'NY Times' on Fallon Debut: 'Surprisingly Lame'

New Late Night host Jimmy Fallon survived the first wave of critical responses earlier this week, but today comes the big one: The New York Times. Alessandra Stanley waited a few extra days rather than rush to judgment like so many of her peers.

Her considered verdict: "It's still too soon to pass judgment on Mr. Fallon's talents as a talk show host." Great, thanks.

Stanley does say that Fallon seemed "nervous, even flustered, at first, and some of the prepared comedy was surprisingly lame." Also, "[r]emarkably, given how many months he has had to prepare, many of his supposedly wacky, Web-style pranks were oddly plodding and unimaginative."

And there's this: "[H]e can sometimes seem like an old person's notion of a hip young comic." You gonna take that, Lorne Michael?