If wanting Jimmy Fallon to succeed made it happen, he'd have knocked his debut week as the new host of "Late Night" out of the park on my enthusiasm alone. But wanting doesn't make it so, and the goofball kid who couldn't keep a straight face on "Saturday Night Live" for all those years clearly flailed - and by some accounts, failed - badly through his first week on the air.
Fallon now sits among late-night giants Conan O'Brien and David Letterman, but it's been a tough week for the former SNL star. His heart is in the right place, although at the moment both Fallon and the overall energy of the show (buoyed in no small part by the coolest house band ever - The Roots) are way beneath the line of consistent watchability. His monologues are cue-card dependent bouts of awkward that don't draw the audience in the way that they should, and the bits and skits are, for the most part, the kind of cringe-worthy bad that you wouldn't even expect from the likes of Carson Daly. ("Lick It For Ten"? What the hell? It's okay to mess around with the pointless, but not if the humor is infantile.)
Not even Jimmy's friends, which packed half the guest roster for the week, could make things seem entirely comfortable. When he's talking to people he knows like Tina Fey, Drew Barrymore, Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz, the conversation flows as naturally as you would expect any conversation between friends to go, although there's an underlying sense in each interview that Fallon were wishing the cameras away. With a guest that's not part of his inner circle, however, he's an unnatural mess, nervously cutting guests off and talking over them, often not even letting them answer the lead-in question he'd just asked. It's hard to watch, and not hard to understand why a hefty percentage of people weighing in are hoping for him to fail.
There is hope, however; Fallon's noticeably improved from the first show until now, with a considerable quality leap coming after the weekend break, where he undoubtedly microanalyzed every critique he received. It shows he's a quick study, which is important. It's also good to keep in mind that it's typical for a new host to flounder at the onset as they try to settle in and figure out what works and what doesn't. It only helps that he's got a built-in musical trick up his sleeve with The Roots, whose performance with guest Ludacris last week was inspired, fresh and bursting with awesome. It's going to take a while to get used to seeing them in such small context, but Black Thought makes a hell of a hype man, no?
If he can pull off some winning segments, those on the fence might warm up to Jimmy. The "President of the Audience" bit got the crowd involved, but ultimately it was a mess, despite a poker-faced cameo by Rachel Maddow. Furthermore, the very last segment in the first week was a cooking segment, and a terrible one at that. Drew Barrymore and Chace Crawford were so bored during the bit that they had their own private conversation, despite being brought in to help. Fallon simply needed to take command and incorporate a greater sense of leadership, something that he's yet to show he has the ability to do.
His fake reality-TV show (a la "The Hills)) called "7th Floor West" wasn't too bad, but went on way, way, way too long. Slow Jam the News is good, but bits with Robert De Niro ("Space Train") and Donald Trump ("Trump-Trump's Putt-Putt") failed to deliver. The dance-off with Cameron Diaz, however, was a solid winner. Who knew Jimmy actually had moves?
Of course, the biggest argument against Jimmy is that they could stick anyone in as host and eventually they would grow into it - so what makes him worth sticking it out for? He still doesn't strike me - or many others, for that matter - as late night host material. to save himself, Fallon would be wise to incorporate his online fanbase into the show. He's no stranger to the internet, having established a relationship with the nerd demographic early on through his viral videos and pre-debut practice webisodes. If he's really as hip and current as they're trying to present him as, it would serve him well to move beyond the occasional Twitter mention and into something a little more substantial. He needs to drop the stupid Wonder Bread humor (the "Blonde Mothers" sketch alone made it hard not to swear off the show entirely on principle) and start delivering something more edgy and cutting, or he'll have only himself - and maybe the writers (who should already be out of a job) - to blame.
