RECAP: SNL 5/21 "Fred Armisen"

Whew. The return of Fred Armisen fortunately leads to a pretty decent episode, which stands in stark contrast to the dreadful run the show's had since March. At least now they can go out on a relative high note, so kudos to Fred for bringing it to a finish.

COLD OPEN: A great opening tonight, as Kate's Hillary trades barbs with Larry David's Bernie in a bar, as they roast each other about the primary contest winding down, despite the fact that Bernie refuses to drop out. They end up dancing through the studio, as Hillary tosses him into an elevator at the end. You have to notice how ironic it is that the show's Hillary and Bernie skits ended up so much funnier than their Trump ones this season. You'd have thought it'd be the other way around.

MONOLOGUE: Fred Armisen comes back to do his "one man show" parody of his SNL audition. It goes on a little too long, although I know that's part of the joke, since Fred hates one man shows. I wouldn't say it's wildly funny, but I get it.

LEWIS & CLARK THEATRE: Fred, Kyle and Cecily do a Lewis & Clark skit in front of a high school class that ends up with Lewis trying to trick Clark into having sex with him while Sacajewea watches. I thought this bit was going to be painful at first, but where it winds up going makes me giggle a little bit, so it's okay.

DIGITAL SHORT: Andy's back! I knew Fred would bring some cast members of his era along with him, and Andy Samberg's the first, who of course pops up with a home run digital short, that has him rapping about a girl (Vanessa) who wants him to fuck her like the "US fucked Bin Laden." It's great!

DINNER PARTY: And another one, as Jason Sudeikis brings new girlfriend Regine (Fred) to a dinner party and she freaks out the guests with her crazy reactions to Jason touching her in random places. It's one of those weird characters, but it's actually funny because several people break in this sketch, including Vanessa, who I don't think I've EVER seen break before, so that's pretty fun to watch.

FAREWELL, MR. BUNTING: Okay, so, for the first time in a long time, I think SNL actually produced an instant classic sketch here. It's a pre-recorded bit, but it starts out as a really straight spoof of the final scene in Dead Poet's Society, only to lead up to a completely unexpected payoff that turns out to be totally worth the wait. See it for yourselves. Bravo, guys. I have to wonder who came up with this.

UPDATE: The final Update of the season includes the last (for a while anyway) of the Trump jokes, which mock the NRA and Hillary, and an appearance by Maya Rudolph as the ousted president of Brazil, but that goes on way too long. Then Jost and Che do their annual "jokes that didn't make it to air" and we end with a final appearance by Kenan's Willie, talking about "fun" in the summertime. You know, I actually thought this was Kenan's last season, but it doesn't appear to be, so I guess he really wants to break that record of longest running cast member.

ANDROMEDA GALAXY: A space sketch with Fred as the designated survivor whose seemingly first class flight in an escape pod annoys his sacrificial crewmates, especially when he picks out City Slickers 2 as the in flight movie, and Korean chicken as dinner. Good for a couple chuckles, but it's too short to leave much impact.

STUDENT THEATRE SHOWCASE: Okay, I think we've seen this sketch too many times now. It's the same old thing, with the annoying artsy kids doing their wacky, politically correct message show. There's nothing new in it, and like I said, I think we got it by now.

HARKIN BROTHERS BAND: Not really a sketch, but Fred leads the entire cast dressed up as a 70's style hippie band as they sing about fun in the summertime. It's a nice final moment to close out the finale.

Well, I think this one was overall pretty solid, like I said earlier. I wouldn't call it hysterical, but hey, that Bernie/Hillary opening, the Bin Laden digital short, and the Mr. Bunting sketch qualify this one for at least a B+, while the rest of it didn't overtly offend, so thank you to Fred for bringing this season in for a landing. When it comes back it's going to be right in the thick of election time, which is always when SNL is most relevant, so I'll see you guys back here for what's bound to be a crazy fall. In the meantime, have a great summer everybody!

