Seth Meyers to host the Emmys

In a very unsurprising move, NBC has tapped their Late Night host, Seth Meyers to host the Emmys this year. Unsurprising because for the last three times that NBC has had the ceremony they've chosen their Late Night guy, so I guess it was just Seth's "turn," although I thought they'd go with Jimmy Fallon again. Meyers hasn't had as much success as Fallon since taking over Late Night so this is probably a chance to let him try to boost his ratings in the time slot. I think he's okay, but since he left SNL I have a whole new appreciation for his Weekend Update than I did before. At least he's proven to be a much better interviewer than almost anyone else in late night- if he's smart he'd go full on in that direction and turn his show into complete conversations with people, ala Dick Cavett. The Emmys will air August 25th, on a Monday night for the first time in years.

Here's video from Seth's White House Correspondent's gig a couple years ago- he did a good job there but the whole thing was overshadowed because it was being conducted the night of the raid to get Bin Laden, which Seth bemoaned recently on NPR (facetiously, of course):

REVIEW: "Parks and Recreation" Season 6

Parks and Recreation has remained a consistently funny show long after its counterpart, The Office, stopped being funny at this point in its run. By the time The Office entered its seventh season it had become extremely hit and miss, and the misses were sometimes painful to even get through. But for fans of Parks and Rec, the show is still charming, fun, topical, and sweetly funny, even in the occasional lagging episode, which happens to every long-running network sitcom at some point. 

Creator and showrunner Mike Schur is a writer who still wants to keep moving the ball forward for all of his characters, and the sixth season charged the series onward, with numerous life-changing events for Leslie Knope and the gang at the Parks Department in Pawnee, Indiana. In fact, the show may have suffered a slight lag in mid-season, only to ramp it up hard the last few episodes, culminating in a somewhat stunning cliffhanger that essentially aims to reboot the show for its seventh (and presumably final) season. But we'll get to that in a minute. The first part of the season was dedicated mostly to Leslie's recall election, which frankly felt like a bit of a repeat of her long campaign for office just a year previously. Chris Pratt was also missing for much of the first half of the season due to film commitments, and Andy's absence was explained by a temporary job in London, so things were feeling a bit shaky among the cast, although the core ensemble remained as strong as ever. 

The other main storyline regarding Ann's pregnancy in the first half was necessary to facilitate the exit of Chris and Ann (Rob Lowe and Rashida Jones) mid-season, as they moved away from Pawnee before the birth of their child. I've never felt that Rashida Jones was much of an asset to the show, other than as a sounding board for Leslie, and my prediction that she would not be missed proved correct. Ever since Chris and Ann left I think the show may have even gotten funnier, since Retta's presence was increased as Donna, who does have chemistry with the rest of the cast and seemed to fill Ann's place with perfect ease. Rob Lowe was sometimes funny as Chris, but if his leaving was necessary to get rid of Ann, I say it's perfectly welcome.

Once those two were gone Leslie's big career move was put in motion. After being kicked out of office in the election, she was offered a job at the National Parks Department and pretty quickly found out that she herself was pregnant, and with triplets, no less. The idea of Leslie and Ben with triplets (and seeing Amy Poehler go through a labor episode) was gold, but in the surprising season finale ending, Leslie figures out a way to take the National Parks job while staying in Pawnee, thus reshaping their entire department, and all of a sudden, it's three years later and the office is up and booming big time. That's right, the kids are born and almost three years old, Leslie, Ben and the gang are now busy federal and not local government employees, and it looks to be a revamp of the series heading into its last year.

This is a risky move, to say the least, but Mike Schur feels it opens up a wealth of new material so as not to get repetitive, which was really the only problem starting to threaten the writing this year. Too many appearances by Councilman Jam and Tom's frenemies Jean-Ralphio (who I used to love) and Mona Lisa were starting to feel old, so this move may prove to be for the better. It's a bit reminiscent of when old sitcoms would make drastic location moves, like Laverne and Shirley moving to L.A. or when the Conners won the lottery on Roseanne. And let's face it, this kind of thing can often scream of desperation and usually not work out- but with Parks, it hasn't quite hit the same sort of lull those other shows did, and I'm actually kind of excited to see the brand new environment this dramatic time jump has set up (although I do wonder what this does to all the political and cultural references the show drops- it's always been a show set very much in our current pop cultural world).

