Portlandia Uniquely Amusing

     IFC has a new sketch comedy series produced by Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels called Portlandia. It will likely not surprise you to learn that it also stars a SNL cast member, Fred Armisen, known for playing Barack Obama and Joy Behar, among others. Fred is joined by Carrie Brownstein.

     The show is made up of a series of shorts featuring odd characters, some stand alone, some recurring in multiple episodes. The jokes are much more understated than SNL. The unique catch here is that all the bits take place in Portland, Oregon, and the show tries to capture the spirit of the city. Having never been there, I can't say if it does so accurately. I can say, I have enjoyed watching it.

     In the first two weeks, Fred and Carrie visited a free range chicken farm populated by polygamists, an uber-feminist bookshop, engaged in an adult game of hide and seek, write a theme song for Portland at the request of the mayor, and did a huge opening number for the premiere.

     The humor is unexpected, and fun. For instance, the sketch about writing the song was back and forth random ideas between the pair. What made it rise above average was that Carrie fell in love, accidentally killed the guy, and attended his funeral while giving her thoughts. It was never mentioned, but really elevated the whole sketch.

     Celebrities, too, seem to like the show. In the first two episodes alone, Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire), Kyle MacLachlan (Desperate Housewives), Jason Sudeikis (SNL), and Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) stopped by to join the pair in their odd stories. I don't know who will be next up, but I'm excited.

     Check out Portlandia Friday nights at 10:30 p.m. on IFC.

Article first published as TV Review: Portlandia Uniquely Amusing on Blogcritics.

For frequent mini-reviews and occasional TV news, follow Jerome on Twitter.

Saturday Night Live premieres with Amy Poehler

     NBC may be (unfairly) holding Parks and Recreation until mid-season, but Amy Poehler returned to the network this week as host of Saturday Night Live's season premiere.  Not only did Amy show up, brought she brought a multitude of friends with her.  In her awesome monologue, she relayed a dream she had supposedly had the night before, and the sequence was filmed for our enjoyment.  She had a kissing scene with Justin Timberlake, who proclaimed her a horrible kisser. Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon taunted her, saying they were back, and she would not be doing the Weekend Update segment.  A polar bear devoured her friend Rachel Dratch.  The whole thing was bizarre, and also very funny.

     SNL has been uneven for awhile now.  One could argue that last season was pretty bad, on the whole.  This week's episode was mostly polished and sharp.  While Amy's friends did fill in during the monologue, only a couple of them appeared in skits, so they can't get all of the credit for improving the quality of the show.  Justin Timberlake was in one very short skit with Andy Samberg called "Actor II Actor".  There wasn't much to it, but I laughed out loud the entire time.  Maya Rudolph also returned for a brand new "Bronx Beat", which featured Katy Perry in a sly nod to her Seasame Street video that was cut.  Perry also returned for an Oscar segment that was probably the worst part of the episode.

     Two cast members, that I noticed, are no longer with SNL.  Jenny Slade had not been on the show that long, and she's gone.  Also, Will Forte resigned.  I do not know if his departure had anything to do with the box office failure of the Macgruber movie, but it wouldn't surprise me.  The show added four new cast members to this year's lineup, but they weren't featured much, so it's hard to form an opinion yet.  My current favorite, who really stood out this week despite very limited screen time, is Nasim Pedrad.  I wasn't overly impressed with her last year, but her mock of Edie Falco in Nurse Jackie was spot on, and she also could easily replace Amy Poehler in the "Rick" sketches.

     The one did a Will Smith impression during Weekend Update that marked the only blemish in that part of the show.  Update was fantastic this week, with one of the best "Really!?! With Seth and Amy"s of all time, covering Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and gays in the military.  The real Governor David Patterson also showed up to face-off with his rival, and played along with the recurring bits.  My favorite sketch of this week's episode was probably the Mosque commercial.  The sad part is, there are people in this country that would take that seriously.

     Next week Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) will be the host, and Kanye West is the musical guest.  Tune into NBC Saturday nights at 11:30 to watch the show.

SNL: Betty White is not too old for this s***

     Last night's special Mother's Day edition of NBC's Saturday Night Live was a ratings hit, and an audience's delight.  Despite the over three decades the show has been on the air, and the nearly twice that that Betty White has been active in show business, the two had never come together until the 88 year old hosted last night's show.  She had been offered the gig several times, but turned it down, and so SNL had stopped asking.  Then came a recent facebook group, pleased with White's Snickers commercial during this year's Super Bowl, and she decided she couldn't let down the half a million fans petitioning for her.