Trailer for Season 2 of Hulu's 'Casual'

Casual was one of the new shows I really liked last year, and the second season is premiering in June, so look out for it if you can. It's kind of in the Transparent vein of family comedy/drama. Even though I'm usually a big defender of shows like Transparent and Orange is the New Black qualifying for that comedy category, because to me dark comedy IS comedy, this is actually one that I would go ahead and label a drama, even though no one else will simply because it's a half hour show. But it's not nearly as comedic as those others can often be, and it dwells purely in the real world, with no cartoon-y or surreal-like elements.

'24' is Rebooted Without Jack Bauer in '24: Legacy' Trailer

I honestly don't know what the appeal of doing a 24 reboot sans Jack Bauer is. I mean, Kiefer Sutherland WAS the show, wasn't he? But Fox is going to go ahead and try it with Straight Outta Compton's Corey Hawkins in the lead, with this 12-episode series premiering after the Super Bowl next February. We'll see how it goes, I guess. One thing I can say about this trailer is that it does look exactly like 24, just...without Jack. Do people want to watch that? Who knows.

Chaos Reigns in New Trailer for 'Mr. Robot' Season 2

Finally, we get a look at the much anticipated second season of the critically buzzed Mr. Robot, which is starting on July 13th. I gotta say, this is a pretty impressive trailer, especially for TV. Doesn't give away too much, yet the intensity and mystery, which is everything on this show, is clear from the get go. And hey, they got Obama in there too!

RECAP: SNL 5/14 "Drake"

Even thought Drake made his big return tonight as an overall excellent host, SNL was once again mediocre, letting down one of their great hosts with subpar writing and just plain bad material. I am SO ready for this season to be over, guys. It had on okay middle, but this final run has just sucked the life out of me at this point.

COLD OPEN: A Trump opening, with Darrell in Trump's office, pretending to be his own publicist on the phone and going over potential VP candidates, with Bobby's pathetic Chris Christie and Jay's Ben Carson making appearances. I don't know why this show has so utterly failed to come up with an angle on Trump for these opening skits. Is he just too much of a parody of himself already? That sure didn't stop those Sarah Palin sketches from being funny. Yeah, I don't get why, but these are so flat every single time. It's weird.

MONOLOGUE: The return of Drake, the surprise fantastic host from a few years back, as he comes onstage and raps about all those internet memes made about him. It's only okay. What's actually funny are the memes, to be honest.

RENT-A-CAR: Awkward bit where Beck and Vanessa are a married couple trying to rent a car and Drake is an irritating worker at the rent-a-car place and Jay is his even more irritating manager. The bit is the creation of the characters I guess. Drake gives it his all and this is obviously Jay's character, but it just isn't that funny. Maybe there's some potential in here, with some fine-tuning though. And some funnier dialogue.

AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR: A spoof of the NBC competition show with Beck and Drake as the hosts and Bobby as a contestant who fails instantly on the first challenge. They mock him by replaying in slow-mo and rubbing salt in the wounds. It's kinda funny, I guess, because it's a pretty straight on parody of the show.

SEXY EVENING: Okay, so, I don't really know what this was, but it appeared to be some kind of send-up of a fake 70's variety show with Drake as a supersexy R&B singer and his back-up dancers Kate and Cecily. The joke is that there's a lot of technical glitches in the show and he keeps screwing up his bit and undercutting the "sexiness." The whole thing falls totally flat, but again, Drake is super committed to this, totally in character, and really the center of the sketch- it's just too bad it's nothing to work with.

BABY BOSS: Oh, god. One of my most hated skits is back. Drake is a congressman talking to Paul Ryan about using the baby man as a possible third party candidate against Trump. You know the rest- Beck comes in and does his thing. I don't really know what to say about this. If you find his baby man schtick funny, then it's funny. I don't and never have, so...yeah. Ugh. I hate this character so much.

UPDATE: Che and Jost do a lot of jokes about the Trump fake publicist thing and then Kate comes on as her Russian peasant woman who jokes that Trump snatched up Melania from her village. Leslie then comes in with a bit about achieving your dreams at any age (it's actually one of her less annoying spiels), and finally Jay arrives with another roll of impressions, this time at the secret rapper's meeting to give Jay-Z advice on Beyonce. It's pretty funny, but I liked his comedians one better.

