Okay, here's my review. It seems like this episode turned out to be the most polarizing show of this season so far (or any season in recent memory, really) and des evenly so. Some people loved this show while others hated it but you have to be able to see the forest for the trees on this one. This show isn't immediately better or worse than the previous live episode hosted by Alec Baldwin. It's just about the same in terms of quality but both episodes disappointed us for different reasons. Baldwin is an SNL hosting legend who always delivered in the past but seemed to be given a lot of less than stellar material that even he himself could only do so much to save. Octavia Spencer is a first time SNL host of whom we didn't quite know what to expect. She also happened to be an accomplished actress with some small comedic parts under her belt and that served hee well on this show. She was a game host and her acting chops stood out more than anything in what was a string of underwritten and forgettable sketches. Octavia performed so well that I'm sure none of us would mind seeing her host again sometime in the future but hopefully with some better writing. I don't know what was going on this week. As far as airtime goes, the cast was evenly balanced (even Sasheer and the new featured players made their presence known tonight). Still, noticeably missing from tonight's show were Pete, Bobby (although he may have one foot out of the door at this point) and Kate (of all people, to have Kate McKinnon this noticeably absent from a show is criminally strange but I'll have more to say on her later since this particular week seemed to be an anomally). Anyway, let's get down to it.
Gump Sessions - This cold open was very clever and we'll written and executed. I liked seeing them bring back Kates' Sessions and I liked that her impression us a bit more focused. I liked the Kelly Anne/Russia jabs. Even if Becks' Putin is a little overused lately, they used it jist right here. Even the cheap bus effect made me giggle. The way they worked in Octavia character from The Help really served this well. B+
Monologue - This filled me with more confidence in her as a host than it did confidence that the rest of the show was going to be as strong as that cold open. Nothing she had to say really stood out to me except her lines about her nurse roles and the Hidden Fence-light bit. Still, it was nice to see her tackle a straight solo monologue and hold her own doing so (especially since I can'tell remember the last of this type of monologue SNL did). C+
TBD - This wasn't much but it was worth a few laughs. This was a nice out-of-the-box/off-the-beaten-path premise compared to their other recent filmed movie trailers. C+
Drug Company Lawsuit - This sketch was barely a full premise that should never have been fleshed our even half as far as they did here but I will say I appreciate Sasheer, Leslie and Octavias' level of commitment to it. D+
Girl At A Bar - This left quite a bit to be desired. I liked the idea of SNL finally tackling the sudden rise of outspoken male "feminists" who inevitably turn out to be secret abusers and harassers, but I was hoping this would be less one note and predictable than it turned out to be. They really hammered to point over our heads to a degree that the even the ending with Aidy felt way too predictable. This seemed lacking in both writing AND execution. D+
Zooopolis - This had its moments but it was absolutely the flimsiest example of what it was I've ever seen in the history of sketch comedy. It's nice to see Melissa finally get to squeeze in more impressions from her repitoire (and kudos to her sneaking her Wiig in there and for being the first person to ever do a Kate McKinnon impression anywhere). I also liked seeing Octavia score a few of her own as well as the way they worked in Becks' Bardem and Kenans' Tracy but the rest of this did nothing for me. C+
Youngblood - This was another thin premise, but this had a few things going for it. What really saved this was Kenan, Pete and Octavias' acting plus the fact that it was filmed helped out the pacing a lot. B-
Update was a bit of a roller coaster. Both Jost and Che had their fair share of great jokes but overall it felt a little uneven. I think they can be forgiven for this though seeing as how they must've had to scrap a lot of material for what they had to write about Trumps' Wire Tapping tweetstorm from THAT MORNING. It was nice to see Mikey and Alexs' Trump sons finally get fleshed out as full characters. Alex got the most laughs out of me here. I think Vanessa child reporter character is a little played out by now, but her comments on the Transgender protections rollback and the Korean murder were okay. B-
Three Kellyannes Kneeling - I liked the idea of sneaking in a running gag that adds some continuity to the show (like Ferrell as Ken Starr subpoenaing everyone in sight in the spring of '98) and having Kate as KellyAnne Conway kneeling on everything in sight was a cute idea but keeping her in that outfit the whole show for this seemed like a HUGE waste! This sort of thing makes me think Kate might be jumping at the gun a bit to leave the show and get going on that budding movie career of hers. I mean, this is only her fifth year on SNL. These days, that's like being skipped ahead two grades and graduating early. It feels like Kate was absent most of the week working on abother movie. At least they obeyed the rule of three with these.
Sticky Buns - This felt too much like a sketch from the Era of Wiig and Armisens' dominance on the show for me to really get into Beck and Octavia really stood out to me here but I do wish there was more variance between hers' Mikeys' and Melissas' parts. They each had different gags between them but kept repeating them over and over. C-
Wine Bar - This went nowhere and made me tune out more and more as it progressed. I do like seeing Cecily (and even Sasheer with a decent amount of lines) on the show but not like this. It was the type of sketch that SNL does that is only palatable to the current generation (millenials in this case) and no one else. D+
Office Chocolates - This sketch was strange, but less in a good way than I had hoped. It seemed like it was going to build to something but it never did. Beck, Aidy and Octavia made me want to like this sketch more than I was able to. It's like they were unable to ultimately decide what type of sketch they wanted this to be before they put it on the air. Either that or they just rewrote a sketch from 2014 that got cut at dress because I remember reading about a sketch very similar to this being cut from that season but it involved Beck playing a perv who was fired just for sexual harassment. It really seemed to be lacking any real ending. Also, it looked like almost this entire cast was pretty close to breaking by the end of this sketch. I can kind of see why, but I still have a hard time suspending my disbelief here. C-
Octavia Spencers' Gifts - This seemed like the type of sketch even Octavia Spencer had the least amount of confidence in based on her performance compared to all her other parts on the show. I did like her back and forth with Aidy, though. The best thing I can say about this was that it was placed at the perfect slot in the show. D-
Now, my updated rankings for this season...
1. Dave Chappelle/A Tribe Called Quest
2. Tom Hanks/Lady Gaga
3. Kristen Stewart/Alessia Cara
4. Lin Manuel Miranda/Twenty One Pilots
5. Aziz Ansari/Big Sean
6. Alec Baldwin/Ed Sheeran
7. John Cena/Maren Morris
8. Felicity Jones/Sturgil Simpson
9. Casey Affleck/Chance The Rapper
10 Octavia Spencer/Father John Misty
11. Margot Robbie/The Weeknd
12. Emily Blunt/Bruno Mars
13. Emma Stone/Shawn Mendes
14. Kristen Wiig/The xx
15. Benedict Cumberbatch/Solange
Well, that was disappointing despite some bright spots here and there. Next week Scarlett Johansson joins the five timers club. Ugh, given how this show as well as each of Scarletts' previous appearances turned out, I am not looking forward to this but hey...they could still surprise us. See you then!
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