Margot Robbie/The Weeknd (10.1.2016)

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-

Well, SNL came back strong from an eventful summer. They made good user of the material that would still be topical by the time October rolled around. Next week, Lin Manuel Miranda makes his hosting debut fresh of his wildly successfully stint with his Broadway his “Hamilton”. Not being terribly familiar with his work myself, I only have the same expectations of him as host as I did Margot. Lin Manuel should prove to be a game and enthusiastic host but they still need to use him in all the right spots and give him strong material. See you then!