3 out of 10..
Almost awful. In that sad space between bad and awful, nowhere near parody-bad at the bottom...
I looked forward to this new host with some quiet, enthusiastic, optimistic anticipation...
My previous point of view (before watching this)..
- I could only enjoy Conan in small amounts.. - Letterman i used to enjoy a lot. Now only if a special guest i like is on do I ever watch it.. - JAY Leno --> the KING of late night comedy... I ALWAYS (92.5%) find his show funny, entertaining and a good time
Note: with all of these I usually skip the singing/dancing crap at the end...in other words im there for the ENTERTAINMENT, ie jokes, fun interactions, cool pre-recorded bits..and especially stuff that happens off-the-cuff, non-scripted (sadly very little..BUT BOTH Jay Leno AND Conan are good at that...)
Now...I enjoyed:
- Jimmy Fallon's nervous but nice personality - His obvious person to person connecting skills (see below for counter-point) - The ROOTS... simply AMAZING! - Jimmy & the band's singing-the-news bit
Sadly... saying that here are the things I really didn't like:
- Jimmy's *MUMBLING* ...HELLO?!! Am I the ONLY ONE TO NOTICE THIS????
I mean when he interviews guests and when they are going to a commercial break or coming back... its just INSANE the AMOUNT of MUMBLING...
What is this AMATEUR HOUR?????
- Lick crap for $10 dollars. Not funny...slow motion kinda okay, but wow...
- The SAME GUY on the show THREE TIMES using THREE DIFFERENT NAMES... you know the phillipino guy (not certain of ethnicity here) wearing the green T-shirt...didn't ANYONE ELSE NOTICE that???
- A good majority of the monologues this week... This was one of the biggest things for me to make or break the show...
And aside from singing the news.. I cant think of a joke or bit that I laughed at.... So far Fallon's monologue seems to have gone from repeating word for word (you can see his eyes not looking at the camera when he reads the teleprompter) the jokes of a depressed writing team, to falling back on overt praise for President Obama, because he knew that would get some response...
It's sad... OH WAIT actually Friday's back and forth with the announcer guy about whether he's licked anything worth £139 dollars DID ALSO make me laugh..and that was a nice spontaneous moment between the two that was great!
- But yeah... like another commenter here there were a few times where the guest and Fallon were bantering and then you can see on his face he must go "Oh..Stop. Wait.. the audience dosn't know what we're talking about'..
...BUT THEN what follows is INCOHERENT, bland and vague attempt to explain what they were just talking about, or how the two know each other off stage...
which brings the feeling SQUARE back to:
"Is this AMATEUR HOUR at nbc????"
W.T.F...
So yes...from enthusiastically optimistic, and even after watching the first few shows, hoping for better...we arrived at Friday's show...and I find myself at the 40 minute mark of a 45 minute show STILL WAITING for the ENTERTAINMENT...at which point, I turn it off..and walk away...
...THOROUGHLY disappointed in this show..