Maya & Marty

This 62 year old white male liked this show. I thought the writing was creative and far superior to most of the SNL shows from the previous calendar year.

Not every joke hits. That's a given. It's Martin Short and Maya Rudolph (Minnie Riperton). But there were some very creative bits that have never been done before.

And the guest stars they got was unimaginable. Steve Martin, Emma Stone, Nathan Lane, Tom Hanks, etc.

Sean Hayes as the 1940's gay detective, filmed in B/W was great.

The days where America sits down to watch a 60 minute show together are gone. But there was some brilliant comedy in this 360 minute series.

I don't know if they could make it last in a second season. But I truly enjoyed it. Thank you Mikey, Maya, Martin, and Kenan.

I ask everyone, what if SNL had these guest stars and cast every week?

Bottom line: Not that entertaining or funny.

It's just like Saturday Night Live, hit and miss, but with less of the firepower behind the "hit" (smaller cast and writing staff, I think - either way, it's shorter, so two unfunny skits is like 1/3rd of the show).

Personally, Rudolph was perfect on stage, but Short was a little too old school hokey for me (I like him in SNL skits, movies, etc., but on stage, he overdoes it, like he wants to make sure the senior citizens get the jokes).

There were five skits, and two musical numbers. I only thought one skit out of everything was funny (Short doing his Jiminy Glick character with Larry David, which I always really like). I had ZERO interest in Miley Cyrus's song and the second musical number: tap dancing!

I think Networks are going to have to do some serious belt tightening. Now, with streaming so pervasive, and only growing, consumers have the option to watch EXACTLY what they want. They no longer have to put up with shows, skits, or music they don't like just to get to the stuff they do like, which is exactly what "Maya and Marty" is.

Maya Rudolph and Martin Short are both very talented performers. They are also very unique - they need writers who understand their strengths, and their limitations, and can write for their unique talents.

The writers of this show have apparently never seen either Rudolph or Short before....they also apparently have never ever seen a variety Show before - because they have no clue how to do their jobs.

This muddled mess ends up being just painfully bad - despite the best efforts of Short and Rudolph. Martin Short is particularly at a disadvantage with these writers.

NBC should be ashamed of wasting the talents of these folks with such incredibly awful writing.

Even in their best moments Maya Rudolph and Martin Short can be self-indulgent and nerve-grating. When they are not reigned in they become unwatchable.

Week one gave me some hope. There were flat moments but more than a few chuckles. Most promising, the show had several guests that kept M&M coming in small, measured doses. Then came Week two... a total train wreck. There were Maya and Marty mugging and overacting in virtually every minute of the show. And it seemed to be catching, as they managed to make the rest of the cast equally terrible. Only the Glick skit evoked a few laughs.

Finally, can somebody tell me, does Maya think she can sing and dance, or is she doing a bit? She reminds of the person who tries to pull off karaoke but then acts like the whole thing is a goof when it becomes obvious that she is terrible.

I had hopes that this really was a revival of the old variety show theme. But, alas there is no variety, it ALL stinks.

SNL alumni Maya Rudolph and Martin Short host a prime time variety show produced by Lorne Michaels. It's hour long episodes. There are six of them. It's a summer replacement show. They have big name guests with many from SNL. The question is whether this genre can return. The short answer is no. This has a few issues. The biggest is that Maya and Marty are not really connected performers other than their stints on SNL. Quite frankly, Marty was a short term hired gun while Maya was part of a major female wave that signified an era. They don't have much in common. It's nothing like Marty and Steve Martin. Another issue is the song and dance aspect. I appreciate the old school variety but it's not that fun. The skits are hit and miss. One thing that could energize it would be to do it live although that would be SNL. It seems that live performances of musicals, and old TV shows hold more potential. Those feel like Events while this feels old.