     The show started surprisingly rocky.  The opening sketch before the theme song was one that has been done on the show before, and despite featuring white and all six SNL female alum who joined her on screen, it stunk.  However, once that was out of the way, the episode was quite good.  White played a nursing home cop in CSI: Sarasota, was McGruber's disturbing grandmother, and, along with several great movie references, made the recurring sketch "Scared Straight" actually funny!  A touching tribute of the current and guest cast singing "Thank You For Being a Friend" to her turned into White donning a ski mask and beating the hell out of them.  In segment after segment, White proved that she should have taken the job years ago.

     The outpouring of emotion directed at White by both the actors sharing the stage and the audience was apparent.  Jay-Z dedicated a touching rendition of "Forever Young" to her, and as she was handed multiple bouquets of flowers at the end, surely tears came to many an eye.  Unfortunately, Jay-Z did not appear in any skits, despite rumors that he would.

     Joining White were a slew of female alum, which, unfortunately, didn't leave room for the current cast to do all that much.  However, they certainly showed that they were missed.  Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon brought back their famous NPR radio show sketch, Shannon also appeared as Sally O'Mally, and Maya Rudolph brought back Whitney Houston.  "Really With Seth (Meyers) and Amy" (Poehler) was resurrected, and added to as "Really With Seth, Amy, and Tina" (Fey).  Rachel Dratch didn't reprise any popular characters, because her Debbier Downer sketch was sadly cut (it can be seen at this link), but she's always welcome in good comedy.  Also cut, but on Hulu, are a Bronx Beat, Joyologist Helen Madden, and C-SPAN's coverage of the Times Square Bomber.  The night ended with Tina and Betty doing a hilarious U.S. Census questionnaire.  Betty was sweet, with plenty of profanity.

     All in all, it was a great night for the show and a triumph for Ms. White.  I certainly wouldn't call in the funniest episode of Saturday Night Live ever, or even of this season, but it was familiar, emotionally moving, and what it needed to be.  Kudos to all involved.

     Saturday Night Live airs Saturday nights at 11:30pm on NBC.

Taylor Lautner pads onto Saturday Night Live

     As with any show that has been on a long time, NBC's Saturday Night Live has its ups and downs.  I can think of no other show like it that has been on for thirty-five years, and its ups are good enough to keep watching through its downs.  Unfortunately, after last year's very big up, this year has been mostly down.  The one exception that leaps to mind is the Taylor Swift-hosted fantastic episode more than a month ago, and possibly some of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's.  Another Taylor, Lautner, (Jacob in the Twilight series) stepped up this week, and sadly did not do as well.

     The opening monologue was amusing enough, with Taylor reliving the Kanye VMA moment, and somehow keeping it from being stale, though the event itself is by this point.  It will only fuel more rumors on if the two Taylors are in fact dating (Swift dropped a more obvious hint in her opening).  The best skit he was in by far was the Team Jacob vs. Team Edward skit, where he was the girl defending the Edward side, of course.  It was a play off of the commercials.  He also performed admirably in the football interview skit, and was the only (slight) redeeming part of the middle school choir piece.  His love connection segment was terrible, one of the worst in recent memory, but was unable to salvage "Surprise!"  As much as Kristen Wiig is the star of the show now, if she never revives Aunt Sue, many will give thanks.

     The rest of the show without Lautner fumbled, mostly.  Seth Meyers is trying, and sometimes succeeding, hosting Weekend Update alone, but Amy Poehler is certainly missed in that spot.  Nasid Pedrad delivered a very funny take as Mistress #15 during Update, and Jason Sudeikis tried very hard to make the Tiger Woods scandal shine during his PGA announcements, with mixed results.  The rest of the episode, as has too often been the case this season, was forgettable.  Even musical guest Bon Jovi was dull, his tunes more mellow than in years past.

     Can SNL revive itself again?  Surely so.  Andy Samberg has given us many a gut-splitting Digital Short.  Wiig, Sudeikis, Will Forte, Kenan Thompson, and Meyers are far from past their prime, and the new additions of Pedrad, Bobby Moynihan, and Abby Elliott were very helpful.  And the rest of the cast isn't half bad.  Hopefully the writer's will find another dash of genius soon.  They have one more chance in 2009.  Come on guys!  Sarah Palin is back in the headlines.  Take a cue!

     Saturday Night Live will present a two hour primetime Christmas special this Thursday (unfortunately hosted by Wiig's most uber-annoying character, Gilly), and will conclude their fall batch of episodes this Saturday with host James Franco and musical guest Muse.