Sunday, May 16, 2010

SNL In Review

Yet another painful night watching Saturday Night Live.  It had a few good moments--one of the better digital shorts in recent weeks about a coked up businessman singing and dancing in the streets, Update, and the opening with the reps of the oil CEO's about the Gulf spill. 

But once again, too many sketches were focused on one joke and on one-note characters.  It is not about the talent of the players, which is fine, but the imagination of the writers, which is not.  This season proved that Kristian Wiig is only funny if given good material.  And she mostly lacked it, as the show relied on characters rather than on humor.

I should have posted my idea for this week's show before hand: have Alec Baldwin play his 30 Rock character named Jack but put that character on Lost.  The show used to have a sense of the pop cultural landscape (Mr. Robinson's neighborhood, anyone?).  Why not spent a moment on one of the biggest TV events of the month?  Remember the glorious Harry Potter sketch with Lindsay Lohan as a well-developed Hermione?  That was just funny for all, even in retrospect with LL's rapid decline.  They could have taken the comic book movie stuff to an illogical extension, but no, movies are not fair game either. Even the Betty White show fell short of potential by relying on old sketches/characters. 

I guess the show will need more Timberlake and Swift, and I would never have imagined saying that a couple of years ago.

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