Okay, heres' my review. Somehow, this show turned out to be more genuinely enjoyable and have more cameos from former cast members or friends of the show (or anyone else outside of the current cast really) than last week's show with Will Ferrell. I'm sure it didn't hurt the cause that most people had considerably lowered expectations for the entire rest of the season (much less this weeks' show). Some people must have thought it was a refreshing change of pace that this shows wasn't as front loaded with #MeToo/#TimesUp related material as the previous months worth of shows. Coincidentally, most of that type of material seemed to be buried in the latter post Update half of the show for some reason when the show started to really fall apart. Natalie hasn't changed as a host at all. She's still a dependable actress whether shes' doing comedy or drama. She sure did defy most peoples' expectations of how "woke" her show would be given more recent statements she has made to the press. Also, I was impressed with how she manage not to let herself be overshadowed by all the cameos this week. Hell, nobody really overshadowed anybody. It felt like airtime for most of the cast was pretty balanced but for some reason it felt like Pete dominated the show since he was actually in sketches after being completely shut out of the show last week. Also, Cecily and Aid appeared to dominate the rest of the show more than Kate or Leslie. Kudos to Heidi and Chris on continuing to make solid impressions on the show but sadly, I think it's over for Luke.
Before we go any further, I have to take a moment and point out that this was the only show so far this season to NOT be broadcast live coast to coast due to NBC airing the "NFL Football Honors" MVP awards ceremony before they aired the Super Bowl the following night. They did say initially this ENTIRE season would be broadcast live coast to coast. Obviously, that's not true anymore no matter what but I'm wondering if they are going to air the rest of the season live coast to coast again starting next month or if they decided to end that for good after last week? I did enjoy being able to watch the show truly live and nn hour earlier than my local NBC affiliate permitted in previous seasons and it certainly made writing out these reviews a much easier and more efficient process for me (given how ever since I got my first smart phone these reviews have just become a series of extremely polished hot to lukewarm takes anyway). I'd like to see them finish out the rest of this season doing the same thing even though knowing every episode this season BUT ONE was broadcast live would truly bug the hell out of me. I thought the entire reason they started doing this was to capitalize on the bump in ratings the show received for their "'political' coverage" since Trumps' inauguration. Sure, this didn't do much to affect the shows' ratings in anyway at first but last week's show with Ferrell as host had gotten them the highest ratings they've had in some time. Why quite while they're ahead? Didn't they finally get what they really wanted with this whole live coast to coast stunt? Well, if that was the last live coast to coast episode, at least we can take some solace in the fact that this little experiment was bookended by episodes hosted be beloved former cast members. Remember, Jimmy Fallon hosted the shows' first ever live coast to coast episode on April 15th of last year and Will Ferrell hosted what was (as of this typing) the last. Anyway, enough about that. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Now, let's move on...shall we?
FOX and Friends XI - This cold open was serviceable. The newer cast members fit well enough into their roles with Alex surprisingly being the only weak link. Sorry, but nobody will have a funnier take of Steve Doocy than Taran Kilam (same could obviously be said for Bobby Moynihan and Brian Kilmeade but I did appreciate how grounded and nuanced Becks impression was. Kudos to Heidi for debuting her second ever impersonation on the show. Cecily certainly wasn't miscast as Hope Hicks but sadly the glaring technical errors were all I remembered about her segment. Chris clearly walked away with this sketch as Louis Farrakhan (boy, that reference takes me back). Baldwin may be doing more to actively harm the reputation of the show than help it but I appreciate the restraint they showed in waiting until February to have him trot out his stagnant Trump. Yeah, I'm sure his absence could also be partly attributed to any other film or TV projects that his raised profile from this show has afforded him the opportunity to pursue but the sentiment remains unchanged. Unsurprisingly, his appearance felt completely telegraphed and actually killed any momentum this sketch could've built up from Chris' appearance. Still, this was actually preferable to the recreation of Trumps' actual SOTU speech I was expecting when he tweeted he was going to be on the show (much how they recreated Caters' 78/79 SOTUs' with Aykroyd, GHW Bushs' 91 SOTU speech and Obamas' first SOTU in '10 with Armisen). C-
