Saturday Night Live goes out like a punk

Oh sigh. Saturday Night Live, even with Alec Baldwin hosting, you sure did stink this weekend. What the hell happened? Just last week, your Betty White episode was pretty swell. It wasn't perfect, but for this season, it was pretty damn good.

But Saturday's episode? What a god damn train wreck. By my count, there were three funny moments - Meyers' jokes during Weekend Update, the appearance of Stefan in Update, and Baldwin as an abusive swim coach. None of these were original features, and only one used the considerable talents of Baldwin, who seemed on autopilot the majority of the night.

Dear Saturday Night Live, PLEASE stop making Kristen Wiig play some awkward, horrible shrew in every god damn sketch. If you don't have faith in Jenny Slate or Abby Elliott to do anything, then please, just do all-male sketches or something. Heck, you haven't even done "What's up with that?" lately, which is normally a guaranteed way to kill six to eight minutes.

Grade: D

TV Review: The Marriage Ref needs some tweaks

Danielle and her greasy husband argue their cases,
while The Fonz looks on in the background.

I have no idea how much Jerry Seinfeld has to do with The Marriage Ref, but the show would really benefit if it had a stronger editor. The show is constantly being billed as by him, and his idea, kind of, but it desperately needs to edit itself in several areas.

The premise is explained in an incredibly cheesy animated monologue, which is narrated by Seinfeld. He and his wife were having an argument, and he thought, "Hey, if only there was someone who could settle this for us after we each presented our case! And hey, what's the deal with airplane peanuts? And why did I date a 17-year-old when I was in my 30s?"

The animation is symbolic of a common problem with the show. Between that, exaggerated camera shots of people and celebrities laughing, and clearly canned studio audience applause, there is a ton of fluff that could be cut out completely. Host Tom Papa didn't really show me much in the initial episode either, mostly serving as a sort of Tom Bergeron who doesn't detract, as opposed to adding to the episode.

These aspects detract from the best two parts of the show - the couples themselves and the celebrities analyzing them. The first episode featured Danielle, who was not pleased that her husband wanted to keep a stuffed version of his dead dog, The Fonz, in their home. The second couple argued over the installation of a stripper pole in the house. Yes, it seemed a bit like an episode of Maury at times, but in a far classier, less trashier way.

The first episode featured a panel of Seinfeld, Alec Baldwin and Kelly Ripa. While Seinfeld was kind of meh, Baldwin and Ripa were both great, especially Ripa. She has so much sass and spunk, and it comes through tremendously in a show like this. Hopefully, she is on future episodes. Baldwin played his usual, 30 Rock-ish character, which was effective as a counterpoint to Ripa. Natalie Morales was also decent in the "fact checker" role, which will apparently rotate among NBC News / Infotainment staff.

I saw enough good in The Marriage Ref to give it a chance for a couple more episodes. However, without some better editing, I could definitely see it getting stale after a little while.

Grade: B-

TV Review: Thursday night slightly disappointing

The first result for "Thursday Night Lineup".

Normally, I can count on Thursday being my best night of television weekly, since it has an array of shows on. The NBC comedy lineup is quite formidable for a stereotypical 20-something like myself - Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office and 30 Rock. I watch all of them except 30 Rock usually, but I watched even that last night, which was a good thing because the other three shows were disappointing. A mini-review on each, with the warning that HUGE SPOILERS for all the shows lie ahead:

- The Office "returned" from a longer break than the other shows, and I'm not angling to get on the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotes with that statement. For some reason NBC or the show's producers thought it would be a good idea to come back from a long break with a clip show.

Now, clip shows have a time and a place, but I don't really think they're necessary in a show's sixth season. The Simpsons do them frequently, but they have been on for about 47 years now, and have done everything, as South Park so eloquently noticed at one point. The Office had a major story arc throughout the show's lifespan - the Pam and Jim courtship - surrounded by minor arcs revolving around Michael and (later) the higher up's ineffectiveness. I don't think you need a recap show, unlike, say, Lost, where there are dozens of characters to keep an eye on.

That being said, I found the B-story arc of the episode to be fairly entertaining. A corporate health assessor was trying to scope out the health of the Scranton branch of Dundler-Mifflin, and of course, Michael, Dwight and Andy were playing hijinks on him. Unfortunately though, unless I blinked, I don't even think Jim or Stanley were in the episode.

- Parks and Recreation focused on Leslie's second date and zany dinner party with some lawyer friend of Ann (Rashida Jones). To be honest, I find him impossibly dull. What's up with people who travel to exotic places suddenly being presented as "interesting" people? Traveling to some place awesome does not in turn make you awesome. A mathematical theorem, if you will:

Lame Person + Exotic Location = Lame Person
Fun Person + Exotic Location = Fun Person
Therefore, X Person + Y Location = X Person

Basically, I'm tired of people on television and in my actual life thinking that travel is some magical substitute for a lack of a real personality. Great, you touched a dolphin. Maybe next time Flipper can teach you some god damn tricks.

... But outside of that angle, which dominated the show, Parks and Recreation had some good singular moments. The continued slow-burn on the sexual tension between April and Andy is good, although Andy still seems way too old for her, even if he has the mindset of a kid.

- Community was also somewhat disappointing, but maybe it's just because I found last week's episode with Jack Black so awesome. (That's not even counting the Alison Brie cheerleader outfit, which was also so awesome.)

I found the main storyline of the episode, which was Jeff's relationship slash non-relationship with a faculty member, kind of flat. Yes, I realize they kind of hooked up around Halloween time, but she has been completely absent from recent episodes. So now, I'm just supposed to accept her on my screen, making out with Joel McHale? I say nay! Luckily, other portions of the episode were humorous, and as always, the last bit with Troy, Ahbed and Jeff delivered.

- Surprisingly, I found 30 Rock to be the highlight of the whole comedy block, even though I'm not a regular viewer. Everyone keeps telling me to get into it, but I missed the initial episodes, and I hate jumping into shows half-way through seasons.

If last night's episode is any indication of the regular quality though, I think I'll have to take the plunge. Liz Lemon (Tina Fey, looking as foxy as always) wanted to transplant the show to a sunny locale. She convinced her boss, Alec Baldwin (looking as foxy as always), to do so, but he changed her idea from Miami Beach to... Boston!

I like Boston, so I thought that was a bit of an improvement, as opposed to being in the bizarre crime capital of the world. In Boston, the gang got into plenty of trouble, especially Tracy Morgan, who was harassing historical reenactment guys on the street. Good times! I heart Tracy Morgan.

All of the pictures are on the first Google Images page of results for their respective show's search term. The picture at the top is from here. 30 Rock is from here. The Office is from here. Community is from here. And Parks and Recreation is from here.