This Spike Jonze Directed “The Late Show” Intro Is Better Than Most Things On TV

When I moved to New York City ten years ago, I wondered whether what I had seen on movies and TV was what the city was really like. Was it going to be bleak and dirty like Taxi Driver or would it be beautiful and sexy like a Woody Allen movie? The truth is that by the time I got here it was more like an episode of Girls. Still, one thing that is not true is that New York is like Sesame Street. There are no friendly monsters hanging around in alleys teaching kids the alphabet. Maybe New York was like that in 1969 when the show started. Somehow I doubt it. These themes of the twin sides of New York, the mean and the kind, are explored in this delightful The Late Show intro directed by Spike Jonze. In it, Stephen Colbert wakes up in Central Park and tries to find his way in the big bad city. He is mocked and ignored, until he meets a friend: Grover.

This is better than most friggin' things on TV. Or the movies.