3 out of 5

This is… embarrassing.  That’s the only saving grace.  I’m not even clear on how it was 25 hours long (yes, that was the claimed runtime of the “ad-free” binge-a-thon), given that the show was ten thirty minute episodes… I mean, do the math, a one hour special, five hours of show…  And then to do it live?  As a call-in special?  It is so strange and weird, almost to the point of Tim and Eric discomfort, which, again, is that saving grace.  To further add to the questionable nature of the thing, the special (which I haven’t made clear, is cobbled together from between-episode moments run during the first showing of Angie Tribeca) acts as both a shill for the “new” TBS – rejiggered, like so many channels, as a home for original content, and so stars from shows we haven’t heard of are shuffled on screen, asked one question, and shuffled off – as well as for sponsors, so we actually get promotional spots for Dunkin Donuts and Sprint, delivered with uncomfortable cheek that’s not allowed to poke fun at the product or the act of the shill.  So everyone on the thing seems a little embarrassed as well, though host Deon Cole makes a spectacularly enthusiastic go at being unfunny.  He can mug to the camera alright, but otherwise his “material” amounts to just saying words with a funny face.

Man.  What an odd spectacle.  But something you really don’t see normally, and satisfies an odd cringe-comedy niche.