Okay, here’s my review. Overall, this episode was a pretty
middle of the road return. It wasn't necessarily as bad as I expected but it
was a lot less inconsistent than the last two season premieres. Thankfully,
they scaled back somewhat on using Miley as a host and put the focus more on the
cast which might have made this her strongest SNL outing yet. Anyway, let’s get
right down to it.
A Message From Donald And Melania - Taran did as serviceable
a Trump impression as I was expecting from him. He nailed the facial
expressions and had a good handle on the voice but he could improve it over
time. I'd say the biggest problem with this cold open was that it was too
Cecily heavy and it didn’t quite have an ending. Still, I did like the jabs at
Megyn Kelly and the “smartest guys/one strand at a time” lines. C+
Monologue – This was better than it had any right to be. I
do appreciate that they took the focus off of Miley and let the cast shine. I
especially thought Vanessa, Sasheer, Kate, Bobby, Kyle and Aidy were used well
here. Good way to sneak in Jost, Che, and Rudnitsky as well. B+
Abilify - This ad was clever enough even if Miley felt out
of place. It was a decent way for SNL to get in their jabs at the sheer volume
of GOP hopefuls still inexplicably in the race but it could've been shortened.
C+
Homecoming 1955 - I was hoping for some kind of Back To The
Future parody upon seeing a "Homecoming 1955" banner but instead we
got some I'll conceived barely thought out piece that played off Mileys post
Disney/Montana image. Thankfully, this was short but it reminded me too much of
those self-serving sketches Timberlake did during the height of the
Hader/Samberg/Wiig era. C-
Bar Talk - The Hillary Clinton cameo was all right. She did
come off like a good sport and I did like how it strayed from the formula of
the typical celebrity-makes-a-cameo-and-meets-their-impersonator sketch. Plus,
it showed that Kate must've worked on her Hillary over the summer to bring it
closer to the real deal. Darrell's brief blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo made
the whole sketch for me. Otherwise, it kinda dragged in some spots but that's
not really anyones' fault. C-
Update was pretty good. They did a good job of covering
people and events that were notorious over the summer. The only thing that
signified any real change from last season is how Jost seemed to have better
jokes than Che. I’m also quite shocked they decided to go after Bernie Sanders
that hard this early in the election cycle. Kyles' bizarre pope Francis
impression made me laugh despite the fact that it went absolutely nowhere. Pete
and Leslie turned in strong commentaries, but Pete looked more high than Miley
and comparing Trump to Sanjaya seems more like something that would be in Seth’s
wheelhouse. Still, he and Leslie both turned in strong commentaries. I'm
surprised they did not give Jon Rudnitsky a commentary considering his stand up
background. Oh well, I'm sure he'll get one in due time but kudos to him for
getting so many parts in sketches (no matter how small) on his first show. B+
The Millenials - This
was probably the worst sketch of the night. It felt too derivative of that
office intern sketch from last seasons' Dakota Johnson episode. Still, I have
to hand it to Kate for having the least grating character in the whole thing.
The only other thing I actually liked was when Kenan and Taran said "do
it" to Jons' character by the window. D+
Katz’s Deli - This was pretty lame but it was probably the
hardest I've laughed at Leslie in her entire tenure on the show so far. Still,
they should've ended it right before Kate's appearance and the Dutch oven bit.
C-
The Squad - This was a big swing and a miss. They pretty
much just put "Beygency" and "Swiftamine" in a blender and
let it meander on. This was yet another piece that could've benefitted from
some trimming. C-
American Voices - That late night show sketch was one of the
better live sketches of the night despite the technical glitches and miscues.
It felt rather odd how it bled directly into the Good Neighbor short. Did this
sketch originally have an ending that was cut for time or did they mean it to
go right into the Good Neighbor short? C+
Miley Wedding Tape - Speaking of which, the new Good
Neighbor short was fun. I liked seeing their surreal brand of strangeness on
SNL again. I didn't think they needed to make a sequel to the Miley sex tape
short from her previous hosting stint but this one managed to surpass the
original. I especially liked how this ended with Kyle walking in on his own funeral
with an elderly Miley playing one of his beats again. B+
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