Monologue - This is something of a trope for SNL by this point but I appreciate how well it was pulled off here and how they tried to make it as meta as they possibly could. Also, Natalies' brief "V for Vendetta " joke actually worked for me. Come to think of it, this actually reminded me of parts of Rhonda Rouseys' monologue from a couple years ago. At least that was a high point of that episode and this one compares favorably to that one, so no harm.no foul. B+
Revolutionary War - This sketch had a decent premise. The joke itself has been observed to death by now but setting it during revolutionary times was a clever enough twist. I'm sure Tina had a hand in writing this which obviously helped. Nice seeing her and Rachel Dratch appear together in a sketch for absolutely no other reason than being in town this week. Everyone handled their Boston accents much better than Beck and Jessica Chastain did two week ago but nobody does it better than Dratch. Kenan probably could've used sine coaching from Tina on his Boston accent but it was funny watching try not to botch it completely. Also, I liked how that quick Fresh Prince reference was used to justify his characters' presence. My only real complaints about this was that it felt a little long and could've been edited a bit. For instance, they wasted Chris in his part here and the Dunkin' Donuts reference seemed unnecessarily tacked on. Maybe they could've gotten rid of both of those things? B-
Stranger Things 3 - This sketch seemed like another paper thin premise that was saved by its execution. Frankly, I was just glad the sole focus wasn't the budding pubescent sexual tensions between the two leads as the setup seemed to be implying. The supporting cast performed their parts really well (although I could've done without Cecilys' character entirely). Petes' part was very funny despite being heavily telegraphed for some reason and Luke making chilli while having a Brain hemorrhage may legitimately be the funniest thing he has done or may ever get to do on the show. Mostly, I appreciate how they chose to focus and latch on to one small character aspect of the show but pick a super obvious one as not to alienate those of us who have yet to have seen Stranger Things but see constant references to it everywhere. Kenans' appearance was a nice touch. Upon second viewing, one other thing bothered me about this sketch. Why would Aidys' character be able to do a Borat impression when Stranger Things takes place in the '80s (y'know, roughly 20 years before Sascha Baron Cohen had created the character...or any of his other characters for that matter?) I mean, they couldn't have just swapped Borax out for a reference to a pop cultural figure who was around in the '80s? Boy, I sure hope someone got fired for that blunder! C-
Natalies' Second Rap - I guess I should've been less surprised than I was that they actually decided to do a sequel to Natalies' Lonely Island rap video. Still, I actually enjoyed this as much as (if not moreso) than I did the original. More than I appreciate the Future/Nicki/Cardi B/parodies and other current rap tropes they snuck in there, I definitely appreciate how they acryually got (at least) Samberg to stop by for a cameo (and hopefully help write and produce this). I have to give everyone involved credit for realizing how utterly pointless it would have been to do this without him. I also liked the Star Wars jabs and the incredible restraint they showed in holding off on any Me Too/Times Up references until this point in the show. Additionally, this is the third piece in tonight's show that at least partially relied on being meta as part of its appeal. Wow! Was Dan Harmon a guest writer this week or something? B-
Update was pretty lackluster. It was packed with commentaries to make up for some real middling-to-poor level jokes. The only ones that stood out were Josts' Transformers/FOX News hype man/Piers Morgan interview lines. Not much else did anything for me. Maybe this is because after thebpast few weeks worth of crazy, "scandalous" Trump releated news, the Nunes memo bejng this weeks' top story makes this seem like a very very slow news week by comparison. I have no idea why Kate and Cecilys' commentary made it to air. I didn't hate it or anything. I just heard something vague about Bardots' comments in the news and it got buried under much bigger and less obscure stories this week but I suppose Cecily, Kate and their most frequent collaborators on the writing staff read this and pounced on it. This sure does fall in line with everything else Cecily and Kate have done on update content wise but format wise it falls more in line with what Alex and Mikey have been doing. Honestly, it felt more like they were portraying Eric & Don Jr or Princes Harry and William as elderly, sex-crazed French women. I did not know Pete filmed a series of Dockers ads recenter (hell, I had no idea any guys younger than me even WORE Dockers) but the story he told about doing them at the worst possible was very funny. Not sure why Kenan needed to bring Willy out of mothballs again. D+
