By Rachel Lutz, Assistant Editorial Editor
“Thursday Nite Live” came back for another season last week in its regular time slot. While it wasn’t great, it was a good representation of what viewers can expect from this semester’s upcoming episodes.
The live open didn’t have sound for the first three minutes. I don’t understand why this seems to be a reoccurring problem with the show, but it ended up being solved after not too long. Through the character’s facial expression I was able to understand the basis of what was happening. Basically, the students weren’t properly executing the public speaking assignment, and the teacher thought they were idiots. While this is relevant to an academic environment, it didn’t seem age appropriate, as the students were acting like middle schoolers instead of college students.
I give a lot of credit to the faculty adviser of “TNL” for doing a guest spot in the “How to Create a Promo” sketch. It was funny, and seemed like it took forever to tape not only because it was designed to look that way, but also because it went on for way too long.
The “Boston Middle School Spelling Bee” was a good sketch to do live, but I’m not sure if the audience reacted the same way as I did at home. The graphic for how to spell the word appeared on screen for the viewers at home, and while the audience laughed after Cian Smith spelled out the words minus his ridiculous accent, it was funnier for me because I could see what they were actually looking for, versus how the Bostonians actually pronounce it.
The “PS 6606” sketch was entirely shot in the dark. I understood the concept that it was night, but without being able to completely see what was going on, I couldn’t fully appreciate it.
One of the live sketches that I didn’t like was the end of the year basketball banquet. While it was innocent enough, it was too long, and started to get boring towards the end. Once the first or second person left, I got the gist of how the rest of the skit was going to go, though I didn’t know how long it would go on for. It should have ended at that point.
“TNL News” was pretty good, though maybe a little too long. It focused mainly on current events, at least, such as the alleged machete that is roaming around right outside The University’s borders.
“TNL” re-ran a couple of sketches, but they were ones that I had previously enjoyed so I didn’t mind too much. The Genericorp new employee conduct training video was one that I remember and liked, as well as a parody of Jersey Shore, where Ronnie gets skin cancer from too much GTL.
The musical guest, “Count to Four,” was a cast member’s band. The music sounded good, I could hear the guitar and drums, but the vocals were in and out. I couldn’t hear the backup vocals at all. They played three songs, one at 9:20, and then one to close the show, and another while the credits were rolling, which the lead vocalist and guitarist dedicated to his grandmother.