Another one I'm excited for- the second season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt looks right on track, so hopefully it lives up to the delightful and twisted nature of its first. Now that the bunker story is over though, I do kinda wonder if it may lose some of the edge that made it a fairly dark and daring comedy in the first place.
RECAP: SNL 3/12 "Ariana Grande"
Ariana Grande made a fairly impressive debut on SNL last night, showing off an ability to do a range of musical impressions and one killer Jennifer Lawrence voice that will be the thing most remembered about this episode, probably. I admit it- she has my attention.
COLD OPEN: Another CNN round-up that gives us Trump being endorsed by Jay's Ben Carson (and having his supporters punch him in the face when he's mistaken for a protester), but most importantly, Larry David returns as Bernie Sanders, mocking his supporters' annoying facebook posts about him (SO true!!!), and wearing his pajamas under his suits (that's why they're so baggy, lol). Funny. I guess Larry should just join the cast for the remainder of the season, huh?
MONOLOGUE: Ariana comes down and reminisces with Kenan about coming from Nickelodeon, and then sings about wanting to have her own adult scandal to launch her grown-up career (something besides the donut-licking thing, which was literally all I knew her from before tonight). It's not bad.
HILLARY AD: An ad by Hillary trying to appeal to millennials by physically transforming herself into Bernie Sanders. Kate's hilarious as always.
KIDS CHOICE AWARDS: Taran, Vanessa and Ariana are hosts on the KCA's orange carpet who keep thinking the show is supposed to start and missing the countdown clock. This is funny because it reminds me of the guy on ABC who kept having to helplessly delay over and over again before the Oscars show.
FEMINIST SONG: All the women on the show sing a "feminist anthem" whose lyrics are all about having no lyrics for a feminist anthem and getting a bunch of reactions and angry questions about it anyway. This is pretty decent too, actually, and ends up just showing a bunch of women running on the beach.
TALES FROM THE SEA: Vanessa and Ariana are mermaids who rescue some sailors, but Kate is a gross "blobfish" who saves Beck and insists on him cozying up to her. This is kinda weird and random, but Kate does what she can with it, as usual. I'd call this one a miss, though.
UPDATE: Colin and Michael poke fun at, what else, Trump and his latest violence fueled rallies, including the one in Chicago he called off, then Cecily appears as the drunken Bachelor contestant who lost, and finally Riblet shows up for the first time in a while to steal Che's thunder again. It's an okay update, shorter than usual.
TIDAL: Ariana rescues the glitches in Tidal streaming by impersonating Britney Spears, Shakira, Rihanna, Celine Dion and Whitney Houston, and pretty much nails all of them while doing it. Color me impressed.
FAMILY FEUD: A range of celebrity impressions in Kenan's skit, but Ariana again steals with an eerily perfect impression of Jennifer Lawrence, making fun of how she's constantly calling herself a "regular" person. Too perfect.
SOUND OF MUSIC: Final skit of the night is a spoof of the nuns singing about Maria behind her back, and then Ariana's Maria comes in and reads them the riot act, complete with claps and head tilts. It's only alright, but Ariana has done well enough tonight to overlook it.
So that was March, guys! A better episode than last week with a very able hosting gig by Ariana, who should call some attention to her voices and impressions. Plus it had Bernie and the HIllary ad, so I give this one a solid B. The show returns on April 2nd with first time host Peter Dinklage (yay!) and Gwen Stefani, so I'll see everybody then!
New 'Daredevil' Promo Teases the New Trio A Week Before Season 2 Drops
For those wanting to see The Punisher wearing his actual skull symbol, here it is. Elektra fans on the other hand, continue to be disappointed in her costume, but it maybe it'll improve slowly, like Daredevil's did. After all, Frank Castle's shirt isn't exactly an elaborate ensemble- the others need time to finesse their look.
Violence Ensues in 'Game of Thrones' Season 6 Trailer
No news on Jon Snow yet, but lots of Cersei in this trailer, as she tries to take revenge for her ordeal from last season, while fighting goes on elsewhere. I said before, I'm getting tired of this show overall, but six seasons in and I feel like I have to stick with it 'til the end now. This is the first season that's going to all be taking place post book series.
RECAP: SNL 3/05 "Jonah Hill"
Oof. Jonah Hill comes back to host a pretty dreadful episode of SNL, which actually serves to make me realize it hasn't been this bad in a while, so maybe the season overall has actually been one of their better ones. Still, tonight was a throwaway.
COLD OPEN: It's a wrap-up of Super Tuesday and stuff that's happened since, which gives us a chance to see Darrell's Trump brag about his dick size and berate Bobby's Chris Christie standing behind him, but let's be honest here- this all happening in real life has reached beyond parody at this point. I mean, how can anyone even satirize what Trump does anymore except to play actual clips of his real words and actions? He's on the level of a Sarah Palin. Kate's Hillary, Taran's Ted Cruz and Jason Sudeikis's Mitt Romney return in the open as well, so it's pretty good.