Alien Lover - The best things I can say about this sketch are that they managed to add some decent heightened drama to such an absurd and outlandish premise and that they managed to successfully gender swap the old "Captain Kirk banging aliens" trope. Otherwise, this seemed like a bunch of wasted potential. I don't know what else I could possibly make of this. I was expecting them to bring this to more and more absurd heights of physical comedy than add the aforementioned interpersonal drama. Still, I have to admire Becks' commitment to what physical comedy was there for him to perform in the first place. The only laughs I got were from his "drinking" through his assistant (I wondered why that stain was on his leg. Must've been from dress rehearsal) and his peeing from his mouth and wearing a hat on his ass. Plus, I was left a little confused as to whether Beck was supposed to be a freak comped to others of his alien race or not. D+
Nick Kids Choice Awards Orange Carpet - This was just strange enough to work for me. Pete kind of dragged the sketch down but Mikey pretty much carried this despite Natalie acting her part well. It was also nice to see Kates' Ellen again. The increasingly drastic set of solutions to Natalies' vocal issue really made this work as played out as the voice modulators are in sketches now. It did seem a bit strange seeing this sketch in early February seeing as I'm used to hearing about these actually taking place in March/April. In fact, when they did a similar sketch to this when Ariana Grand hosted two years ago that was closer to when the Kids' Choice Awards tend to happen. C+
First Ladies - Despite coming across like a watered down mashup of the Ghost Of Hillary/Palin past sketch from when Tina and Amy co-hosted two Christmases ago and the posters/hot dog sketch from when Emma Stone hosted last season, this was a nice offbeat topical piece that was saved by most of its' performances. Cecilys' Melania was one of her better roles and this was a decent use of Kates' Hillary. Aidy was funny here but it seemed like her role could've been interchangeable with any other first lady from history.
I feel quite bad for Melissa what with this being her first and apparently only appearance in the live show. I don't think I'll quite understand how Natalies' portrayal of Jackie O was enough to sustain being the sole focus of a new full length film but thankfully not enough to serve the same function in this sketch. I can't believe I was sitting there waiting for Maya Rudolph or Sasheer Zamata to show up as Michelle Obama (well, the former is at least understandable given the other former cast cameos from her Era we have seen tonight) until I suddenly remembered that Leslie Jones was in the cast and this turned out to be a perfect role for her. B-
Bunny - If this sketch weren't set in a bar or a restaraunt, I have a feeling it would've been one of the first sketches of the night rather than the absolute last. Again, given the actual subject matter I have to admire there incredible restraint in holding off on this that much. As for Aidys' character, she seemed to have just thrown Kates' Sheila Sovage in a blender with Cecilys' Cathy Anne. Also, it frightens me that her character is supposedly the exact same age as I am this yearm Content wise, it seemed to be delivering the exact opposite message on gender relations that the rest of their all female/pro feminist sketches have in the past. I appreciate that most of the comedy seemed to come from. Aidy revealing more and more ridiculous details about her characters' personal life but it just didn't work for me. It didn't quite take the right risk and just seemed to be a borderline incoherent mess. C-
Now, for my updated rankings for this season...
1. Tiffany Haddish/Taylor Swift
2. Chance The Rapper/Eminem
3. James Franco/SZA
4. Natalie Portman/Dua Lipa
5. Jessica Chastain/Troye Sivan
6. Sam Rockwell/Halsey
7. Will Ferrell/Chris Stapleton
8. Saoirse Ronan/U2
9. Larry David/Miley Cyrus
10. Kumail Nanjiani/P!nk
11. Gal Gadot/Sam Smith
12. Kevin Hart/Foo Fighters
13. Ryan Gosling/Jay-Z
Well, that certainly defied the most general of expectations. Next month, after the Winter Olympics are over, Charles Barkley returns for his fourth hosting stint in 25 years. An odd choice for sure, but his '93 and '10 shows were both very funny so I'm looking forward to what he can bring us with this cast and writing staff. I can't wait to find out who else will be hosting in March! I have a feeling Jonah Hill may end up hosting on the 10th or 17th since the show seems to like bringing him on every two years in the Spring like clockwork regardless of what he may or may not have to promote. He didn't host at all in 2010. That may be the exception that proves through rule. Anyway, see you then! Have a great midseason break everybody!
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