And the finale itself was one of the best episodes of the season, even aside from the ending. It did feel a bit like a series finale, with the success of the Pawnee/Eagleton Unity concert, the opening of Tom's restaurant, cameos from several fan favorite recurring characters, and Ron finally revealing Duke Silver to the town publicly. Not to mention the amazing cameo from Michelle Obama, which shocked Leslie into hysterics on her and Ben's brief trip to San Francisco. Parks and Rec ends its sixth season on a high note and leaves us wanting more- which is much more than we have any right to expect from a show that's been on the air for six years now.

Grade: B+

Letterman Passes the Baton

If you want to see what Stephen Colbert is like sans the character he plays, here he is on The Late Show the other night as Dave had him on to chat about the upcoming transition. We've still got a while yet actually, so I'm sure he'll be back between now and then, but for what it's worth, Dave seems genuinely delighted that Colbert is the one taking over. 

RECAP: Mad Men 7x02 "A Day's Work"

Well, it's Valentine's Day, following the typical one month jump (on the show's timeline) between Mad Men episodes, and it's a day of personnel shifts around the office, heartbreaks, frustrations and embarrassment for a lot of folks. We'll start with the best stuff in the episode, which is by far the strained, and by the end of the night what looks to be repaired, relationship between Don and Sally.

After the ambiguous yet possibly understanding final glance shared between the father and daughter at the end of last season's finale, Sally is back in this episode, traveling with her boarding school friends into the city for a funeral. The funeral of her roommate's mother, which the girls seem to be pretty callous and dismissive about, mostly excited to go shopping in New York (Sally even says she'd do anything to get Betty in the ground... you're not alone, Sal). But when they're on the train headed back, Sally realizes she lost her purse and ditches the group, showing up at SC&P looking for Don. She's stunned to find Lou's name on her dad's door and the old man treats her pretty crudely, telling her to go find him at home. When she does, Don comes back to of course immediately lie to her, saying he left the office early because he's feeling sick. Bad move, Don. The familiar feeling of anger and disappointment with her dad's dishonesty sets in, and Sally instantly shuts down. 

But it turns out that Don's been getting at home visits from office Dawn (in between lounging around watching Little Rascals shorts), who he's paying extra to keep him up to date on what's happening in the office, and Dawn manages to call him about Sally's visit right before he takes her back to school. Now Don's angry at Sally for letting him lie to her and the two share a stony drive back to the school, at least for a while, before Don finally confronts her about it, accusing her of acting like Betty (who we still don't see in this episode by the way). That's the wrong thing to say again, and Sally admits she wanted to embarrass him as much as possible by catching him in a lie, also telling him how hard it was to go to his apartment and risk running into Sylvia (who she says makes her want to vomit). Don is somewhat cowed by her honesty and takes a detour, pulling into a diner where he finally attempts to be honest with his kid. He admits to her he lost his job for telling the truth and lets Sally question him about everything, including whether he still loves Megan (he says he does) and why he won't just confess to wanting to stay in New York. This rare and candid talk from him finally breaks down her defenses and she calls her friends to tell them she's with her dad and even laughs at his joke about wanting to skip out on the bill. At the end of the episode when Don drops her off with a note she wishes him a Happy Valentine's Day and tells him she loves him, which he's taken aback by- and that my friends, is the closest you'll ever get to something approaching what could be considered a "heartwarming" Mad Men moment. Kiernan Shipka was as usual, fantastic in this episode, totally holding her own with Jon Hamm, and the Sally/Don bond is quickly becoming the core of the series as it nears the finish line.

In other embarrassing moments, Peggy spends the episode in a bratty state of self-absorption, mistaking the roses on secretary Shirley's desk to be hers from Ted (they couldn't possibly be Shirley's right? Oh wait, oops- they are), and proceeds to spend all day wondering why he sent them, sending him messages that she's over him, blah blah blah. When she finally figures out they're not hers she yells at Shirley and blames her for the whole mess, demanding that Joan remove her from the desk, which coincides with Lou's annoyance at Dawn reporting to the other Don on his time, also demanding that Joan move her around. Joan tries to accommodate them but Cooper objects to having a person "of color" at reception, and all the personnel shifts finally amount to Cutler realizing that even though Joan is by all means an account person now, she's still performing her other job. So he relieves her from it, moving her upstairs to a new office in accounts, and leaving Dawn to be promoted to head of personnel herself. Well, that worked out alright. 

