Okay, here’s my review. This was a real middle of the road
show for this season. It was wildly
uneven, but far from the absolute worst for this season
we’ve seen so far. Still, it was more
enjoyable than a lot of Thanksgiving shows lately. The show
wasn’t too heavy on recurring bits outside of just a few. Cameron Diaz proved
to be a competent host. Fortunately, she wasn’t featured in sketches as heavily
as she was in her first three episodes thus
leaving her less room to overact. Seeing lots of Bobby, Beck
and Kyle was nice. Anyway, Let’s
get right to it.
School House Rock - This sketch has to be the best cold open
of the season so far. Bobby was very funny in it and it was probably the strongest
political satire the show has done in years. It would’ve been even better if
they didn’t just lazily tack on an LFNY at the end. A-
Monologue - This was possibly the lamest audience questions sketch
ever but at least Bobby, Kyle and Beck were okay in it. D+
Back Home Ballers – In terms of post-Samberg era SNL music
videos, this wasn’t quite as bad as "Dongs All Over The World" but
not quite as good as "Twin Bed" either. Leslie and Kate were good but
Vanessa seemed quite out of place. Here's a question: if they knew Nicki Minaj
was booked on the show in two weeks, why didn't they wait until then to do
this? It would be just as timely and Nicki was actually pretty good in the
Lonely Island "Do The Creep" video. Seems like a big missed opportunity
for me. C-
Black Annie - This sketch was all over the place but it was
a great centerpiece for Leslie, so it was fine for what it was. Vanessa had a
pretty funny part and Jay did a serviceable Jamie Foxx. The "Black
Betty" ending was funny just for how it came completely out of left field.
C+
Nest-Spresso - This sketch was another unfocused piece with
a strange premise. I don't quite know what to make of it and I have no idea who
they thought it would appeal to. D+
High School Theater - This sketch seemed to go nowhere.
Kenan and Vanessa's parts seemed really underdeveloped but I did chuckle at the
"doctor/nurse" bit. Did this remind anyone else of the sketch from
Dane Cooks first episode where the high school drama department read the
morning announcements? That sketch was much more fun than this. C-
Update was a little inconsistent, but it was a high point of
this episode. Kate turned in her most animated performance as Angela Merkel (and
managed to pull some personality out of Jost) and Tarans' gleefully deranged
Charles Manson was probably this show's funniest moment. Jost's jokes were
serviceable but Che was really on point. His Cosby/Huxtable/Kramer and Ferguson
rants was good (although sadly, that's probably the edgiest Cosby material we
can expect from SNL right now) and the "pull up YOUR pants" line
would've been funnier had I not already seen it on Twitter from some other
comedian (and I'm sure Che will catch hell for it soon). Speaking of Twitter,
his KKK joke was his only joke that really fell flat. B+
Baby Boss III – The fact that this sketch took place in a
dining room really made me appreciate when they put recurring characters in
different settings as it rarely happens now. Cameron as the wife was possibly
the funniest role she's pulled off all night and Beck it still as physically
committed to his role as ever. Thankfully, the kept it short. Also, didn't this
get cut from Silverman's dress rehearsal? C+
Dr Dave and Buggle - This talk show sketch was probably the
funniest thing Kenan has done on the show so far (and that's REALLY saying
something). I'm glad they kept it from being a total Brian Fellow rip off.
Sure, it was a little repetitive and one note but I can't even remember the
last time SNL wrote a sketch that deranged. A-
Chris Fitzpatrick vs Andy Rydell - The return of this
character was certainly welcome. This was certainly funnier than the short from
the Louis CK show in March. The fighting with Beck was hilarious as was the
random stock footage, factoids and the “lil’ bitch” line at the very end. I
also liked how Kyles’ performance more closely resembled the angst,
dysfunctional and outrageous version of this character we saw in Kyles’ pre-SNL
YouTube videos. A-
Poetry Class III - I really don't think Vanessa's poetry
teacher needed to be recurred again, but I did like how they changed the format
up a bit with Diaz's character. Pete and Kenans' reactions to her were funny
but Aidy's part kinda fell flat. C-
Night Murmurs - That phone sex sketch seemed to have some
pretty ambitious writing to it, but it didn't quite land with me. There seemed
to be a big miscue at the beginning. I wonder if they were really running long
and had to cut one of Cecily's lines at the last second? C+
Now, for my update rankings of this season…
1. Woody Harrelson/Kendrick Lamar
2. Jim Carrey/Iggy Azalea
3. Bill Hader/Hozier
4. Sarah Silverman/Maroon 5
5. Cameron Diaz/Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars
6. Chris Pratt/Ariana Grande
7. Chris Rock/Prince
Well, that was that. In two weeks, James Franco returns to
host. He managed to helm two pretty forgettable episodes. One back in the
already awful 09-10 season (although we did see much worse that year) and
another back during the election season in 08-09 (and the show actually had
GOOD writing that year). All I really remember was his constant squinting at
cue cards and inexplicably drooling. Nicki Minaj was inevitable, I guess. She
seems like a person who has been all over the place promoting random things for
the last couple of years. I’m surprised it took SNL took this long to get her
again. She might actually work in one sketch cameo like she did in her first
show. Still, this isn’t exactly a lineup I have tremendous faith in. See you
soon!
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