The show opened with a parody of Tuesday night's Presidential Debate between Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain moderated by Tom Brokaw. The debate was in town hall style format and characterized largely by the deep red carpet and the ring-side seats given to about 80 undecided voters, some of which asked questions during the debate.
In the Thaturday Night Live rendition of the debate Fred Armisen and Darrell Hammond played Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain, respectively. Chris Parnell played Tom Brokaw, and brilliantly. Other members of the cast peppered the audience as make-believe voters posing questions. Bill Murray guest-starred, also asking a question.
Lately, Saturday Night Live has been getting a lot of play, largely on account of the Sarah Palin skits that veteran Tina Fey has nailed. Fey played Palin in a rendition of at least two different interviews done with Katie Couric (in addition to playing Palin in the VP debate; & originally in a public service address with Amy Pollard as Hillary Clinton). The interviews both parody and real had a lot of people asking whether Palin was able to perform on the high level of public scrutiny relative to the VP's stage.
There were a number of high points in Thursday night's take on the Presidential Debate, yet there were also some glaringly failed moments as well. Brokaw, who really is pretty much a caricature of a human being anyway, was played really well by Parnell. The tightly moving jaw, the voice, and the believability were all there (even the, "you are in my way of the teleprompter" moment).
The candidates, while okay, leave something to be desired. Armeisn is a good Obama, not extraordinary, but more than adequate. Hammond played McCain but missed a lot of potential parody point and seemed to be still settling into him as a character. For instance, there were multiple times while speaking as McCain that he seemed to visibly remember to stiffen his body so as to better portray the physicality of the war vet.
But aside from the actors, who are on the verge of something great, the writing is really what failed the whole program. While there were some good points, and some outlandish moments scripted in, there appears to be a real failure -thus far, for linking actual comments to parodied.
The bottom line is that contextual parody is good, but even better is a parody that can use all of an event including the specific things people say. Fey's job was easy when the actual things said by Palin were able to be used pretty much directly, but the task of the artist/show is to take the actual and parody it. This is something much more direct, clever, and poiniant than dressing up like someone and being silly. This is what we should expect from SNL.
The Weekend Update
In the second half of Thursday night's show time really started to drag. Seth Meyers, and Amy Pollard do a great one-two delivery of the news via the Weekend Update. Their pieces are generally relevant, they comment on various groups and levels of social life, and most importantly they almost always deliver laughs.
So perhaps they're not to blame for being asked to stretch a normally 5 minute skit into a 15 minute show? Either way, 10 minutes in, one begins to wonder is there enough material? are there anymore skits coming?
Surprisingly, another episode is scheduled for next Thursday night as well. Perhaps this will only go on until October 30, when Fey's 30 Rock has it's season premiere, but if not I'm not sure even with the final debate, the economic crisis, and yadda yadda that they are going to reign it all in and deliver it in star fashion. I mean really, did they do it on Thaturday night?
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