In the accounts department, Pete brings in a new one from California, but the partners shoot it down over a hilariously inept long distance speaker phone conference, with Cutler essentially browbeating Roger into running it by Detroit first. Which of course, Pete strenuously objects to, as that would involve his mortal enemy Bob Benson, even though he denies that's the reason. He's upset by the whole thing and shoots off on one of his classic vents to Ted, who really isn't forthcoming with much sympathy and Pete complains about his being too moral to be stuck with all the time (heh). He then falls into a very self-pitying Pete mood, but is woken up by his realtor girlfriend Ronnie, who tells him she's lost big sales under worse conditions (acts of God, as she puts it), and basically that's just the shitty business they're in. Well, that's good to know, all though I don't think this girl's gonna be around for the long haul, do you?

Other Tidbits:

-Dawn and other secretary Shirley (who's relocated to be Lou's girl at the end of this hour) have private kitchen sessions to bitch about their bosses, and it's noticeable how Dawn puts on a complete other voice when she's talking to the white people in the office. Now I'm wondering which one is the actress in real life.

-Has anyone noticed how insanely short the dresses are this season? There's no way anyone could sit down in those things, but if you've ever seen movies or TV from the late 60's it's eerily accurate, which is nuts.

-No sign of Betty again, which is fine with me (I don't think Matt Weiner is that fond of her either), but Sally's ultra-prominence in this one makes me think she's supplanted Betty's entire character in importance on the show, which is kind of cool. Just think about how tiny she was in the first season and where she is now. It's crazy to think it's been 7 years, but that's what happens with kid actors, although it's a lot more of an asset on a show like this, where Kiernan Shipka's role can actually grow and become of more value as opposed to one like Game of Thrones, where the kids' rapid aging is now becoming a pretty big liability.

TRAILER: "The Normal Heart"

After a couple of promotional teasers, the official trailer for the upcoming HBO movie has been released. It actually looks pretty good, although I'm always skeptical when Ryan Murphy's behind anything. Still, with the all the hype directed towards this project and the actors involved, plus the fact that the Emmys are splitting the combined category of TV Movie/Miniseries back into their own slots again (which practically guarantees this movie a win), I have a feeling this is going to be a big event film for HBO. I'm going to predict right now that Julia Roberts will win an Emmy for her role in this, but Mark Ruffalo looks good too, and he's always a great and underrated addition to any ensemble. It's airing on Sunday May 25th.

TRAILER: "Orange is the New Black" Season 2

Woo hoo! One of my favorite shows of last season is back for another go round, and the trailer is here! Looks just as great as last year and very consistent, at least based on this (despite rumors that the series was one its way to becoming more dramatic). Netflix also made the wise decision to submit the show for Emmy consideration as a comedy at the last minute, which I think gives it a strong chance to take down Modern Family- especially because the buzz will be high during the voting period, with the second season dropping June 6th. Mark your calendars everybody!

TEASER: "Louie" Season 4

Even though I kinda hated Louis C.K.'s last hosting stint on SNL, I couldn't be happier his show's coming back to FX on May 5th after more than a year and a half off the air. I sort of think of Louie as the anti-Girls, that is, another semi-comedic series that's purposefully offbeat and not for everyone, but controlled by its auteur, who, unlike Lena Dunham, knows what he's doing and is actually funny. You never know what you're going to get on any random episode of Louie, but as long as I've watched it, each season's been better and weirder than the last. In a good way. The same goes for this funky and artsy teaser, which couldn't sum up his eclectic series in a more succinct way:

TRAILER: "Rosemary's Baby" (NBC)

NBC's Rosemary's Baby miniseries has been scheduled to air in two parts- May 11th and May 15th, right during sweeps. And yes, that is perfect timing for Mother's Day. Zoe Saldana takes over the role that Mia Farrow immortalized and it looks like maybe Jason Isaacs is the cult leader in this one? I didn't see the Ruth Gordon character anywhere. It's tough to do a remake of such an iconic film, but you never know, maybe they did it right. 

