The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore

After watching the second Monday show (26 January) wherein the movie "American Sniper" was discussed, I doubt that this show will or should survive. On his panel of commenters was a man who claimed to have served an aggregate five tours of duty to Afghanistan and Iraq, acting as a sniper. He claimed to have killed nine people in one day, and too many during his tours to count, and felt nothing about the people he had killed. The response from the audience was applause. It was as chilling a moment as I have felt in my life--celebrating a person who demonstrates sociopathy after being sent to participate in the invasion of a country whose people had done nothing to us.

Tasteless and vile.

And very not funny.

I loved Larry Wilmore on the Daily Show, so I gave him a full week's chance on his own ... but it's not working. The problem, I think, is that Larry isn't a great solo act. On the Daily Show, as the "Senior Black Corespondent," he was bouncing off of Stewart. Maybe that's why they decided to do these panel discussions for a good majority of the show, but I've never found it interesting to watch a group of strangers (or near strangers) chat about a subject.

I don't mind that the show is focused on black issues and concerns, and in fact I was ready to find that spin refreshing. His panels are somewhat racially diverse, so I don't feel left out as a white woman ... I'm afraid I just don't think the format is working, and I'm not convinced that Larry has the right force of personality to make this show work.

Larry Wilmore is mildly funny but as far as hosting a show, he is absolutely horrible and painful to watch. Also his jokes are very old and played out, mostly revolving around black issues. His guests do not represent an accurate representation of the population. I was a huge Colbert fan and knew that no one else will come close to comparing, but Comedy Central can do much better. I guarantee Comedy Central loses TONS of viewers during this time slot. I would rather watch Tosh.0 which sadly says a lot. "Keep it 100 n Twitter"... are you kidding me?!? And what about the last segment where he answers a question from a viewer- there's nothing at all mildly comedic about his answers.

I really liked Larry Wilmore's segments on the Daily Show and was looking forward to seeing him with his own show. All in all the show's not bad, but it's not nearly as good as I'd hoped it would be.

In particular, I'm disappointed with the recent spate of "Nightly" reports by Grace Para - they're silly, not at all funny, and pretty much a waste of time. She's an attractive woman and she can be funny - but these segments are simply an annoying distraction from the show itself. Many of the other repeating segments fall into this same category.

What I like best about the show is the roundtable discussion - many of these are thoughtful and they cover some interesting and timely topics. I wish there was more of this and less of the silly segments.

I've been a loyal viewer of The Daily Show for many years and have really enjoyed all of Jon's correspondents, Larry Wilmore included. But he has big shoes to fill in replacing Colbert.

Colbert always complimented Jon well in that he could make light of many ridiculous topics, especially enjoyable after Daily Show episodes which tend to highlight injustice, partisan politics and other frustrating aspects of our nation. Important topics to discuss, but not necessarily to go to sleep on. Colbert would often lighten the mood by entertaining many topics creatively.

Larry, on the other hand, seems to only focus on the black struggle from his perspective as well as those of his black panel guests (and a couple of token white guests who appear as outsiders with little to contribute). The topic of racial divide is a heated one and not one I'm excited to go to sleep on every night.

For me to continue watching the show I'll need to see some topic diversity.

Random thoughts:

• More monologue, less panel - What's with the inverted map??

UPDATE: After watching the show for awhile now I can say that topic diversity didn't help. The show is boring, plain & simple. I've officially stopped watching it. Wilmore is not great on his own, he has little in his comedy toolbox.