Revolutionary Moderation

I want my M(ercer)TV



Actually, not so much. Monday Report was okay, but nothing I'll schedule my week around. The basic problem? Too much Mercer.



The Middleman reviewed Monday Report much more positively, so I'll suggest you head there for an alternative view. From my perspective, there was simply too much Mercer, and too many clunkers.



It began with a monologue, which simply went on too long. Edit, edit, edit. It continued with a 22 Minutes-style "news report", which wasn't bad, but was a little too intentionally opinionated. Take a page from Jon Stewart's book, here, and make the look and feel more of an an "objective" news report, and you can sneak much more in. We move on to a bit about boosting your car with Keifer's mom. Yawn. Hey, I like Shirley Douglas as much as the next left-winger, but this is the high point of celebrities available for the series premier?



Mercer did a walking, film-stock rant, which worked as well here as it always did for 22 Minutes - no complaints here. This particular one (on the military) wasn't his sharpest ever, but neither was it the worst... keep this bit, no matter what other changes are made. He then moved on to a bit where he gave the Ontario Teachers Union grief about some of their pension investments. You know, when you have $60 billion in investments, it's unlikely that you won't have any in tobacco or pharmaceuticals. Just ask the investors in most mutual funds in this country. Simply guilting them to divest, should you manage it, doesn't change things. Ask them to vote their shares ethically, and there's a whole different result.



Finally, we see a second person on set. Daryn Jones, "famous" for his work on the Comedy Network's Buzz, he did a very "Buzz"-like bit on New Year resolutions. I enjoyed this a lot, as much as anything due to the change of pace. I think Monday Report would be helped by expanding the stable of "reporters", and changing up the pace of an episode a little more, and earlier.



The finishing "streeter" with Torontonians talking about how much the rest of the country sucks was clever, and ended the show on a high note.



This show has a lot of potential, but it isn't there yet. I'll be looking forward to the bugs-ironed-out version, which I hope we're seeing by April.