RECAP: Mad Men 7x01 "Time Zones"

Welcome to Mad Men's seventh and final season, everybody. But it's not the time to start mourning yet, because as we know, this year is only giving us 7 episodes of the final 14 episode season, with the remaining half to be shelved and aired next year. Why are they doing this? I really don't know- it seems senseless to me, except that AMC probably wants to hang on to its crown jewel a little bit longer, since with the exception of this and Breaking Bad, the rest of their original programming has not exactly turned the network into the new HBO. But anyway, tonight is the start of a mini-season at least, and things are much the same as ever, with Don still in existential crisis mode as he attempts to work out this new "bi-coastal" relationship with Megan.

A relationship which certainly seems doomed if this hour tonight tells us anything. It's January 1969, Nixon's being inaugurated, and Don is still on paid leave from SC&P, flying to California to spend some quality time with his too hip wife. Megan still seems to be Matt Weiner's darling, but then again, she does represent the younger generation as we first see her picking Don up from the airport in one of those tiny little skirt dresses that were so popular in the late 60's and early 70's. She's getting a pilot on NBC, has a new excitable agent and a remote house in hills. Don isn't used to any of this of course, although he puts on what's (for him) a fairly welcoming attitude, buying her a new TV (which she hates) and making something of an attempt to re-connect with her. Megan is uncomfortable with the distance though, and just when they seem to be settled in, Don has to book it back to New York. While on the plane he meets a passenger woman (Neve Campbell!!!) whose husband died recently and who cozies up to him almost immediately, essentially offering herself as a place holder while he's apart from his wife. For once, Don doesn't go for it, although he wants to, and admits out loud that he's a terrible husband and Megan knows it, wondering how long this arrangement between them will actually last. My guess is conveniently until the end of this half season. What do you guys think? 

Elsewhere in the Mad Men universe, we meet up with Peggy, who's coping with the new advertising boss Lou Avery at the office. The guy's a tool who won't listen to any of her ideas, which is unfortunate because her ideas about a new watch happen to be really good tonight, having come from the newly freelancing Freddy, who we find out later is being paid by Don to sell his ideas back to Peggy ala Cyrano de Bergerac. Yeah, you knew Freddy was not that good. Peggy also runs into Ted, in town briefly to spew some awkward vibes all over the office before jetting back to California, and gets into a fight with the neighbors, who keep bothering her to fix their plumbing (is Peggy the landlord? I didn't quite get why it's her responsibility to fix the building problems all of a sudden). And then there's Joan, tasked with new responsibilities of her own by an overwhelmed and busy (and still eyepatched) Ken, and whose job tonight is to cater to a marketing guy from Butler Footwear. Out of her depth at first, she gets a crash course in marketing from some university professor and manages to convince the guy at the last minute to stick with SC&P, so yay! Go Joan.

A mostly place-setter episode tonight, that sets up all of our characters and shows us parallel final scenes of Don and Peggy (always on similar paths) collapsing in tears in the case of the latter, and sitting out on a freezing balcony in what's perhaps a mental collapse of his own. As always the fashion and aesthetic of Mad Men remains one of my favorite parts of the show, as 1969 should be entering some of the most wacky years in fashion of the 21st century. Bet that's fun for the costume designers. I'll be back next week and for the next 6 weeks for this truncated mini-season, but it's always great to have one of my all time favorite shows back on the air, and after a solid premiere I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next in the lives of our soul-searching, unfulfilled but always fascinating cast of characters.

Other tidbits:

-Roger, Roger, Roger. Our couple of scenes with him show us he's traveling on the fringes of the counterculture now, participating in orgies and god knows what else on a regular basis. His lunch date with his daughter, who wants to forgive him for all of his transgressions (and seems to be on some new age trip of her own) bothers him, but he doesn't look like he's coming out of this wild world anytime soon. 

-Pete's intro tonight was hilarious, as he strolls in to a California diner to meet Don for lunch and greets him with an unctuous smile and big hug, his ensemble complete with plaid pants and a sweater tied around the neck like a sailor. Good old Pete love his new West Coast life and warns Don away from his hottie real estate agent, but Vincent Kartheiser seems to be becoming more and more comic relief on the show, amusingly enough.

-No Betty or Sally tonight, but I'm sure they're saving them for some good stuff later. I'm especially interested in how Sally and Don are getting along these days, after their season ending moment last year seemed to signal a new understanding between them. Then again, you never really know what's actual progress on Mad Men and what's more of a step backwards.

