Seth Rogen/Ed Sheeran (4.12.2014)

Okay, here’s my review. While this show was mildly inconsistent, it was one of the better episodes this season in kind of a middle of the road way. While there’s still some reliance on recurring bits, the writing is on a minor upswing. Seth Rogen was merely a serviceable host as he has proven to be two previous times. Good to see Beck and Kyle getting more airtime this week (as well as the rest of the featured players even if they’re in smaller roles). Anyway, let’s get right to it.

New GOP - I quite liked this Coachella open. It was a rather thin premise that they might not have done enough with, but it was a little more creative than most. Taran's Paul Ryan was put to good use here and Beck was funny as Jeb Bush although I can't say much for the impression. I did like "ratchet" and "basic bitches" lines. Brooks as DJ Rand Paul was good. Nassim was pretty badly misscast as Bobby Jindal, but the "molly" lines were pretty funny. B-

Monologue – This was okay. It felt like it would've been much lamer had it been delivered by someone with less relevancy to comedy than Seth Rogen. It felt like they just threw his first monologue in a blender with Rob Lowe's '97 monologue but this was more entertaining. As soon as Seth said "4:19 am" I immediately knew where that jokes was headed. Still, I thought Noel as his sister imitating his laugh was cute. Bobby and Kate as his parent was a nice touch. I liked the Fear Factor joke as well. The Zooey Deschanel cameo felt a little pointless, but it was pleasant. James Franco's cameo was pretty funny and I liked how they poked fun at his recent Instagram scandal. He was a pretty good sport there. Taylor Swift's cameo wasn't totally necessary either, but at least it was the closest thing the show has had to a genuine surprise in quite a while. I mean, given how public perception of Taylor and her image have shifted so drastically over the past year and a half, I thought we'd never see her anywhere near 30 Rock in a million years but at least it's nice to see she can show some sliver of a sense of humor about herself as well. Then, Seth mentioned Ed Sheeran was in the building and her cameo suddenly made more sense. Anyway, it was an inoffensive monologue. B-

Shallon III - I really don't think this needed to be recurred a third time, but I did like how Seth was cast as a D.A.R.E. employee. Noel, Bobby and Aidy were the true highlights and I did like the "just say now...to crack" line at the end. C-

CNN Pregnancy Test - This was another topical piece that showed signs of cleverness but fell flat in terms of execution and got repetitive pretty quick. It was allright but something felt missing. Plus, the entire premise of making fun of CNNs wildly inept reporting has been done do death (and done much better) by Stewart and Colbert. C+

Birthday Dinner - This sketch revolving around broken arms was pretty disappointing. Aidy did well here but they kind trailed off as a whole. Seth's acting was a little stiff, surprisingly. Everyone's cheesy Southern accents were pretty jarringly distracting but at least they shifted focus from that and ended the sketch just shortly enough after it really started to fall apart. C-

Monster Pals - This sketch was a noble effort. It was probably the best SNL performance of Mike O'Brien's career so far. Again, Seth seemed a little off his game here but Franco and O'Brien were put to good use here. I also liked how this had a sentimental "Sad Mouse" vibe in the middle and the jab at Monsters Inc. was funny. B-

Blue River Dog Food - This commercial was...different. Although, the shots of the dog were a little gratuitous it had a lot of different energy. It wasn't that funny, but it was darkly interesting. Sadly, it hit a little too close to home for me as Seth and Cecily's interactions reminded me a little too much of my own parents at times but that's a story for another time. C+

Update is pretty consistently bland. While Jost shows no real signs of improvement delivery wise, at least he has visibly grown some more confidence at the expense of developing some blatant Seth-like qualities. I would put Kenan's Big Papi Ortiz commentary right up there with his Ray Lewis commentary from last season in that they bot just dragged on pointlessly. Still, I gotta admire his comittment to that accent. I liked how they changed the dynamic of Jacobs' interactions with the Update anchors, but they still missed a few opportunities. At least Cecily is more likable than Seth was here. C+

