Kroll Show: Season 3

The final season of Comedy Central's sketch comedy series Kroll Show, starring Dave Kroll as multiple characters, continues the basic premise of previous years—namely, lampooning television itself, especially the reality TV genre, although he sometimes takes aim at sacred cows. Among the latter is the satire “Chairs,” a parody of the long-running sitcom Cheers, featuring a Boston-based bar that looks remarkably similar to the one in the beloved NBC show, tended by a former sports star (in this case basketball legend Larry Bird). “Pawnsylvania” is Kroll's take on the weirdly popular pawn-shop reality programs, here starring two hapless proprietors who seem to get taken a lot by people with something to sell. A couple of recurring sketches, “Gigolo H-O-R-S-E” and “Rich Dicks,” are shrug-worthy, but much better is “Karaoke Bullies,” in which a long-haired, past-his-prime rock singer tries taking down mean girls who dominate karaoke microphones. Best of all is a spoof on a late night New Age cable program (sporting obligatory cheesy graphics), with Kroll playing the show's clueless host, asking probing questions of guests about “the lizard people” who supposedly live among us (a related sketch finds Kroll in a Julian Assange-like role, leading hacktivists in a takedown of the lizard people and rapper Macklemore). Guest stars include Jenny Slate, Henry Rollins, John Mulaney, and A Martinez. Compiling all 11 episodes from the 2015 third and last season, extras include bonus sketches. Recommended. (T. Keogh)