3 out of 5

Created by: Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele

covers through season 3

Frequently hilarious, the half-hour sketch comedy of MADtv graduates Key and Peele finds its nifty niche nestled between the race-relations themed humor of the Chapelle Show (inevitably the first comparison that comes to mind) and the modern meta/awareness style humor of shows like the Office.  This means K&P also – often – threatens to topple over into pandering (toward either side of that niche), and thus with many sketches, once you’ve seen a couple, you know where the joke is going.  Some of this is due to the nature of sketch comedy, where once a character (Peele’s Obama impersonation, for example) works, you start bringing it out constantly, and some of season 2 of the show comes close to modern SNL laziness, where we’re just coasting off suggested funny instead of actual funny, but our leads are intelligent enough to curve things back around and indulge a quirkier sense of humor for the remainder of that season and the one that followed.  One especially notable aspect of the show is the production quality: while some sketches are purposefully dolled up to look like vintage VHS clips or the like, most bits that require extensive sets – zombie sets, Shakespeare sets, Star Wars sets – are of unbelievable quality, surpassing the immersion level of almost every sketch comedy show to date.  Equally impressive is that K&P are literally in every bit.  Often with shows of this type (Mr. Show comes to mind), the leads start it off then slowly start to bring in other players who become recognizable in their own right and occasionally are the feature of a sketch.  And due to the willingness (or desire) to play characters from every walk of life (and play them well – there’s a reason this duo worked as the detectives in the recent Fargo television show), you look forward to seeing what part they roll out next, as opposed to being bored by variations on a theme.  Unfortunately, the general setup of the show – stand-up in front of an audience to introduce the clip – actually ends up diminishing a lot of the jokes, as the warm-up spoils the ‘surprise’ of finding out what the gag is going to be.  The stand-up is also… lackluster; occasionally embarrassing – handholding the audience through a joke (which is when you remember they were on MADtv).  K&P really seem to work more effectively when they can iron out and edit the bits.  So while the show has some absolute moments of genius – and sketches you’ll want to show to every friend – the humor ends up being ‘safe,’ often, as it’s rather predictable (even though presented well), and it would really help the delivery of the sketches if they found a less spoiler-y way of delivering them.