I don't always watch late night shows, but I know this to be true: Conan O' Brien is much, much funnier than Jay Leno. Leno is the epitome of Lowest Common Denominator humor. Anytime I have been exposed to his show, I have not been made to laugh once.
Here's a great quote about Jay Leno from Videogum:
"Jay Leno is a losing strategy. He is depressingly unimaginative, aggressively mediocre, and painfully unfunny." -Videogum
"Aggressively mediocre". That is the perfect phrase to describe him.
Anyway, NBC recently gave Conan O' Brien the honor of hosting The Tonight Show (he had, up until this point, been hosting the late late show), and since they wanted to keep Leno around, they gave him a show at 10pm. I read some BS about how this was supposedly a revolutionary move in television. See, usually a network airs scripted dramas at 10pm. Scripted dramas are expensive to make. If they can get a monkey in a suit to host a talk show at that time and get halfway decent ratings, then they win.
Except he didn't get halfway decent ratings. They're terrible, in fact. Conan's ratings haven't been so hot either, but you gotta give the dude a chance to grow into The Tonight Show. Not to mention Leno isn't helping matters with his sucky lead-in.
The rumor is that after the Winter Olympics, Jay Leno is gonna be back at the 11:30 timeslot. Possible options include Jay Leno getting a half hour show at that time and having Conan's tonight show air afterwards, or potentially even dropping Conan altogether.
NBC: Jay Leno is ass. Drop his stupid primetime show, don't look back, air your dramas or whatever at 10pm, leave Conan alone and give him a chance.
This show premiered last season and I thought it was okay then, but it really seems to have hit its stride now in its second season. I've upgraded it from "I'll catch it if I'm bored" to "must-see television" status, and I can consider it to be a suitable replacement for The Office.
The central character of the show is Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), an idealistic, feminist, and ambitious public official. However, this is really an ensemble show with a strong cast all around. Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) and Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) are great characters. Tom is a loudmouth and kind of a perv, and he's a lot of fun. Ron is Leslie's boss, he's very world-weary, and he loves brunettes and breakfast food.
Questlove, the drummer for The Roots, had this to say about the show: "Parks and Recreation is the Wu-Tang of comedy. An ensemble cast of which all the cast shines."
Questlove goes as far as to match up each Parks & Rec character with a corresponding member of the Wu.
Leslie/Poehler = The Rza
Tom/Aziz = ODB
Ann/Rashida = Method Man
Ron/Nick Offerman = Ghostface Killah
Andy/Chris = Raekwon
Mark Brendanawicz/Paul = Inspectah Deck
April/Aubrey = Gza
Jerry/Jim = Masta Killa
Donna/Retta = U-God
Dave/Louis CK = Redman
The show follows three family units. First you've got the traditional family - a husband and wife and their three kids. I like the husband Phil (Ty Burrell). The basic premise of his character is that he likes to think of himself as a "cool dad", when in reality he is far from cool. As far as the kids are concerned, you've got the smart one, the kinda dumb but pretty one, and the just plain dumb one. I think the kids' characters will get fleshed out more as they get older.
Then you've got the gay couple and their adopted baby. Of course their gayness is going to be the basis for some of the comedy here, but these seem like real people, not stereotypes. And they're both pretty damn funny.
Finally, you've got grandpa (Ed O' Neil aka Al Bundy from Married With Children), his hot younger second wife from Colombia, and her son from another marriage, Manny. Ed O' Neil is hilarious, his wife is, as I mentioned, incredibly hot, and the son Manny is the most interesting of the children so far - he's a chubby kid who imagines himself as some kind of lothario.
The humor in Modern Family is smart and understated. No pandering and few attempts at easy laughs. Just the way I like it. It doesn't completely avoid the sitcom trapping of "character learns a lesson" like say, Seinfeld, but it's never sappy. Another thing the show does well is balancing multiple storylines across the families.
Last week's Christmas episode really sealed the deal for me, it was great. I'm officially a fan. I missed some of the earlier episodes of the season, so I'll have to find them and get myself fully caught up.
