Chris Rock is not really targeting an African-American audience. On Wed, Oct 31, 2018 at 9:42 PM Steve Timko <[email protected]> wrote:
> Two episodes of Hasan Minaj’s “Patriot Act” have dropped. Although he’s a > fairly recent defector from “The Daily Show,” it most closely resembles > John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight.” But Minaj seems to be targeting south > Asians and Muslims with the show. Also, targeting an especially young > audience. > In the first episode. Minaj spends the whole episode talking about > affirmative action. In the second episode, he talks mostly about Saudi > Arabia before switching topics, finally closing with a taped bit that has > kids dropping F bombs. > They attempt a different look with the show. The audience is close to the > stage. But in the first episode especially, they sound like a laugh track. > In the second episode he calls attention to all the brown faces in the > crowd. > The other issue is instead of a green screen or a large TV monitor behind > him, they build a wall of a monitors, Minaj calls it a wall of iPads. They > seem to be working out the kinks. Letterman’s new Netflix shows were > plagued with odd camera angles and cuts for the first few episodes. > “Patriot Act” caught the same bug. There’s odd profile shots that almost > seem to be shooting him from behind. In the Saudia Arabia presentation, the > monitor goes dark, Minaj walks to his spot and then the photo of MBS fades > in behind Minaj. Somehow it looked too rehearsed and lacked impact. > > [image: minajmbs.jpg] > > The director is Richard A. Preuss. IMDB lists some impressive credits. I > think he needs to smooth it out. Conan O’Brien had a rough start and it > took months for him to figure it out. > A bigger problem is that Minaj doesn’t seem to have the charisma or comic > stamina or something to carry a whole half hour. Sometimes his jokes seem > good but he steps on the punchline. It makes your appreciate a John Oliver, > Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, who can keep up the pace for a full half > hour. The latter two benefit from commercial breaks. > Minaj is also making references to south Asian and Muslim cultural items. > Like some kind of test I guess Indian kids take, and some sort of toiletry > tactic he feels is superior to toilet paper alone and to Saudis not owning > dogs. He notes the Saudis have invested heavily in Wag.com, the dog-walking > web site, and said Saudis don’t own dogs. I did a mental search of the four > Arab families I know. Two own dogs. One, in fact, own a dog as a substitute > for falconry, a sport they are too poor to pursue. (The dogs point and > flush and they shoot). On the other hand, of the south Asian families I > know, none own any pets. > New episodes drop weekly. Out of the chute Minaj’s show doesn’t seem to be > as solid as Michelle Wolf’s, but perhaps targeting a different audience > will make it more desirable to Netflix. I will watch one or two more, but I > don’t seem to be in the target audience. > > -- > 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. > -- 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.
