Key & Peele: Season 1 (2012)

These guys have been around for 5 seasons and I just heard of them? Proof that I don’t watch much TV. They have been friends since school age and are completely tight and hilarious while riffing off each other; their timing and spontaneity are impeccable. They follow the Chappelle Show format of opening with a personal riff on a theme to introduce prerecorded sketches along those lines (usually race- or gender-related), but they mix it up a bit more in between; they’ll do fake commercials but also random things. As always, I will update this review as I view, but season 1 strikes me as about as funny as the Chappelle Show, but less funny than one of my all-time faves, Boondocks. Yet the production values are exceptional and these boys present some great material: frequently we see Obama’s “anger interpreter,” Luther, who is so classic that he appeared at a White House event at Obama’s request; let us not forget “B**CH” (scope out the full perimeter before whispering the word); not to mention the mismatched gay couple, two slaves on the auction block, dueling magical Negroes, the irrepressibly affable taxi driver, the sneaky Negro-hunting Nazi, and Obama using reverse psychology on the Republicans. My initial 3.5 stars will doubtless glide up to 4 stars. Enjoy! (4-22-2016)