Okay, here’s my review. This was the strongest season
premiere since Hader and Sudekis were still in the cast. The show started out
quite strong but slowly petered out after Update. The effect of adding several
new writers can already be felt early on. Margot Robbie proved to be a game
host who was up for anything. Unfortunately, the writers seemed almost afraid
to use her in anything that didn’t focus on her great looks. Still, she was a
fine host, if not a forgettable one. She could’ve benefitted from some better,
more engaging material so I wouldn’t mind seeing her host again at some point. Mikey
Day is fitting in quite well with the existing cast already and Alex Moffat is
already starting to make some impression. Melissa Vilasenor was just barely
more visible as Vanessa Bayer (who was virtually absent from all but the
goodnights) but hopefully we’ll see more of her as the season progresses. Kyle and
Sasheer weren’t in much either but there didn’t seem to be a lot of room for
them this week. Other than that, the cast was pretty evenly balanced for
airtime.
NBC 2016 Presidential Debate - The obligatory debate sketch
was quite cathartic given what the real debate was like. Che did quite a good
job as Lester Holt. It took me a second to recognize him under all that makeup
but it's nice to see they're willing to use him in more sketches so far. Kate
did fine as Hillary. Most of the Hillary stuff felt pretty run into the ground
by this point, but I sure did like her Trump reactions, her opening tumble and
the Bush-Dukakis/Carvey-Lovitz ’88 callback. It's clear Baldwin honed his Trump
to near perfection and he had great material to go along with a much darker,
more maniacal take on 2016’s unhinged Candidate Trump. This was the next best
thing they could’ve done to having Anthony Atamanuik join the cast. To me, what
particularly stood out were the mic/sniffing/Hannity/Chicago hell street
moments. Sure, we could easily imagine this same material coming from Hammond had
Tina not floated any ideas to Lorne but Baldwin did breathe new life into it,
as expected. B+
Montage – This marks the first election year since 1992 that
SNL did not change its opening credit sequence. Odd that they decided not to forgo
doing that for this season but I can see why they didn’t necessarily need one.
Monologue - Fact checking was a pretty lame premise for a
monologue but I have to give them credit since no one else would’ve thought of
this and certainly none of us predicted it! I did like her brief digs at Lorne
and Jared Leto. Thankfully, Margot didn't go it alone. The cast interactions
were great and Kenan, Leslie and Pete stood out well. C+
Live Action 9 News Report – This was pretty creative and
well detailed for a sketch that where the hosts' beauty was the center piece. I
do like all the things they piled on to this. Again, Beck, Mikey, Kenan and
Leslie performed this sketch the best. Kudos to Alex for getting a good role in
his first show and kudos especially to Mikey Day for getting a role that suited
him well in his first sketch. C+
The Librarian - This sketch was a great surreal piece that
allowed the host to play against type and had more and more ridiculous reveals
as it went on. Of Margot’s reveals, I liked the tattoos, the banana/lollipop
gags, the snake tongue, killing Cecily and Becks’ sudden appearance. I also
liked all the guys reactions being in tune with the Yello “Oh Yeah” song and it
was a nice tribute for them to name the setting the “Villines Academy” after
the member of the SNL family that recently passed away. I'm willing to bet one
of the new writers came up with this. B-
Family Feud VI – This seemed like it had been beaten into
the ground over the past three years but adding the election surrogate angle to
it really helped. Hammond as Clinton was nice to see although his material was
a little forgettable. Melissa made her debut with a great Sarah Silverman but
she still seems underused compared to Alex and Mikey. Cecily playing Lin Manuel
Miranda is a bizarre and savage move considering he is hosting next week.
Really good to see they can still wring some laughs out of Larry David as
Bernie after the convention. Kate did fine as KellyAnne Conway. Kate seemed
miscast as Ivanka Drumpf. They're so different that I would've preferred to see
Vanessa play her (especially since she has not been in the show at all so far).
Still, she interacted well with Hammond as well as Mikey and Alex (who were
perfectly cast as Eric Drumpf and Donald Jr). Moynihan is still funny as
Christie and Beck did a serviceable Putin but could've been given a bigger
part. B-
Update was great despite the election material being a mixed
bag of original jokes and examples of "parallel thinking". Also, I
appreciate the structure and format breaking of Update in that it was just two
long stand up rants followed by two shorter jokes. Plus, I appreciate seeing
Jost and Che appear looser with each other as it becomes more obvious that they
built up quite a rapport. Cecilys' Cathy Anne character may not benefit as much
as being confined to Update as say...Stefon or Drink Uncle but I do appreciate
their effort to ground this character somewhat. The only thing this really
succeeded in proving is that Anderlette are still employed with the show. Kenan
Big Papillion had a couple of decent quips but overall this felt like more of
the same. B-
The Hunch Bunch seemed a little long and a lot like
something that spent a little too much time belaboring one joke. Still, I can
say the payoff was funny enough. C-
Melania Moments – This was OK but way too short to be
bookended on either end by commercial breaks. D+
NY Film Festival Women's Film Forum - This felt like it
didn't know what type of sketch it wanted to be. It didn't work that well as an
impression showcase or a Kate showcase but she got some genuine laughs out of
it even if she gave me bad “Secret Word” flashbacks here. Also, Margot was
still a little miscast as Keira Knightly here but not as badly as she was as
Ivanka in the Family Feud sketch. C-
Mr. Robot - At first, I thought the only reason they would
do a Mr. Robot sketch was Petes' uncanny resemblance to the shows' lead actor
Rami Malek. Then, when Leslie came in I was pleasantly surprised they would go
for a different angle and comment on Leslie's nude photos hack scandal.
Finally, I ended up being disappointed with the sheer lack of focus and
direction this had and the punchline being that Leslie somehow leaked her own
nude photos from a comically outdated laptop. Still, I could see this as being
too personal and devastating an issue for Leslie to really mine too much humor
out of herself. Maybe if I were more familiar w/Mr Robot, I would've enjoyed
this more but I can't even tell if the writers are that familiar with it
either. C-
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