Trashy Cousins - This didn't seem all that different from the way it was described in Mo Levy's Blog and in the FeaturingEmilyPrager report. I liked seeing this, but I feel like a combination of reading a description of it before it aired and what it lacked in its execution kind of took away from its humor value for me. Now that I've actually seen this, it feels just like they ran one more cheap gay joke into the ground. Still, Cecily and Seeth's performances were quite strong here. Also, is it just me or was Nassim just wearing Hader's old Stefon wig? C-

Undercover Sharpton - This felt like another missed opportunity. It felt like they were just doing the same joke from those Politics Nation sketches. A lot of it just dragged on and went nowhere, but at least they kept it short and Kenan really looked the part of 80s era Sharpton than he ever did playing Sharpton today. C-

Happy 420 - This Kyle Mooney character was hilarious. I'm glad to see they let him revive this character from YouTube as well. To me it felt like it was more of a composite of his 420 poser and his "how we trip" guy. His songs had me cracking up and Beck and Rogen as his dealer were great additions. A-

Sperm Bank - This sketch was surprisingly funny. The delivery by Seth and Kenan really saved this. I also liked the old timey photo with the "semen" barrel, the visual of Aidy running screaming with a full cart, the Chewbacca/hobo sperm references and the yogurt machine gag at the end. B+

Now, for my updated rankings…

1. Kerry Washington/Eminem

2. Miley Cyrus

3. Lady Gaga

4. Seth Rogen/Ed Sheeran

5. Louis C.K./Sam Smith

6. Anna Kendrick/Pharrell

7. Bruce Willis/Katy Perry

8. Tina Fey/Arcade Fire

9. Paul Rudd/One Direction

10. Drake

11. Lena Dunham/The National

12. Jim Parsons/Beck

13. Josh Hutcherson/HAIM

14. Jimmy Fallon/Justin Timberlake

15. Melissa McCarthy/Imagine Dragons

16. John Goodman/Kings of Leon

17. Edward Norton/Janelle Monae

Well, after a two week break Andrew Garfield hosts on May 3rd to promote the next Spiderman movie. I haven’t seen Andrew in anything besides The Social Network and I remember him being pretty good in that one. Still, I feel this could go either way. See you then!

Anna Kendrick/Pharrell Williams (4.5.2014)

Okay, here’s my review. This show was pretty much on the same level as last week, but slightly less disappointing. It started out promising despite a few minor faults, but then trailed off more noticeably later on. I feel like compared to last week, what did disappoint, really did disappoint and much worse. Still, it’s far from the worst of the season. It was just one of the most forgettable despite the best efforts of the host and cast. Anna Kendrick proved to be a promising host who was just misused and underused when she wasn’t doing big musical numbers. Still, I like seeing that some of the newer cast is getting more and more airtime. Now, here we go…

C-SPAN GM Hearing - That cold open was possibly the worst of the entire season. The GM story wasn't even covered all that much to begin with, so odd choice there. It just meandered pointlessly despite Kate and Bobby's best efforts. The ending with the aborted LFNY was good as they haven't done anything like that since at least the '90s. D-

Monologue - This song-and-dance monologue would be unbearable cheesy in the hands of any other hosts but Anna Kendrick has a fine singing voice and is making this monologue very charming and endearing with the occasional cast support. Her interactions with Taran and Lorne and the Kate/Vanessa number were great and it was pulled off nearly flawlessly in terms of staging. C+

FOX and Friends VIII - I'm not sure how to feel about this returning, but it feels like we haven't seen this in at least a year. I liked Bobby's NAACP line and the pie chart bit. The porn joke was something I saw coming a mile away, but Vanessa does a fine Elizabeth Hasselbeck nonetheless. She's much less annoying than Wiig was in this role. Anna did fine in her role as well and is proving to be a charismatic host. Kenan's portrayal of Neil Degrasse Tyson was surprisingly funny and accurate. This may be the most well written FOX news sketch SNL has done. B-

Dongs – This was probably the worst music video SNL has ever produced. Yeah, the ladies were all dolled up real good but this whole piece felt like just a three-to-four minute build up to a punch line that never even came. The brief interaction between Vanessa and Aidy was ok, but this was seriously lacking and Icona Pop was just an absolutely wasted cameo. Did anyone else notice how this eventually got nothing but DEAD SILENCE from the audience? Also, was anyone else reminded of that "Balls" music video w/Abby Elliott posted on CollegeHumor? F.

