If there’s one thing I strive to do here, it’s to think way too much about everything Aaron Sorkin does. I’ve been thinking about this column all day, and I still have no idea what’s going on. I guess he makes some good points? Someone, please help me. Is this weird? Is it fine? Does it upset me only because I’m still hung up on the glorious failure of Studio 60? What would four-years-ago me have thought? Is it fan fiction if the character’s yours? Does it matter? Really, does any of it matter? Was Martin Sheen full of shit or what when he said last night that the West Wing was non-partisan?
A common charge against Saturday Night Live is that its sketches go on too long, and that could certainly be selectively leveled against the James Franco episode. A mildly amusing (if deeply obvious) riff about “Agent 420″ seemed to go on forever, with two separate, elaborate sets employed for James Franco’s tuxedoed stoner. Occasionally, this level of detail is sort of funny in and of itself, but about eighty percent of the time, sketches with the most elaborate sketches are also the clunkiest of the night, which makes all of the effort even more dissonant.
But in recent years, for every overlong, overdesigned sketch, the show has been adept at bringing out several snappier, sillier bits. This week’s OJ Simpson jury-selection sketch could’ve been overlong and repetitive, but each juror’s bit cycled through within about thirty seconds:
The final sketch, with Willem Dafoe (Bill Hader) trying to goad Franco into killing Any Samberg, Green Goblin-style, was a perfectly executed throwaway, spoofing a familiar pop-culture moment without, you know, just plugging in a recurring character or something. In a similar vein, I enjoyed the goofiness of “The Looker,” which plugged Fred Armisen’s heretofore unknown talent for imitating Penny Marshall into a parody of The Closer. Even a relatively uninspired digital short, “Murray Hill,” was notable for its pitch-perfect approximation of bad teen-show dialogue in the first few minutes. As with “Space Olympics,” the Lonely Island crew really knows how to set up a gag even (or especially) if takes some extra time; in “Murray Hill,” that set-up was a lot funnier than the simplistic payoff.
So the show continues to excel at short-form, culture-based absurdities. But no one much talks about those bits; everyone (by which I mean the young, hip minority of viewers who create the illusion of the show’s main target audience) just wants to see the political stuff on blogs. In that area, the episode fell perversely short. As usual, the cold open was a political spoof, an amusing-enough bit with John McCain (Darrell Hammond) approving various slimy campaign ads aided by the most sarcastic political voiceover guy in the business (Bill Hader, naturally, who probably could’ve had an actual career as a voiceover artist). But that was it as far as sketches went, until that interminable New York Times sketch about effete Manhattan-dwellers who know nothing of Alaska. Will Forte’s polar-bear-related contributions made me chuckle, but the endlessly repeated central joke felt more like a sop to anyone who might’ve complained about the show’s relentless mockery of Sarah Palin last week (did anyone actually complain about this? Sub-question: why should we care if anyone did?). There must be funnier ways to rib the left — or even New York journalists, for that matter.
The writers still seem to be doling out political material at a deliberate pace — one to two sketches per week. I’m assuming this is due to the atypically grueling schedule that’s only just begun: four shows in a row, a week off, followed by another three in a row (typically the show does two in a row most months, and three in a row during sweeps), with several prime-time specials on Thursday nights throughout October; in short, there’s still plenty of airtime left. Even so, the paucity of election material so far is a little bizarre; the idea behind this SNL saturation was to get in as much material as possible before (a.) the election and/or (b.) Amy Poehler gives birth and leaves the show — which, judging by the end-of-show goodnights, should be sometime in the next fifteen to twenty minutes.
As far as the weekly variables, Franco was a serviceable host, though his cue-card-reading was at times approached Christopher Walken levels. Oh, and Kings of Leon were okay. I realized last week that I never commented on Lil Wayne, who was a bit better than I had assumed he’d be based entirely on his scary, scary appearance, and still kinda sounded a lot like everyone in his genre. Anyway, I’ll attempt to offer my amateur opinion on the musical guest from now on, because they’re often overlooked. From the outset, it looks like Season 34 probably can’t out-indie Season 33, where the strike-curtailed season resulted in a crazy percentage of the musical guests with some kind of indie cred (Feist, Spoon, Wilco, Vampire Weekend, Gnarls Barkley). But let’s all cross our fingers for a Jenny Lewis booking before 2008 is out.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s award presentation — rescuing the evening from the DISASTROUS opening. (Get it before it’s taken down). And, of course, 30 Rock’s domination (season two DVD out Oct. 7!).
Glenn Close pulling off (what appeared to be) a minor upset in the dramatic actress category.
Jimmy Kimmel (who looked like hell, by the way) making all the hosts wait until after the commercial break to learn who won the reality host Emmy.
Lee Pace: walking around, being adorable (bear witness on Hulu — sorry international folks).
Kathy Griffin and a surprisingly lucid Don Rickles.
Bottom Five:
Howie Mandel’s manically unfunny delivery coupled with the smarminess of Ryan Seacrest plus Jeff Probst’s patronizing control issues. (Leaving Heidi to be silent, odd and German and Tom Bergeron to quietly suffer)
Ten thousand mini-series, made-for-TV movie categories.
Jeremy Piven winning, yet again, for playing himself. Full post on Entourage TK.
Michael C. Hall: Always the bridesmaid.
My continued disinterest in starting to watch Mad Men. Aside from gawking at that main guy, who is quite dreamy.
Below, find a ridiculous promo for the new season of Heroes. Disregard the theatrics of the voice-over and you’ll get a good brush-up on how they left things on last season’s finale. Remember? The one where basically everyone had a life-or-death cliffhanger?
I’m curious to see if the ratings for this season tank, since everyone’s out of the habit of watching it (or even thinking about it for that matter).
I can’t believe Stephen Colbert hasn’t weighed in on this terribly important, patriotic example of awesomeness yet.
Maybe the bear is bothering him.
Related: The New York Times knows what’s up. If Disney is smart they will relaunch The Muppet Show, because the world needs the Muppets more than ever.
Anonymous, the group behind both the Scientology protests and hacking into Sarah Palin’s e-mail, tricked Oprah into thinking they had “nine thousand penises raping children” [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/E7mn4mo-QYE" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Viral video or someone doing the world a favor: Kitt being stolen in Toronto [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/O0479iODc7M" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Buzz wondered which TV shows made you feel the most emotionally attached. (BuzzSugar)
Marcia was thrilled to introduce a Pop Vultures spin-off site, The Spelling Bee, which is dedicated to the best of guilty pleasure TV. (Pop Vultures)
After the fourth season finale of Weeds, Rae shares why she’s not one of the ones praising it. (RTVW)
Check out the sounds that will be your soundtrack as the leaves fall, hooray Snow Patrol, or possibly make you stick a pencil in your ear, i.e. another Britney Spears comeback. (Scooter McGavin’s 9th Green)
Vance makes a few casting suggestions for “Ryan” on Brothers & Sisters and has a slew of promotional and sneak peak photos from the new season. (Tapeworthy)
This week, Jace took an advance look at the first three episodes of Season Two of NBC’s action comedy Chuck and loved every single second. (Televisionary)
Get it in gear LC, Spencer, Audrina and the rest of you guys on The Hills. At some point you’re going to have to admit that you’re on television for a living. No one is fooled. (TiFaux)
The TV Addict offers up five easy steps to fix SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (The TV Addict)
Kate watched this week’s episode of Gossip Girl with a drink and a candle. (TV Filter)
