Theoretically, that approach should yield a comfortable blend of old and new elements. MADtv has always been the young, scrappy upstart to SNL's elder statesman brand of sketch comedy. Surely bringing back the likes of Sasso and Sullivan and allowing them to play off this younger generation of comics should result in a few laughs, right?
Nope. I'm disappointed to say I barely even cracked a smile over the course of the entire hour. Whatever bite MADtv had back in the days when Sasso and Sullivan were routinely joined by the likes of Mo Collins and Alex Borstein, or later on when Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele were cutting their teeth, is completely gone now. No longer is the show the edgier cousin of SNL. Now it seems content to reach for easy targets and settle for a simplistic, toothless brand of humor.
It's clear things are going wrong from the very first sketch, which features Ray playing CNN anchorman Wolf Blitzer hosting the Clintons and Trumps in a round of "The Trulywed Game." This basically plays like the MADtv version of SNL's recurring Celebrity Jeopardy skits, except far less entertaining. That comparison is all but impossible to ignore given that Ray plays Blitzer so much like Will Ferrell's chronically exasperated Alex Trebek. But what this sketch lacks in originality it should still be able to make up for in humor. Who needs Darrell Hammond's Sean Connery when you have Donald Trump on stage?Unfortunately, while Michael's Trump impression is pretty spot-on from a technical standpoint, the sketch fails to find a fun or interesting new angle on the Donald. You've heard it all before - the small hands, the massive ego, the tendency to say "Yuuuuge" a lot. Nor do Sasso and Sullivan bring anything new to the roles of Bill and Hillary Clinton, characters they played ad nauseum back in the '90s. Both actors generally seem to be going through the motions rather than actually having fun reprising their old characters.
That basically sets the tone for the rest of the episode. The various sketches hit very familiar, broad targets and explore them in extremely superficial fashion. There's a sketch making fun of the fact that Game of Thrones has a lot of characters. There's an overlong parody of ABC's The Bachelor. There's an adult-flavored take on Dora the Explorer, which might have been more timely last time the show was on the air. Only one sketch actually features an original storyline and characters rather than focusing on pop culture spoofs, and it basically consists of a mildly amusing punchline stretched out over several minutes.
To be fair, it seems like the material is more at fault than the actors themselves. Michael proves himself to be a solid impressionist (particularly his eerily accurate Steve Buscemi) and quickly cements his status as the show's new Frank Caliendo. Davison isn't bad on that front either (her Lena Dunham impression being another standout). And Ortiz brings a lot of giddy energy to the screen whenever she takes center stage. But with writing this broad and formulaic, there just isn't enough incentive to laugh at these tepid sketches.
The lousy production values don't particularly help. The old MADtv was never exactly a visual tour de force, but it got the job done. Here, too many sketches consist of the cast standing against a crude green screen backdrop and miming along. Even those sketches that do take place on actual sets feel small, cheap and claustrophobic. Whether in terms of writing or budget, the series is hard-pressed to compete even with the YouTube realm.
But perhaps the worst mistake this premiere makes is including a clip from an older MADtv sketch featuring the dynamic duo of Key and Peele. That sketch - its energy, its choreography, its hilarious performances - absolutely destroys everything that precedes it. It reminds viewers of what this series used to be capable of even so late in its lifespan. But maybe it also serves as an example of what this new season has to strive for if it's going to be worthy of the "MADtv" name.
