A new golden age of television began as The Colbert Report premiered last night.Simply put, it was very funny. I was afraid that Stephen Colbert needed Jon Stewart around to prompt the hilarity, but he doesn't. It helped that Stone Phillips showed up for a little self-parody of the robotically smooth anchorman. And I was concerned about the studio audience until I realized that Colbert feeds off their energy to keep the show rolling. For now, it works.
Complaints: it needs a better theme and better titles to distinguish it from The Daily Show. The set is too dark and should more directly resemble The O'Reilly Factor than a cross between SportsCenter and Charlie Rose. The more he steals from Bill O'Reilly and the other windbags of cable news, the better. I certainly look forward to Colbert's version of talking points, interviews via satellite, and responses to viewer e-mail.
2 comments:
Here's the basic problem with The Colbert Report to me -- I get the feeling that I miss a lot of the jokes because I've never watched a minute of The O'Reilly Factor. I only know O'Reilly by reputation and by seeing Jon Stewart shred him on The Daily Show in his most righteous smackdown since he exposed Christopher Hitchens as someone who has allowed polemics to swamp his considerable talent.
I have a feeling I'm not alone in the sense of NOT watching both shows.
I get the joke in the general sense -- cable pundits have inflated their own egos to extremes that are begging for parody. But will Colbert tell pretty much the same joke night after night? How long will that work?
Thanks bdure. I thought it was just me. I won't touch The Factor with a ten foot pole. I thought perhaps I needed to let it all sink in after a few weeks but, while I chuckled, I was basically underwhelmed.
Post a Comment