With My Next Guest, it's hard to shake the feeling that we're seeing more of the "real" Letterman than we did in decades of broadcast TV.

My Next Guest is an ingenious way for him to get back to work, with no pressure to entertain and no pretense of starting a new career. And with its ornery edge, it definitely feels like vintage Dave.

Many of us know Letterman to be an intelligent man with views and opinions, but rarely, if ever, has he allowed himself to be so vulnerable, so open without the expectation of a laugh in return.

Letterman appears to be resting easier as well, and perhaps that will yield more resonant material-and deeper interviews.

Letterman interview show light on humor, heavy on insight.

You might expect comedy from a comedy master, but don't: My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman has more on its mind.

It's thoughtful, funny, and moving, but more than anything else, it is proof that David Letterman still has something to say.

If this show continues to live in that gray area, it'll keep what makes it worth watching. It may not be a hit, but it'll still be a distinct pleasure to have it.

My Next Guest could just be a retirement project, but there are so many conversations we need to have. We should pay more attention to people who never bothered learning how to express something complicated in the length of a tweet.

There's a moment at the end of David Letterman's interview with Barack Obama that brings the entire preceding hour - a rambling, enjoyable, strange piece of television - into focus.

Whatever happens, it'll be a pleasure just to keep hearing the voice one of TV's all-time greats, as he tries to figure out the best way to use it. Welcome back, Dave.

Here, in this self-created semi-retirement, Letterman has carved out a space where he can still affect that same detachment. Only now he gets to dictate the terms of what he's detaching himself from.

With so many podcasts and talk shows out there, it's hard to make a case for another interview shows, but then again, the draw with "My Next Guest" is not that they are interviews, but that Letterman and his individual subjects will nab viewers.

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction is pleasant, entertaining, occasionally moving, a little funny, and almost indistinguishable from a standard late-night interview, just stretched out.

It will be worth sticking around to find out how Letterman relates to his upcoming subjects...