BLACK JEOPARDY: This boring skit is back with Drake as the world's only black Canadian who doesn't know any of the answers- he does a good job with the funny accent and all, but this whole sketch just doesn't have enough punchlines in it and never has, so whatever.

DRAKE'S BEEF: Yes! Something actually, genuinely funny! And of course, this appears to have been entirely Drake's thing, A video of him backstage, being silently offended by perceived slights from the cast and then drifting into his own head to rap about each of them insulting him. This was good! Drake himself is pretty hilarious, you have to admit.

HIGH SCHOOL DANCE: A totally unfunny bit that Drake is 100% committed to as he does a Hulk Hogan-esque character who chaperones a high school dance and accosts students with weird lectures about him chasing famous criminals from 15 years ago. I really don't get what the joke of this was- it was totally lost on me, whatever the point was here, but hey, Drake once again is spot on with the character. Weird though.

So that's it. Drake was on, but the show was eh. I loved his beef video, and Jay's rapper impressions were good. The rest? Pretty bleh, despite the host's efforts. I give it a C (could have been worse, and the recent previous ones were). I have no expectations that these guys are going to step it up for the finale next week, but with Fred Armisen hosting, I expect other former cast members of his era to pop up as well (maybe Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig for the inevitable Californians sketch?). And then we'll be mercifully done with this season. See you guys then!

'Supergirl' Flies to the CW

Well, this is a surprise. Networks announced major cancellations today, and there were actually quite a bit of shows that got the axe (farewell Muppets, Grinder, Grandfathered, Castle and Agent Carter), but the more interesting news for me was that Supergirl was renewed for Season 2, but will be moving over to the CW and transferring production from LA to Vancouver, which will of course involve major budget cuts. CBS evidently decided that the meager (for their network) ratings didn't justify a second season, and since a lot of people thought this show should have launched on its kid sister network in the first place, I guess it makes sense for them to pick it up. The CW is the home of fellow DC shows The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow after all, so it looks like Superman's cousin will be joining the mini-Justice League they've got going on over there. As a Flash devotee, I'll be watching the inevitable crossovers this will entail (bound to be a bunch, especially after the well-received one back in March that saw Flash star Grant Gustin hop earths to join Kara in National City for a day), but I quit watching this show regularly after the first few episodes. It just wasn't good enough to hold my attention, despite Melissa Benoist being a great lead. Maybe I ought to give it another shot now though. I just hope the CW doesn't have to slash budgets on its other shows in order to pay Calista Flockhart's considerable salary.

More Inmates Come to Litchfield in Trailer for Season 4 of 'Orange is the New Black'

Yay- OiTNB is still one of my favorite shows and the fourth season is headed our way on June 17th. Some people thought last season felt a little scattered, but it was still funny and entertaining, as I expect it will continue to be, although I will say that the flashbacks are starting to feel less and less necessary, especially because we now know most of the prisoners so well. But I guess that's why they're bringing in more. I'm sticking with this one 'til the end.

Sneak Peek at 'UnREAL' Season 2

The plotline for the second season of Unreal involves the show doing something the actual Bachelor has never once done, and that's make the bachelor or bachelorette a person of color. Gasp. I know, how ridiculous is it that the parody of these kinds of shows does this before the real life one? And seriously, why haven't they done that yet? This show makes me glad I've never watched the real thing, but I have a feeling the fictional version is far more entertaining anyway.

RECAP: SNL 5/07 "Brie Larson"

Well, apparently SNL wants to finish out its season with the most truly dismal run of episodes that it can. Brie Larson was a lackluster host who couldn't elevate any of the terrible material she was given tonight, and it made for one of the worst episodes of the season...but I feel like I've been saying that for a while now. Sigh.

