Maya & Marty

There were some dull and awkward spots during the premiere, which is the eternal price of variety, but I laughed through much of it, and through some of it I laughed a lot. Really a lot.

The old-school sketch comedy veterans pulled it off. They could help pass the time on a hot summer night. No rush. You could wait and catch a moment or two online.

Other than the disorienting night and time period, Maya & Marty was disappointingly easy to pigeonhole. What audiences were treated to in the premiere was basically a not-hugely-funny episode of Saturday Night Live, an hour that occasionally made use of its gifted stars, but more frequently left them in sketches that fizzled out before reaching a real crescendo.

A few of the bits were funny: Short reviving his fatuous interviewer Jiminy Glick, with David; Rudolph as the Civil War’s worst letter writer. Others, in that time-honored, SNL tradition, fell flat or went nowhere.

In its first at bat, Maya and Marty felt forced and uneven.

What a bland, pointless, and creatively empty endeavor, one that wastes two of our most talented comic performers.

The end result was often a lot of bombast and noise but not too many laughs. Maya and Marty, in many ways, is a ham sandwich with an extra helping of ham.

Maya & Marty feels like reheated leftovers rather than something that could demand popular attention every week.