. If you want an exhaustive filmography, a straight chronology or hard-edged biography, the reviews suggest this is not that film; it chooses affection over investigation.
Who it's for
Fans of Mull's TV work will get the most out of it, but the reviews say it also works for people who know him only from one or two roles. It runs about an hour and a half and carries a TV-MA rating. Try the checklist below to see whether it is tonight's film.
Where to watch
Netflix premiered it on 7 October 2026. Availability varies by country, so check your own Netflix catalogue. Sources used for this reading: RogerEbert.com, What's on Netflix, Defector, plus the review round-up at Rotten Tomatoes for the Wall Street Journal and Decider, and Wikipedia for Mull's career.