Okay, here’s my review. Surprisingly, this was a moderately
far cry from the absolute worst show of the season. This show had more funny
moments than the last two shows, but they were more in spite of Justin Bieber
than because of him. Beiber contributed next to nothing as a host and basically
played himself through most of the show. Although I paid little to no attention
to his musical performances, what I did catch from them seemed to be his most comfortable
and in-his-element moments of the night performance wise...y'know since he's
primarily a pop-song-and-dance kid and not a comedic actor…and yes, I’m aware
that’s a fairly generous statement so no need to point that out. I’m just
surprised that Jennifer Lawrence and Maroon 5’s lead singer helmed worse shows
than Bieber did and yet Bieber had very little to do with it all. It just seemed
like the writers tried saving some of their better material for him or maybe
found him one of the less difficult hosts to work with this year. It must be
the former since most of the sketches tonight seemed designed to let the cast
do most of the heavy lifting acting-wise. It’s good to see the featured players
and the rest of the cast all get good airtime (and I’m liking Armiesn’s
decreased presence…hopefully they’re phasing him out) but it just seemed like
they were all working around Bieber rather than with him. Anyway, let’s just
get on with it.
Super Bowl - The open was just okay, but I'm sure it was
less funny if you actually watched the whole game. I mean, I was only watching
during the third quarter (and it didn't even look like that good of a game) but
I'm sure they couldn't have struggled to fill dead air THAT badly. Pharroh did
a funny Shannon Sharpe though. Good to see Robinson finally get some airtime
though. C+
Monologue - This was pretty unremarkable, too. They could
have done worse than Kenan coaching him on his wrong Black History facts. At least
it wasn't all singing. I'm sure two performances from him will be more than
enough. Whoopi's cameo was a nice touch, but didn't really do anything for me.
I did like Mike O’Brien’s brief cameo though. D+
The Californians V - I'm sure no one was surprised that they
bought back "The Californians" again. Cecily's performance
was...interesting. Taran's performance is chuckle worthy. Bieber seems like he
is impersonating himself, strangely enough. Hader's multiple takes were also a
nice touch. Thankfully, it was short. D+
Sceurity Decoys - This sketch was better than it really had
any right to be. Sudekis, Kilam, Moynihan and Hader were very good in it. I
especially liked Jason's "neither are you, homie" line. B-
Bravo – This sketch was really pointless, but again Jason
and Bill had some good one liners in it. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking SNL
really overdid the Bravo/reality show parody humor especially during the Tina
Fey years. D+
Update was another segment that is turning out better than
it should be tonight, but maybe this is because Bieber is making Seth look FAR less
smug than normal. His snow instagram/drone/Mama Boo Boo/Segal jokes were good.
The best friends Bit REALLY didn't need to be bought back. Kenan's bit was...interesting.
He's certainly making the absolute most of the material. His
crunch/Brooklyn/popcorn chicken lines made me chuckle. Did he reminding anyone
else of Donald Glover in this? Something about the horn rim glasses and afro
made me say that. Thankfully, Update was short tonight but did anyone else
notice the rather odd pacing of this episode? It seemed a little too early for
Update and Bieber's first performance. C+
‘50s Romance - This sketch was surprisingly not all that
bad, but Bieber felt a little out of place in it. This probably would've worked
better in Tina Fey's 2010 episode when he was considerably younger. Cecily and
Aidy were good in it and I liked some of the light absurdity of it like the
puppies/witch lines, but the ending kind of killed it. C-
Miley Cyrus Show VI - I'm genuinely surprised that they
tried the "new" Miley Cyrus show, but they obviously didn't change
too much. Sudekis was pretty funny in it and I liked the gag of her whole band
having her new hair as well as the incredibly long tattoo photo. This was
actually Bieber's least annoying sketch moment of the night for me. He was
okay, but not great. He just had better lines here. Still, like the decoy
sketch he should've taken more advantage of the opportunities to poke fun at
himself than he did. C+
Glice – This sketch was really over the top and repetitive
and reminded me of some '09-'10 bullshit, but Taran (and Jason) made it was
funnier than it had any right to be. I liked his lines “beautiful drifter and
"I have the arms of a bat.” C+
Valentine’s Day Message – This was pointless and went
nowhere. Bobby didn't do anything for me. The bird hitting the window and
ultrasound oil jokes were okay. D+
Valentine’s Dance - I usually like the Principal Frye
sketches and Jay had some funny lines here, but this would've been much better
had it not been the obligatory
"host-broadly-playing-against-own-type" sketch. This was Beiber's
worst performance all night. His attempted nerd lisp really got on my nerves
and Nassim was playing it WAY to broad here. C+
Well, that was...everything I expected in terms of
performance but more than in terms of sketches. Christoph Waltz hosts next
weeks. From the bits I’ve seen with him on Kimmell’s show, I could see him as a
Walken-type odd personality host. Still, I hope the writing takes on an upturn.
I’ll leave you with my season rankings of best-to-worst episodes so far which
this episode left me feeling compelled to reexamine and update.
1. Martin Short/Paul McCartney
2. Seth MacFarlane/Frank Ocean
3. Louis CK/fun.
4. Anne Hathaway/Rhianna
5. Christina Applegate/Passion Pit
6. Bruno Mars
7. Daniel Craig/Muse
8. Jaime Foxx/Ne-Yo
9. Jennifer Lawrence/The Lumineers
10. Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Mumford and Sons
11. Justin Bieber
12. Adam Levine/Kendrick Lamar
13. Jeremy Renner/Maroon 5
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