Live from New York – it sucks

The 33rd season of “Saturday Night Live” began two weeks ago with very high hopes. After arguably some of the worst years in the show’s history, “SNL” finally turned funny last season. The great stable of cast members came together with tremendous recurring characters – The Two A-Holes, MacGruber, Penelope – and the always-hilarious digital shorts.\nNothing changed, so “SNL” should have hit the ground running this year. If the first two episodes of this season are signs of what’s to come, audiences are in for more unintentional comedy than an episode of “CSI: Miami.” It’s not as bad as the Chris Elliott and Jim Breuer years of the 1990s, but any more of this and we’re going to ask for Goat Boy.\nLeBron James hosting the premiere was the show’s first mistake. His monologue was a direct rip-off of “The LeBrons” commercials that got him the job in the first place. It’s pathetic that the writers couldn’t come up with anything better to open the season. Throughout the episode, James never stepped outside the limits of his own persona and was utterly boring. \nThankfully, the hilarious Seth Rogen hosted episode two. Wait, did he? Rogen was hardly in enough sketches and didn’t do jack in the ones he was in, aside from “Douchebag 2007.” Why have hosts if they’re going to be used less than Tim Meadows was in the late ’90s?\nWeekend Update needs to be retooled big time. Seth Meyers is not and has never been funny, which only makes the somewhat funny Amy Poehler seem worse because the two don’t have any chemistry. The Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spot fell flat because only 10 minutes previously they did the “Iran So Far Away” digital short. We get it: He’s a homosexual because he doesn’t believe in homosexuals. Chevy Chase’s appearance was cool, but there’s a reason Chase rarely has a job: He hasn’t been funny since 1990. \nDon’t forget how off the mark most of the sketches have been. Some of them, such as the “High School Musical 3” spot, had a lot of potential, but they were pissed away by more bad writing. The performances have been solid, but a lot of the jokes have been too flat, which falls on Meyers, who just happens to be head writer, and his staff.\nThere is good news. This is a strong cast – Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis and Fred Armisen especially – and some of the sketches have worked. And obviously, “Iran So Far Away” continued the run of excellent digital shorts.\nThe writers need to get their heads out of their asses and create more sketches for the great performers. Put the duos of Wiig-Sudeikis and Armisen-Samberg together more often because when they’re together, it’s magic. Try to keep Maya Rudolph away from the screen. Give Hader or Sudeikis a shot at anchoring Weekend Update. If this happens, the 33rd season will live up to the hype and usher in the fourth golden era of “SNL,” joining the casts from the original season, the early ’90s and the early 2000s as the best ensembles in the show’s history.