NBC, trying to take advantage of a massive Olympic promotional platform, is launching 9/10ths of its fall season in advance of the traditional Fall TV start, which is typically the first Monday after the Emmy awards. This is a pretty smart move for the 3rd place (but barely) network: they get people to try out their series well in advance of the onslaught of returning favorites and promising newbies. I know it has at least fostered my interest in Go On more than I would have initially thought.
With the start of all new programming on Thursday of this week, NBC has only four shows left to debut this fall: Law & Order: SVU, and Chicago Fire on Wednesdays (starting in the next two weeks) and Whitney and Community on Fridays (starting in October). Every other series has either started it run or at least had a sneak peak episode. A majority of the new series premiering this fall (4 out of 6) are comedies, and the network renewed 6 of their comedies from last season. They are so loaded with comedies (there are still 4 in the wings for mid-season) that they have branded their promos with the above logo ("We [NBC Peacock Logo] comedy"). One can argue the etymological advantages that come from turning an animal to a verb--wolfed, lionized, and moused have served us well--but peacock? Is this a verb that means to strut around, look pretty, and be the moving lawn ornament of the profanely rich elite?
Actually tht sums up the NBC comedy brand pretty well. Until The Voice, NBC's most popular prime time series was The Office. But in the last few years, Saturday Night Live regularly beat even The Office in the ratings. NBC has had a continued Thursday slate of really great series that failed to connect with large audiences but still managed to entice the wealthier demographics and the praise of critics everywhere. 30 Rock, Community and my beloved Parks and Recreation never generated large audiences but won the hearts of a small but insanely dedicated base of viewers that treasured the shows' unique comedic stylings.
This past Thursday saw the returns of three of the regular Thursday comedies (30 Rock will be premiering in October) and a special edition of SNL that they resurrect for the presidential election years. The evening was a successful one. The traditional comedies were much improved over their output last season, and SNL Weekend Update Thursday had one killer sketch that made the rest of the show bearable, kind of like the regular Saturday edition. If I had any doubts that would follow any of these shows this season these premieres would have wiped them away. There was also a nice growing return as the night progressed; each series was slightly better than the one before it, building not just a great hour of television but a night.
SNL Weekend Update Thursday is in the unenviable position of kicking off the evening and coming off the surprising good season opener with Seth MacFarlane last week. Fortunately the cold open sketch, the always brilliant parody of FOX and Friends, was better than anything in the SNL premiere last week. The formula for this one never changes, but Taran Killam, Vanessa Bayer and especially Bobby Moynihan always kill it as the affably dim-witted, malaprop-inclined and conservative lapdog hosts of the popular FOX News' morning show. If I have one beef with SNL (both versions) is that they refuse to make fun of the Democratic party and instead go for the easy targets in the Republican party. This is especially evident in the extended "Weekend Update" sections of the show, where Seth Meyers has become so shrill it is hard to laugh. I find myself wanting to cover my ears from all the indignant yelling, which at least Stephen Colbert softens with a smile not a smirk on his similarly delivered "news" program. Bringing in Bill Hader as James Carville or Bobby Moynihan as Drunk Uncle helps only to keep some of the focus off of Meyers, as both of these bits were just extended character bits with little purpose. Both were brilliant character bits, but only Hader's joke about Clinton tugging his ear twice and saying "Magnolia" really worked in either one. Both spots refused to present a point of view or even an idea that could be riffed on. This was what worked so well in the FOX & Friends sketch. The idea that progressively more damaging hidden Mitt Romeny videos couldn't shake the pandering hosts was really funny on its own but delivered the comedic coupe de grace in the found footage that would make two of the three hosts back off from their apologist attack dog stance. Then to end the sketch with the usual DVR friendly crawl of the fact-checkers' corrections of the first two hours of the show killed. My favorites: "The Keystone Pipeline is not filled with Keystone Light" and "Benedict Arnold is not a character on Diff'rent Strokes."
Up All Night got a sort of cosmic redo with its premiere episode of the second season. Gone are the crazy work place antics of The Ava Show and Jennifer Hall's pleasantly frazzled and wacky assistant, Missy. Enter Reagan's (Christina Applegate) contractor brother Scott, played with a Zaca-Galifianakis-lite charm by Luka Jones. The dynamics will change little; Reagan will need to mother both the baby Amy and the immature Ava, played by the always welcome Maya Rudolph. The wholesale abandonment of the work vs. motherhood conflict for Reagan is uncomfortable now, but I have no reason to suspect that that won't be a renewed focus later this season. Chris (Will Arnett) will be going back to work but his job will keep him close to home, giving plenty of opportunity for him and Reagan and baby Amy to interact. That dynamic is really what the show is all about; it's warm and gooey and sweet--the cinnamon roll of comedy. I hardly find myself laughing aloud (though "Hawk-like fashion balls" and "Don't let that lady kiss you baby!" were solidly funny) during the show. Tonally, its an awkward fit between either SNL Weekend Update or 30 Rock (which will have the 8:00 slot in October) and The Office, but it still brings me joy. It's a slight show, and I'm a little concerned that the switch to a more traditional home structure will make it feel even more slight, but I can't help but be charmed and amused.
