This review was originally posted on Starpulse in April 2015.
“Community” does not usually take too much inspiration from real world headlines in the vein of a “Law & Order”-style procedural. It instead tends to ape and play around with pop culture. But recent hacking scandals have converged with media such that for “Community” it is right at home, almost a little too close to home. This is a show produced by Sony, the victim of one of the largest-scale hacks ever. A community college does not have the same reach as a worldwide media conglomerate, but it still has a significant virtual ecosystem that can be exploited, and so it was with Greendale.
I saw this video on mtvU the other day. This band is not necessarily usually my sort of thing. It features visuals that remind me of the True Detective opening credits.
SNL: Kenan Thompson, Taraji P. Henson, Mumford & Sons (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot)
This review was originally posted on Starpulse in April 2015.
With her breakout role as Cookie on “Empire,” Taraji P. Henson has been showcasing her commitment, confidence, and charisma to her biggest audience yet. These are the qualities that great “SNL” hosts are made of, and in her first appearance at Studio 8H, she had to show them off, both because she was given plenty of roles that required a strong presence and because many of the sketches were running low on premise and thus necessitated strong performances across the board.
Hillary Clinton (BEST OF THE NIGHT) – It has been a delight watching Kate McKinnon develop her Hillary Clinton impression from “promising” to “ready for the big leagues.” With the real Clinton finally on the verge of announcing her long-presumed 2016 presidential candidacy, her current “SNL” counterpart has made it clear that she will be as much a force to be reckoned with as Ana Gasteyer and Amy Poehler were before her. This edition wisely went with a domestic setting, as this is a public figure we all know so well that a glimpse into her private sphere is in no way jarring. Darrell Hammond’s cameo felt a little dated, as there is not as much of a sense of Bill butting in on his wife’s moment as there used to be, but it did effectively inform McKinnon’s wound-up performance. B+
In this feature, I look back at each day of the past week and determine what shows “won TV” for the night. That is, I consider every episode of television I watched that aired on a particular day and declare which was the best.
Sunday – Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, proving quite the point
Monday – Better Call Saul
Tuesday – Justified
Wednesday – The Middle
Thursday – Louie
Friday – A: This show was just as delightful as Jeopardy! on Friday, April 10. Q: What is Childrens Hospital?
Saturday – The Hillary cold open on SNL.
Each week, I check out VH1′s Top 20 countdown, and then I rearrange the songs based on my estimation of their quality.
Original Version
1. Ellie Goulding – “Love Me Like You Do”
2. Maroon 5 – “Sugar”
3. Taylor Swift – “Style”
4. Calvin Harris ft. Ellie Goulding – “Outside”
5. Nick Jonas – “Chains”
6. Rihanna and Kanye West and Paul McCartney – “FourFiveSeconds”
7. Tori Kelly – “Nobody Love”
8. Zedd ft. Selena Gomez – “I Want You to Know”
9. Tove Lo – “Talking Body”
10. Pitbull & Ne-Yo – “Time of Our Lives”
11. Kelly Clarkson – “Heartbeat Song”
12. Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud”
13. Sam Smith – “Lay Me Down”
14. Jason Derulo – “Want to Want Me”
15. Walk the Moon – “Shut Up and Dance”
16. Echosmith – “Bright”
17. George Ezra – “Budapest”
18. Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk”
19. Imagine Dragons – “I Bet My Life”
20. Andy Grammer – “Honey, I’m Good.”
Jmunney’s Revision
1. Style
2. Outside
3. Talking Body
4. I Want You to Know
5. Nobody Love
6. Chains
7. Want to Want Me
8. FourFiveSeconds
9. Shut Up and Dance
10. Love Me Like You Do
11. Lay Me Down
12. I Bet My Life
13. Budapest
14. Time of Our Lives
15. Uptown Funk
16. Sugar
17. Heartbeat Song
18. Honey, I’m Good.
19. Thinking Out Loud
20. Bright
Community, “Laws of Robotics and Party Rights” (CREDIT: Yahoo! Screen)
This review was originally posted on Starpulse in April 2015.
Jeff Winger has mostly accepted that he has a big heart, and he has made peace with the fact that he is at Greendale indefinitely. But there is a difference between accepting your station and actually doing the work of getting through that station. Jeff may have learned to open his heart up just a little bit during his time at school, but when it comes to work, he still prefers going to great lengths to take the easy way out. It would take something unusual to knock him out of this routine. A convict attending his Law class via telepresence robot proved to be just the right unexpected development to touch several of his nerves and really set him off.
In this feature, I look back at each day of the past week and determine what shows “won TV” for the night. That is, I consider every episode of television I watched that aired on a particular day and declare which was the best.
Sunday – Going Clear
Monday – Better Call Saul
Tuesday – The Flash
Wednesday – The Middle/The Goldbergs
Thursday – Archer
Friday – Comedy Bang! Bang!
Saturday – Houston, we have a boner on SNL.
SNL: Carly Rae Jepsen, Michael Keaton (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot)
This review was originally posted on Starpulse in April 2015.
Michael Keaton’s innate charm was on full display during this past awards season. That was not as present in his third “SNL” hosting stint (and first in over 20 years). Instead, he reminded viewers of his dark side. While he never actually suited up as Batman or Beetlejuice during the episode, his roles did seem to be inspired by that portion of his career. The result was a surplus of oddly severe sketches, some of which were praiseworthy in their boldness, but others which were cringeworthy in their difficulty to watch.
Final Four Postgame – “SNL” was operating right down to the wire here, as the Wisconsin-Kentucky game ended only about 15 minutes before the start of the show. That was no big deal, as the actual result did not heavily factor into this sketch, though there could have been a problem if the game had gone into overtime and lasted past 11:30. Anyway, this sketch was really about the eternal conflict between the two sides of the student-athlete identity. The alternate reality presented here – in which a star player like Duke’s Jahlil Okafor would miss the championship because of a biology test – was appreciably silly, but also way too obvious. This would have been much more reliable if it had just focused on the announcing crew. It would have been inconsequential, sure, but the latest gambling misadventures of Kenan’s Charles Barkley (now he’s got to eat a basketball) have more energy than a crack about Coach K’s $10 million salary. C+
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