Parents' Guide to Maya & Marty

At times this sketch show reaches chuckling heights, but all too often it feels like a so-so episode of SNL despite the gifted performers working hard to entertain. Maya Rudolph, the driving force behind the show, is clearly in her element, and it's a treat to watch her dancing and singing, as when she pops into Miley Cyrus' musical performance to join her for the big finish. In fact, the show's musical moments are the highlight here -- it's always going to be fun to watch people who can sing and dance do their stuff, and Maya & Marty pulls off a charmingly retro tap-dancing number that would have been at home on a Busby Berkeley stage.

It's during the sketches that the show loses steam. Many of the ideas seem half-baked; they start out promisingly but don't go anywhere. In one sketch, Rudolph plays a bemused Melania Trump, who loves diamonds so much she's decided to make edible ones. That's it. That's the entire idea of the sketch, which goes on for three minutes and seems two minutes and 45 seconds too long. In another, Short and guest star Jimmy Fallon play twins who appear on a kid's talent show. The sketch starts promisingly enough: Kenan Thompson doing his Steve Harvey face, Fallon and Short in flamenco shirts and red pageboy wigs. And then nothing happens. It feels as if the writers came up with the concepts but trailed off when it came to writing the jokes. The whole show reads as a watered-down SNL rife with product placement -- half a dozen products and brands appear in the first sketch alone -- that you don't have to stay up (too) late for.