And really, it's the tonal shift of The Office that's most remarkable there. The series built its popular core by emphasizing the squee-ing romance between Jim and Pam (John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer); they were a genuine bit realistic land in a sea of audacious and often mean-spirited buffonery. This was so popular that other comedy series aped it, including The Office itself. They had some success with Michael Scott and Holly (Steve Carrell and Amy Ryan) and less so with Andy and Erin (Ed Helms and Ellie Klemper) or Dwight & Angela (Rainn Wilson and Angela Kinsey). As the show introduced more an more romantic subplots, while still maintaining the Jim & Pam plot, the acidic level of the show dropped. There was little bite to the series anymore.
That has changed. Andy is back from a mandated Outward Bound trip and is desperate to humiliate and destroy his former rival Nellie (Catherine Tate). Most shocking of all Oscar is having an affair with Angela's closeted (even to her) husband. While Angela has always shown nothing but disdain for Oscar and his homosexuality, this seems so out of left field for Oscar, a character that has too often been the voice of reason and good citizenship. At times he may have seen overbearing in his intellectual righteousness but never was he villainous. That they have decided on this darker and malignant path as a part for the final arc of the show is intriguing, and bring to mind the much more balanced first few seasons of the show.
This is unsurprising, as Greg Daniels who developed the show for NBC and acted as show runner through its glory days has once again returned to the helm. He wrote and directed this first episode of the show's last season, and almost right away course corrected and set the path for this last run. He let the documentary crew behind the camera be a more visible character for one brief moment thereby changing the focus of the show and giving us the reason for the show to end. Pam asks don't they have enough footage by now, and the off-camera response is that a decision was made long ago to follow Pam and Jim and see how they turn out. Couple this with a fevered, late night college dream possibly becoming a financial reality in Philadephia, and the endgame is set. Daniels also admirably, albeit a little creakily, tried to make the entire episode about something (taking risks, jumping off to start anew) which had been missing for the past few years as episodes became about more events instead of themes.
If The Office was better than Up All Night which was better than SNL Weekend Update Thursday, then it's fitting that Parks and Recreation was the artistic highlight of the evening. As complete as the last season finale felt, it took only a few moments for me to be fully re-immersed in the story of Pawnee's favorite public servants. Ben (Adam Scott) has moved to D.C. to work on a congressional campaign and taken April (Aubrey Plaza) to be his intern, and the season premiere opens with Leslie (Amy Poehler) and Andy (Chris Pratt) visiting their loved ones. This plot sets forth an interesting if familiar course for the rest of the season: you may not always like what you get when you get what you want. Leslie is maniacally delighted being in the ultimate seat of bureaucracy, and Poehler sells it. Her look of unabashed glee as she says "Romantic reunions, government meetings, self-guided museum tours? I mean--am I living the dream?" is positively infectious. She soon finds that the river beautification project proposal that she was going to personally give the bureaucrat in the Department of the Interior with its own CD soundtrack will just be thrown into a pile of many. To add insult to injury, her beloved Pawnee is just one of many. This shakes her to her core, and causes her to blow her cocktail party meeting with Olympia Snowe and Barbara Boxer--two of her idols. She is so down that she fails to notice John McCain. Where other shows might mine these beats for compelling drama, this is Parks and Rec. They are eternally sunny and hopeful. Leslie turns this psychological setback into a fire in the belly for local reform and change. The position that centralized government is bloated and ineffective and that localization is key is positively libertarian for the series.
The B-plot this episode goes a long way to rectifying the most egregious misstep last season, i.e. not enough Ron Swanson. Nick Offerman has long been my favorite part of the program, and last season, as Leslie was moving beyond the walls of the Parks department, Offerman's Swanson was lost in the shuffle. Last night he moved back to the fore with a plot hinging on him organizing Leslie's annual employee appreciation barbeque. Ron will not be having a puppet play re-enacting the most interesting e-mail chain of the last year nor will he be allowing any effing vegetables, instead the focus will be purely on "good, shared meat." The look of contempt and disgust at Jerry's suggestion of corn on the cob should win Offerman an Emmy. What ensues is a hilarious series of riffs involving a pig named Tom, a trailer hitched smoker and a warm rebuke from Rob Lowe's Chris Traeger. This last part was used to soften the usually abrasive Traeger, but it serves to undermine Ron's libertarian position on self-reliance and contempt of bureaucracy. This is fascinating to me as the series normally uses Ron's viewpoint as a joke, yes, but also as the measured voice of reason and authority. I think in the ensuing weeks I may be writing Thursday night posts on the government building policies of ABC's Last Resort and Parks.
All told NBC Thursdays looks like a far more affective night of programming for the surging network, and I know I will be watching as long as they will let me.
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