I've been a fan of NBC's "Last Comic Standing" since I caught a marathon on Bravo before the start of Season 2. While it has had some rocky moments (the judges finding out that their verdicts didn't mean jack shit over the opinions of the producers -- meaning that "good TV" ruled out over "who's funniest"), it's been a fairly solid show that has brought a lot of laughs.
This year, though -- Season Five -- has been a big disappointment. Starting with the rather lackluster Season Four (Anthony Clark just didn't do it for me), "Last Comic Standing" has focused much more on the shortened stagework and less on the house life of the comedians -- some of the best fodder from the first three seasons. The cliche is that comedy comes from pain, so seeing a group of pained people suddenly stuck in small quarters made for some great tension and really made the competition between the comedians mean something. The shorter season also meant the elimination of some of the better challenges such as the cross-comedian roast. While this was done on the final episode... it just didn't have the same Friar's club punch.
Season Five felt abbreviated. More weeks were spent looking for talent than face-offs. And, with double eliminations happening twice, the weeks just flew by. And, since then, it's been steadily filler-fulled episodes as the comedians get voted off. And, while I found Matt Kirshen and Debra DiGiovanni to be pretty frickin' funny, the rest of the comedians didn't really make me laugh when voting was turned over to the American public. Sure, I chuckled a few times at Amy Schumer, but even the finalists didn't get more than a smile from me.
Here's hoping that this show can get a kick in the pants and some gravel in its guts for the next season.
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