MONOLOGUE: Jonah Hill's schtick is playing sort of a douche version of himself (although I have to wonder if it's not so altered), which he does here as he burns Kyle in the audience and raps with Future. Ugh. I can already tell he's going to wear thin on me tonight.
RACISTS FOR TRUMP: A campaign ad spoofing white supremacists support for Trump, which is dead on and the best thing in the episode. But again, these people had him HOST THEIR SHOW. I know, I watched it in the fall. I have not forgotten that, you guys.
ACTION NEWS: A bellyflop of a sketch that parodies a midwestern local news broadcast with Jonah and Cecily as anchors. The entire joke here is the weird accents and it's painfully long and unfunny. Yikes.
THE CHAMP: Another whiff, with Jonah as a picked on high school wrestler whose bowel movements are revealed on the news. Yeah, who thought this was good? Some seriously wrongheaded premises in this ep.
STUDENT AUCTION: Yet another wipeout! A high school auction with Jonah as a middle eastern dictator bidding on teens at a talent show- wtf? Three skits in a row that are just flat out abominably bad.
UPDATE: I haven't been so relieved to get to Update in a while. The usual election jokes are peppered with some new OJ Simpson information, then Cecily's Girl at a Party (I hate, hate, HATE that character) brings everything to a halt. But Vanessa comes in as a reporter interviewing a 110 year old woman (Kate) and straining to get her to talk, which is actually kinda funny, because Kate usually makes just about anything weird become amusing after a few seconds. That was cute. Finally, Jay comes on and describes a secret meeting of black comedians where he suddenly goes into a riff of impressions of nearly every black comic superstar including Kevin Hart, Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan, Eddie Murphy, Hannibal Buress, Katt Williams, Dave Chappelle and Bernie Mac, which is awesome. Ok, that might be the best thing of the night.
MURDER PARTY: An Agatha Christie style dinner party again becomes an accusation towards Jonah having embarrassing gastrointestinal issues that everyone knows about. Not real funny, but seriously Jonah, you really wanted to be the butt of all these poop jokes tonight?
INSIDE SOCAL: Kyle and Beck's basement show is back (I have not missed this sketch) as they and Jonah mourn the breast reduction surgery of fellow pal Cecily. Meh.
CATERED LUNCH: Jonah caters a business meeting and freaks out about the food he serves- a weird, strange final skit, but I am so done with this episode by this point that I'm just glad it's over.
So that was rough. Jonah's fourth time hosting was not the charm, and the bright spot here was the Trump ad and Jay's impressions bit on Update. I give it a D, and I'm already guessing next week's Ariana Grande hosted affair will not be much better. After that it's another break, so maybe the staff decided to more or less write off the March episodes anyway. See you guys next week!
Full Trailer for HBO's 'Confirmation'
Here's a longer look at the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill movie Confirmation, which takes us back to the infamous Supreme Court hearings in 1991. I didn't realize it before, but Greg Kinnear is playing Joe Biden, who played a rather unfortunate role in resolving all this at the time, so I wonder how he's going to appreciate the situation coming back to the forefront. And hey, that's Alison Wright from The Americans as Thomas's wife! Anything that exposes more of that show's stellar cast is a good thing.
New 'Daredevil' Trailer Features Elektra in Action
As promised, part two of the Daredevil trailer dropped today, and gives us a good look at Daredevil's iconic lady love and antiheroine Elektra, as played by Elodie Yung. And she looks awesome. Early reviews say she's actually the most compelling part of the new season, so I can't wait to see the two of them together.
Season 6 of 'Game of Thrones' Teases the Dead
This new teaser for the new season of Game of Thrones shows the faces of a bunch of dead people, but also Tyrion's at the end, and I can tell you right now, I've slowly been tiring of this show anyway, but if they ever kill off Peter Dinklage's character, I'm out for good. It's unlikely, since he's the face of the show and all, but he's literally the only one I really care about and the only reason I continue to watch at this point.
'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' Gets a Season 2 Teaser
So many good shows are coming back in the spring- and this one was one of my faves last year, so mark down April 15th as the day when Season 2 of Tina Fey's new hit debuts on Netflix. Can't wait for this one.
'Orphan Black' Season 4 Gets a New Trailer and Premiere Date
Orphan Black is moving to a new night, and it starts Thursday, April 14th. The last season was horrible for the first half, but picked up significantly in the second- as long as the boy clones aren't being used again, I think there's a chance it can go back to the entertaining, if messy, show that it was before. And I don't see them in this trailer, so that's a good sign.
