Well, I'll have to take your word on the musical acts since I generally give them about five seconds before muting. The two I saw when I saw the show live were pretty insufferable, though.
Also, I was downright gobsmacked when Sanders got two segments on Tuesday's show. I wouldn't mind substantive panels on important topics, but A) Colbert tried that when he started the show, and they just didn't work (and the audience didn't care), and B) as smart, fast, and funny as Colbert can be, I don't know that he's equipped to do those kind of interviews. Dave did all the time, and has continued to show his interest in public matters (even when hiding behind his "I'm just a dumb guy from Indiana" routine). Colbert's interview with newsmakers and reporters generally have all the depth of one of Trevor Noah's interviews, which is almost to say "none at all." I like Colbert and wish he were capable of doing what Ferguson did in just having conversations with people, but he's shown little facility for that. (It's happened occasionally, and has been very welcome when it did, but most of the time, the panel is right off the blue cards.) A very good combination for me would be combining the first half of Colbert's show with the second half of Ferguson's (even if Craig seemed to start bringing the guests out about 45 minutes into the show). --Dave Sikula On Wednesday, August 15, 2018 at 7:11:24 AM UTC-7, PGage wrote: > > I don’t disagree with this as much as I once would have thought I might. > Totally agree that most of the scripted comedy bits are horrible (but then, > that was true on The Colbert Report also). And they do seem to know it - > Colbert himself periodically comments, somewhat self-consciously, when they > double-dip on the Monologue (doing stand-up jokes in Act 2 instead of > something at the desk). This is a complete reversal from the Dave years - I > used to wish Dave would just start the show with him talking off the cuff > from his desk (in fact, often I would not have minded if that was the > entire show). > > The main points I would say in Colbert’s defense are that his interviews > with non-actors/singers are more often (though far from usually) pretty > good. Last night was a good illustration - Whalberg is terminally > unlikable, and Colbert could not do anything to help. Sanders, who it is > almost impossible not to have an interesting interview with, was great. > > I think I like his musicial guests a little better than you do. Or at > least the occasional guest that I like, I really, really like, and that > seems to make me more generally positive. For example, Regina Spektor’s > performance a few weeks ago I thought was really transcendent, and was > great enough to hold me though a month of duds. Ditto Janelle Monae, who > may have been ho hum on interview, but I thought killed her performance on > the show. > > On Wed, Aug 15, 2018 at 2:40 AM 'Dave Sikula' via TVorNotTV < > [email protected] <javascript:>> wrote: > >> Unsurprisingly to those who know my musical tastes, I was not as taken >> with Ms. Minaj as you, but I attribute that to the generally poor quality >> of Colbert's panels. >> >> Something just seems off with the whole show. The monologues are >> generally good (and does any other show billboard the main topic of the >> monologue like Colbert's does?), but the cold opens (especially the ones >> that feature Brian Stack, which is almost all of them) are almost uniformly >> dreadful, the scripted pieces (the big furry hat, confessions, the awful, >> awful greeting cards bits) are truly terrible, and the panels are fast, >> superficial, and too heavily (to me) reliant on the pre-interviews ("Can >> you teach me some Australianisms?"). The nadir is, of course, the music. >> Batiste's band is actually good -- in the studio --- but one would never >> know that from what one hears on the air, and the booked musicians come in >> one flavor: too loud and terrible. >> >> In spite of all of this, I watch the show -- or at least have it on -- >> but it's a long way down from even those too-frequent nights when Dave was >> phoning it in. >> >> --Dave Sikula >> >> >> On Tuesday, August 14, 2018 at 7:06:18 AM UTC-7, PGage wrote: >>> >>> More and more I find myself switching off TLLS episodes on my DVR after >>> the Monologue/s, or maybe a third of the way through the first interview, >>> especially if the first guest is just a celebrity. Last night’s show was an >>> exception. >>> >>> Nicki Minaj just killed it in her segment. Not just that I found her >>> hilarious (though I did) - but she was able to deliver the persona and >>> schtick that is her calling card in an organic and smart way. Most often on >>> talk shows a celebrity guest with a well defined, sharp persona either >>> tries to stay with their character and comes across as forced and hack, or >>> they act kind of like sophisticated Jerry Lewis (the least likable form of >>> Jerry Lewis) and try to convince us that they are nothing like their >>> persona. Minaj delivered what I assume must have been pre-planned bits in a >>> spontaneous and effective way, showing how her performing persona is an >>> elaboration of who she is. I have never been a huge fan of her act, but she >>> started to win me over last night. >>> >>> She is not the only one of course - I suppose we could make a list of >>> the best reliable celebrity guests on late night talk shows (e.g. Steve >>> Martin, Martin Short, Amy Sedaris, just to name three of my favorite from >>> the Letterman era), but such a list is only meaningful in the context of >>> how horrible most guests are. I liked Dave enough to suffer through all but >>> the worst guests (three I always clicked off of: “Dr. Phil”, Martha >>> Stewart, Donald Trump); I like Colbert enough, but not enough to stay with >>> even half of his typical celebrity guests. Fortunately, more than most, he >>> often has journalists and politicians and other substantive guests of note. >>> -- >>> Sent from Gmail Mobile >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected] <javascript:>. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > -- > Sent from Gmail Mobile > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
