NEW SHOWS
Eff you, baseball!
CURRENT SHOWS
Saturday Night Live – “Jim Carrey/Iggy Azalea” (B-)
Despite Jim Carrey giving it his all, this definitely fell flat more often than it succeeded. But it failed by doing a lot of high-concept sketches that couldn’t sustain their own weight. I’d much rather see that kind of failure than by playing it safe and limping to the finish. “Secret Billionaire” was the sketch of the night.
OLD SHOWS
The Simpsons (Season 8) – “Burns, Baby Burns” (B)
Nothing wrong with a comedy legend like Rodney Dangerfield stopping by, but this story is so light and frankly pointless that even the writers didn’t know how to end it. *shrugs* Let’s party!
The Wire (Season 2) – “Hard Cases” (A-)
They got the band back together! This show is almost effortlessly good at this point. There are so many stories going, but it never collapses under its own weight. The comic relief never feels forced and the show constantly finds ways to deepen the relationships among its characters. Barring some sort of unforeseeable collapse, I feel like I’m already going to side with the conventional wisdom that this is the best drama ever.