Whereas Mr. Chappelle escapes tricky territory through sweeping history lessons or literary flourishes, Mr. Rock builds forceful arguments that culminate in precise and memorable epigrams. “Pressure makes diamonds, not hugs” is the pithiest defense of bullying you will hear.

Mr. Rock’s booming act has always been built for bigger rooms, but he goes smaller for this special, with the help of the comic Bo Burnham, whose artfully idiosyncratic direction emphasizes intimacy and studiously avoids cliché. The show begins with a casual shot of the back of Mr. Rock’s head while he is chatting backstage and ends abruptly. When the star drops the microphone, Mr. Burnham fades to black before we hear the familiar sound of it hitting the floor. Crisp images of the front row of the theater, juxtaposed with smoky backdrops and ghostly lighting, make the audience appear on the same level as the performer, creating unusually striking images for stand-up comedy.

In filming just the first joke — “You would think that cops would occasionally shoot a white kid, just to make it look good” — Mr. Burnham shifts angles four times, but he also knows when to stop moving the camera. As Mr. Rock confesses he cheated on his wife, he goes in for the close-up and lingers.

This risks heavy-handedness but displays a perceptive eye for the importance of a pivot point where the star could lose his audience. Kevin Hart, who recently confessed to cheating on his wife before announcing a tour called “Irresponsible,” might face a similar onstage moment soon.

When I saw Mr. Rock play Madison Square Garden in December, he took a few glancing shots at Matt Lauer, the “Today” host who was fired over allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior, but the comic mostly avoided #MeToo as he does in the new special. Though Mr. Rock evoked the movement at one point by shifting from his mistakes with his wife to a broader question: “What is wrong with men?”

Over the course of his career, mixing the voice of a preacher with that of a litigator, Mr. Rock has built up an authority skewering the foibles of the world while keeping his own offstage. This special represents a shift in that dynamic. In describing his flaws, Mr. Rock says he was hooked on pornography. There is a lot of comedy about pornography, but to hear a superstar break down how watching it made him “sexually autistic” is bracing, and may even provide grist to certain warnings against online porn.