COLD OPEN: I guess this is the one bright spot of the night, as Dana Carvey triumphantly returns as the Church Lady to mock Trump, the Met Gala and Ted Cruz. It goes on for a while, and he hasn't missed a beat with the character, but Taran's Cruz and Darrell's Trump impressions seem tired. It's not really that funny overall, but it's nice to see the Church Lady again.

MONOLOGUE: Brie Larson takes the stage to give thanks to her mom, who's in the audience for the Mother's Day show, and let some of the cast dole out Mother's Day messages to their moms, but this is the beginning of what I feared she'd be, which is someone who plays the straight man supporting character because they don't think she's funny enough to do any jokes.

PRESIDENT BARBIE: This is an ad for dull, boring "president" Barbie, that little girls hate and don't want to play with, instead preferring an old broom to the toy that won't "smile enough." Okay, so it's a Hillary analogy. It's alright, I get the point. (Methinks the female SNL cast members are getting irritated with the over the top HIllary hate lately).

UFO STORIES: Kate's sketch where she plays the unimpressed alien abductee reutrns, and even though this one was very funny the first time, this time the dialogue just isn't as good. Kate does her best, but there's nothing really clever for her to say in this one. It's a miss.

BABY SHOWER: An extra long sketch where Brie is a pregnant woman told by all her friends that she will eventually succumb to the "mom" spiky, short haircut that forces all moms to do weird Stepford-type shit. This goes on way too long and just isn't at all funny. Episode's becoming dreadful.

UPDATE: Jost and Che do a ton of Trump jokes in the wake of him securing the actual Republican nomination, and then Vanessa comes on as the perky kid who reads the news- she's okay, but has been funnier in this. Sasheer of all people shows up as a correspondent trying to defend Larry Wilmore for using the n-word at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and man is this bad. She seems totally unrehearsed and actually tries to interact with the audience at times, breaking character completely. Finally she says it's her birthday and I half wonder if that's why she was allowed to do this bit. Last guest is Pete doing his mom schtick, and he gets a couple good jabs in there at the tweets his mom put out in his defense, so that's kinda cute.

GAME OF THRONES: Yet another GoT parody, this time poking fun at how slow and predictable the resurrection of Jon Snow was on last week's episode (spoiler alert). This isn't sharp or clever, and it seriously should have been. All they do is have Cecily and Brie stand off to the side as hecklers to the scene, basically. Man, the writing is awful in this episode.

QUIZ WHIZ: An abominably bad sketch that takes place in 2018 and the joke is that contestants forgot who came in second to Trump in the 2016 primary. Wuh? Why on earth? There's NOTHING funny about this, I don't even really understand what the joke is supposed to be. People forgot who Ted Cruz is and...what's the joke? I don't get this at all. At the end there's a "Hail President Trump" bit, but I still don't get what the angle of this was.

DISCREET ANNIHILATION: A lame Kyle/Back video that is the 50th variation on the same stupid skit they do over and over again. I'm not even gonna bother explaining it.

DEAD BOPZ: A hologram of Beck as Bing Crosby introduces a CD of famous dead people singing modern hits- everyone's impressions are really bad on this except a quick few seconds of Jay's Tupac, but that's it.

Whew. That was HORRIBLE. Ugh, a really painful episode to sit through tonight, and Brie Larson was a blink and you'll miss her host who amounted to nothing more than vapor in these skits. Ugh. I give it a D-, saved (if you can call it that) only by the Church Lady's appearance at the beginning. Drake comes back next week, and even though he was one of the surprise fantastic hosts in the last few years, I'm going in with low expectations, simply because of how dire the show's been lately. See you guys next week if you can bear to finish out the season. Wouldn't blame if you if you couldn't.

Lifetime Unveils Two New Teasers for Season 2 of 'UnREAL'

My favorite summer show of last year is back for Season 2 starting June 2nd- and anybody who still hasn't heard of it, 'cause I know it had a pretty tiny audience, really needs to catch up. Deliciously scandalous and starring two unapologetically devious antiheroines in Shiri Appleby and Constance Zimmer. Definitely my kind of show, and the only version of The Bachelor I'd ever watch. The second season premieres June 2nd.