The Last Open Mic at the End of the World

“Open”, in inviting wannabe standups to perform their routines in front of an unsympathetic host and no one else, recalls at once the hopelessness of empty theater that was an unavoidable part of the past year of WWE programming as well as the uncomfortable intimacy of lasagnacat’s “Sex Survey Results”. I wouldn’t say “Mic” is better than the latter, but it eventually forges its own identity through its commitment to sardonic melancholy, especially when one participant gets halfway towards either a breakthrough or a breakdown (whatever it is gets undone by the "Curb” theme). Not as depressing as it sounds.

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