This Hour Has 22 Minutes has been back on the air for a couple of weeks now. It’s not overstating things to say that for the last few seasons it’s been a shadow of its former self; over the years almost all of the original cast has left, the exception being Cathy Jones (Cindy Dubizzenchik
) who, I’ll admit, was my second-favourite after Rick Mercer (J.B. Dixon
).
(I realized while writing that paragraph that the anchors no longer identify themselves. It’s a small, subtle thing, but it was part of the innate humour of doing a news spoof that the Walsh/Thomey/Jones/Mercer-era show got.)
Of the current faces on the revolving desk chairs, Mark Critch isn’t bad given the right material, but terminally-earnest Gavin Crawford just isn’t funny. Cathy Jones is still funny on the newsdesk, but if I never see the Miss Enid, Sandy Campbell, Babe Bennett or Nervous Rex characters again it’ll be too soon. I have hope, though, that by adding Shauna MacDonald—the first bona fide actor the show has had since Mary Walsh, I believe—22 is starting to turn itself around. She’s got just the right amount of humorous gravitas in her anchorperson role, and she’s nailed the fake commercial sketches too.