RECAP: SNL 4/12 "Seth Rogen"

Well, as has become routine, welcome to another terrible episode of SNL, concluding what's been a truly dismal past three weeks. I don't think they've had a decent episode since Drake hosted- maybe they ought to get him back quick. Or, you know- fire their entire writing staff. That could only be a plus at this point.

COLD OPEN: A fairly lame opening with the faces of the "new GOP" coming to Coachella to attract young voters. This could have been a LOT funnier if there were any actual pointed punchlines in here, but as it is, it's weak.

MONOLOGUE: This will turn out to be the one bright spot in the episode, as Seth Rogen comes out for his third hosting stint and reads from his diary for his week at SNL. He's interrupted by cameos from Zooey Deschanel, James Franco and Taylor Swift, and even pokes fun at James Franco for his recent mini-scandal trying to pick up a 17-year-old. It's funny, but the rest will be downhill.

JUST SAY NO: Oh, crap. Nasim's horrible, horrible, drug kid sketch is first? That's a bad sign. It's no funnier than it's ever been, although since Nasim's been missing in action practically all season long, I wonder if this is a way of making up for that. A better way would have been to give her something funny to do.

CNN PREGNANCY TEST: Vanessa and Beck in an ad for a pregnancy test that gives news alerts from CNN. The premise that CNN sucks is good, but there's no real jokes in it other than that. 

BIRTHDAY DINNER: An inexplicable Aidy sketch that has her as a woman with broken arms whose boyfriend has to do everything for her at a restaurant. Again, what the hell is funny about Aidy, ever? She's the same in every single thing she does, and she's always dead air on the screen. I'm at a loss as to why she gets so much air time. Who there thinks she's so hysterical? Really, I want names.

MONSTER PALS: A recorded bit about monsters who want to look like humans and one gets surgery to do it. This is a really odd, weird one- not exactly funny, but so weird that you should maybe watch it? I don't know on this one- maybe there's a joke in there that would hit some people's funny bones, but it's too bizarre for me to tell.

BLUE RIVER DOG FOOD: Seth and Cecily in an informercial for dog food, and both start to yell at each other about their last brand. Ok, Seth and Cecily really go for it in this one, and so much so that it proves to me that the cast, as usual, is probably not the problem with most of these skits. The acting's good on this, and the effort is 110% but the laughs and the jokes, just are not there. These horrible writers do their game cast a disservice every week.

WEEKEND UPDATE: A couple of solid jokes this week from the anchors, but Kenan isn't great as David Ortiz explaining his product placement selfie with Obama, and then Vanessa comes on as Jacob, which I could have sworn was a character they retired after Seth Meyers left. Which again, proves to me that the writers are totally bankrupt and can't even afford to retire their (overdone) characters because they've got nothing else to replace them with. Really pathetic, people.

COUSIN STACY: Cecily is a white trash cousin who outs Seth at his engagement party- it's lame and unfunny, what can I say? I've sort of lost all hope at this point in the night.

UNDERCOVER SHARPTON: Another premise that really should have slayed if there were some actual jokes in it. Kenan is Al Sharpton in the 70's during his FBI informant days- now you'd think that'd be ripe for some big laughs, right? Not so much here, and it's really inexcusable.

A VERY SMOKY 4/10: A pre-recorded bit from Kyle about smoking and selling weed, with Seth making his mandatory weed joke as the dealer, but it sucks. I've never found any one of his tapes funny, ever. God, I'm getting angry at this episode.

SPERM WAREHOUSE: Thankfully we're on the last one, and of course it's no better than the rest, as Kenan and Seth advertise that everything's up for grabs in their going out of business sale at the sperm warehouse, which they're turning into a yogurt factory. Blah. 

God, that was torture. Or maybe my tolerance for this is wearing low after so many subpar episodes in a row. I never have high expectations for this show, the most you can hope for is something hitting every once in a while, but man, they're in freefall. I thought the writer's room would improve when Seth Meyers left, but is it possible he was the head writer because everyone else was truly worse than him? Yikes. Get rid of everybody, Lorne. Andrew Garfield is hosting on May 3rd, but right now I'm just hoping to get through the rest of the season without wanting to blow a hole through my TV when I watch this show. This one gets a D- and that's lenient.