What's really compelling about the "Late Late Show's" writing, though, is the inventiveness around the edges, the extra little fillips that reveal a staff trying hard to challenge the formula.
The show might come back from commercial to have Kilborn peering through binoculars out his set's "window," looking, we see next, onto more of the trademark absurd video.
They'll have Kilborn do a movie-poster review because he's too busy "during the day crafting comedy for, oh, this little show" to actually see the movies.
When a sporting guest like Vaughn comes on, they'll make maximum use of his willingness to do more than just promote a movie. In addition to the mock beer ads, the show follows him off the set and into the hallway, where "journalists" wait to pepper him with satirical versions of celebrity-interview questions.
Or the show might pause, midsegment, to announce, "And now it's time for "Craig Kilborn, Relationship Destroyer," a bit that sees the host advising women to not take "nothing" for an answer to the question, "What are you think about?"
"Keep asking him," the host advises, "till he finally opens up and lets you know how he feels."
Is that kind of archness catching on with more people than one lonely critic? Maybe just a little. While the ratings for time-slot leader Conan O'Brien have remained steady, Kilborn has inched just a little bit closer.
More people still should give this high-concept talk show a shot or, if they tried it once and didn't get it, another shot.