Little Mermaid - This sketch was at least interesting. Jay is pretty funny as Sebastian, Aidy is doing fine as Ursula (even if she could've dialed it back a little) and Anna played Ariel quite well. She and Maya Rudolph are both talented at mimicking the singing styles of mediocre millennial pop songstresses. I did like how this had more of a point and a premise to it than the previous bit even if it meandered a bit at the beginning. Overall, it was a decent sketch that could've benefitted from being shortened. Also, kudos to SNL for being the first form of media to make a joke about Iggy Azalea that I've seen. (In case you don't know, she's a white Australian rapper who performed on Seth Meyers recently). B-

Good Neighbor - This Kyle and Vanessa short was sweet and endearing and Beck was very funny at the end. Good to see SNL finally put Good Neighbor to decent use. I honestly don't know what else to say about what was essentially three minutes of pure, unfiltered awkwardness. B-

Update is a slight improvement over last week, but then again it shouldn't be hard to top that mess. Colin's delivery is showing some slight improvement (at least in terms of looking into the right camera). No jokes stand out particularly, but at least they are sharper and tighter paced. It was nice seeing Kate as Angela Merkel again. She really made the absolute most out of some lame material. It was also nice seeing Brooks Wheelan on Update again doing his butter down pants/STD bit. I actually thought that was one of his better bits when I was checking out his standup on YouTube last summer. Fortunately, it did well here but his delivery was a little too derivative of TJ Miller toward the end (who incidentally I saw live in Boulder live and he tore me down continuously for, like, 38 minutes when he thought I was heckling him. He's amazing live and you should go see him if he ever plays near you! I still have the signed bottle of Evian Facial Spray he gave me). The memory bit was cute and while Cecily and Colin don't quite have chemistry yet, it's good to at least see them try to develop some. Bobby's bit as George R.R. Martin wasn't too bad, but nothing stood out there either. C-

Les Jeunes Des Paris V - Given Anna's musical theater background, we should've seen "Les Jeunes Des Paris" coming but while far from the best installment, this was quite enjoyable for the Cups reference, Kyle's random appearance as Captain Picard (although maybe Beck should've been in that role) and Jay's quick appearance as Chris Tucker/Ruby Rhod from "The Fifth Element" which for some reason was the first thing I actually laughed out loud at all night. C+

Principal Frye VI - I liked seeing Principal Frye again. As usual, Jay and Kenan were very funny here. Jay's monkey Snapchat lines cracked me the hell up. Anna Kendrick was good here in a role that, for once, didn't rely too much on her singing and dancing talents. B-

Big Joe - This was a really thin premise, but the performances (especially Kilam and Kendrick) really saved it. They also made good use of some of the new featured players here. B-

Pharell Auditions - This sketch was probably the second weakest segment of the night. It lazily established a half a joke and dragged it out, but at least it didn't do that for too long. It felt like they just threw the DeMarco Bros, Blizzard man and Chippendales in a blender and called it a day. The best things I can say about it were that I liked the hat gags, Taran's "oxygen to the brain in the womb" line and that they made a decent use of Sasheer. D+

NCAA Best of the White guys – This was just fine for how far they went with it. Beck's narration was the best thing it had going for it. Something about it did seem familiar the whole time I was watching it. I'm pretty sure it got cut from a dress rehearsal last season that I read about (probably the Kevin Hart episode but I'll have to go back and check again). C-

Now, for my updated rankings…

1. Kerry Washington/Eminem

2. Miley Cyrus

3. Lady Gaga

4. Louis C.K./Sam Smith

5. Anna Kendrick/Pharrell

6. Bruce Willis/Katy Perry

7. Tina Fey/Arcade Fire

8. Paul Rudd/One Direction

9. Drake

10. Lena Dunham/The National

11. Jim Parsons/Beck

12. Josh Hutcherson/HAIM

13. Jimmy Fallon/Justin Timberlake

14. Melissa McCarthy/Imagine Dragons

15. John Goodman/Kings of Leon

16. Edward Norton/Janelle Monae

Next week, Seth Rogen returns for his third time. Again, this could just go either way. Rogen is one of those hosts who puts forth a good effort, but is ultimately forgettable. He’s not terrible, but not too great either. See ya then!