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I'd Prefer This To Be A Lost Episode Or, Better Yet, An Episode Of Lost

Throughout this challenge, I’ve often pointed out how around this era of my life I started to lose interest in the world of film and television. For those new to the site, this was due to the fact that a combination of two decades of screenwriting and working in the industry doing lighting, opened my eyes to the smoke and mirrors that, when not seen, used to make my viewing experience so exciting. TV was actually the first to go, but this was more due to the fact that every show was starting to become extremely serialized instead of each episode standing on its own with an extremely loose overall storyline.

For one, this change made it so that I had to watch every episode in order to keep up with every show that I’d watch. Though annoying, this wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back. What killed TV for me stemmed from me having a quirky taste and show like Dead Like Me would hook me in only to end up canceled without even a hint of closure. This happened so much that I ultimately gave up on scripted television.

Lost was the one show that won me back when it was announced with plenty of advanced notice that it would be coming to an end. Since I knew that the final season was written with the intention to bring the show to a close, I gave in to the pressure and watched the entire series within a couple of weeks and totally fell in love. Though I do see how and why people started to complain after J.J. Abrams left, but watching the entire run of the show all in a row, having blocked out all of the spoilers because of my initial disinterest, made the viewing experience the most TV fun that I had in years, at that time.

Though I loved Lost, I never really saw Matthew Fox as that funny of a guy, so when I saw that there were only thirteen segments to this episode, I started to brace myself for a less than successful night. The sketch list didn’t help because it showed an opening political sketch, which I accept as a standard show opener even though it starts me out in a negative mood. Aside from that, I don’t like Nancy Grace, and I’ve never enjoyed the Deep House Dish series of sketches, which took up most of the first half of the night.

In fact, the only thing that I was genuinely excited about going into the viewing was the fact that Tenacious D was the musical guest for the night. I didn’t even have that part of me that thought some of the sketches would be better than the brief outline made them sound. Then during the actual viewing, I found that my fears were spot on to the point where I don’t even feel like doing my usual back peddle by passively saying that, despite the flaws, I still found the show to be at least a little fun.

Nope.

I was bored throughout a bulk of the night to where I’m now just happy that it’s over. With that, I’m just going to wrap this one up by sharing what I actually saw, as I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with a parody of An NBC Special Report where, once again, Jason Sudeikis continued as the new George W. Bush to hold a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, played by Fred Armisen, along with Will Forte as his translator who calmly translated the chaotic way the al_Maliki was forced into this new partnership with Bush. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
Matthew Fox then officially opened the show with a monolog about how his life fell apart years several years ago when he was the only cast member from Party Of Five who was never asked to host SNL. He then went on to note Cliff from Cheers, Matt LeBlanc from Friends and Michael Richards from Seinfeld also suffered from this curse. Before he could get much further Bill Hader interrupted as Michael Richards who was desperate for airtime since this was the weekend following “Kramer’s” “n-word” outburst while doing a failed routine. Fox then sent Richards away before throwing to the first fake commercial of the night.
This was followed by a fake ad for Sale-Mart that proudly promoted a store that was able to keep their prices low by cutting corners on their employee’s benefits.
We then got another parody of Nancy Grace where once again, Amy Poehler played the titular host to discuss the recent Michael Richards’s “n-word” incident with Kenan Thompson. Thompson played a black college professor who didn’t seem all that bothered by the failed attempt at a joke because it didn’t affect him at all, even though he did think Richards was in the wrong. She also gave a hypothetical review of an O.J. Simpson special that was canceled before it was even produced and then went on to grill Matthew Fox who played a cop that gave her a ticket for parking in a handicapped spot.
Deep House Dish then returned with Kenan Thompson revising he DJ Dynasty Handbag character, only instead of Rachel Dratch, Andy Samberg played his new co-host. Other than that the sketch was more of the same with the two fully grown club kid introducing new house, and hip-hop music to their MTV-4 watching fans.
We then went on an Elevator Ride where Matthew Fox was bombarded by questions about Lost while trapped said elevator with a group of fans.
Tenacious D then took to the stage to perform Kickapoo.
Once again, Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers gave us the news. This week, Darrell Hammond and Kenan Thompson dropped by as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in order to attempt to deter racism by making the word “Kramer” the new derogatory term for black people. Meanwhile, there wasn’t even a hint of addressing the fact that Darrell Hammond was pretty much performing in blackface. Kristin Wiig then returned as Amy Poehler’s crazy aunt for more of her one-word movie reviews of movies being released for the Thanksgiving weekend. Maya Rudolph also stopped by as Whitney Houston to comment on her financial issues only to end up getting a bunch of prank calls on her cell phone.
Crazy Mountain Man had Matthew Fox as the titular mountain man who only wanted a piece of pie but instead had to settle for a kiss from Amy Poehler and Kristin Wiig who play a pair of pretty mountain woman. At first, Matt was going along with the sketch until he realized that this was just a ploy for the girls to write a segment where they got to make out with our host. This is a hot host trope that I can’t stand whether the host is a woman or a man, but at least, in this case, it was at least jokingly acknowledged as the sketch’s purpose.
Math Vs. History had Will Forte and Kristin Wiig as two history buffs who took it really hard when their son, Andy Samberg switched his major to math while off to school in college.
We then got a parody of a History Channel Documentary called The Mayan Empire that showed Fred Armisen as the Mayan tribe’s fearless leader who turned to complete mush after discovering the joys of hot cocoa.
Tenacious D then returned to the stage to perform The Metal.
Finally, Matthew Fox closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

I wish that I could be more positive about tonight’s episode because I don’t mind Matthew Fox and was a huge fan of Lost but aside from form these three segments that contained my favorite moments of the night, this was the first time in quite a while where I’ll unapologetically admit that I was bored. First, I loved The Mayan’s Discover Cocoa sketch because I was an early adopter of the Mayan Calendar fears so, even at the time, I remember this sketch for showing the Mayan’s lighter side. Next, I really like Tenacious D’s The Metal song because there was enough theatrics for me to consider it a sketch as well as a musical performance. Finally, I was a fan of the Elevator Ride sketch because I like how it blatantly addressed everyone’s fears that Lost was just making up things as they go.