John Mulaney/Jack White (4.14.2018)

Okay, here's my review. This show was just as consistently strong as Sterling K. Browns' episode was last month. Even if it didn't quite pack in the same amount of raw energy, you could tell everyone was easily able to keep their spirits up all week. John Mulan proved to be just as adept at performing live sketch comedy as hes' always been at writing it and performing stand up. He really gave this show the boost it needed as it headed into the final home stretch of its' current season. He seemed to be the most visible dominating force behind the show which is a very good quality for any type of host to have. As far as airtime of the actual cast goes, Pete, Alex, Cecily, Heidi and (shockingly) Luke Null seemed to be the most visible. Anyway, lets' break it down...shall we?

Muller Fockers - As much as Kates' Sessions is played out, I was intrigued to see a cold open that started out with just her and Becks' Pence seemingly in place of Baldwin. I was hoping they would give us something a little different and thankfully, they at least did that. Ben Stiller as Micheal Cohen was a great casting decision and he fit the role perfectly. DeNiro as Muller was okay, but probably seemed like a better idea on paper. I think he's at least a better visual fit for the role than Kate, but performance wise he kinda killed whatever momentum this was building since Stiller appeared onscreen. The only things of his and Stillers' that really got a laugh out of me were the "codenames" and the "hard drive/yikes" line. While the "Meet The Parents/Fockers" parody seemed incredibly dated and forced in 2018, it was a little more outside the box that SNLs' current attempts at political humor. C+

Monologue - This was as great as his standup usually is. There were too many great jokes to point out individually but the things that stood out the most to me were the "running for Mayor of nothing" line, his admitting he did coke just before his college graduation ceremony, how he proved he is the only comedian working today that can make robot/captcha jokes even remotely funny and how he chose to open with an entire joke on an obscure Patrick Stewart Salt-N-Pepa intro from February 12, 1994 that obviously stuck with him when he saw it in his youth. I definitely appreciate how he chose to call back to it during his first Jack White intro! My only complaint about this monologue would be that my sneaking suspicion that Darrell Hammond actually butchered his name introducing him as "John Mulvaney" was all but confirmed. B+

JonMuls' Drag Brunch - This seemed like another thing only Mulaney could make funny. In fact, as it progressed it seemed more and more like something only he would've written. I'm willing to bet this is something he co-wrote with Marika Sawyer and Simon Rich. It reminded me of that 50s' diner sketch from five years ago with Jennifer Lawrence as the waitress and Bobby Moynihan as the patron she was totmenting. This was much better however as it built to a much stronger ending that actually improved the sketch. B-

National School Walkout - This sketch kind of rubbed me the wrong way. For one thing, it almost seemed like it was either in questionable taste or just not the right way to address the current gun debate if they were even going to address it at all. Getting past that, Kate and Alex seemed to have the funniest parts in the entire show even though by the time they got to them, this sketch seemed to lose what little structure and focus it had. C+

Wild Wild Country - This was pretty much dominated by Kenan. Thanks to him, I didn't feel like I needed to have seen the source material to find this funny. I think I only became aware of what this was parodying once I saw part of it via either Sara Schaefers' or Stephanie Simbaris' Instagram story (or if not her, than one of the other female comics living in LA that I follow there whose reaction to this I'd like to see). Also, I never thought that Nassim Pedrad would be invited back for a cameo in a million years so its' nice to see that not only did we see that exact thing just happen, but that she also got some recognition applause upon her appearance! She must've really liked writing and collaborating with Mulaney during their time on the show together since she was on his sitcom. I'm guessing he also had a hand in writing this since theres' definitely some shades of "Documentary Now!" to be found here. B-

Lobster Miserables - This sketch was just silly enough to work. It was a decent showcase for Cecily and Mulaneys' singing. Kenan and Kate performed their goofy parts well but Pete and Chris counteracted their absurdity so well that I maintain that this sketch simply would not have worked without them. The biggest thing this sketch had going against it were how the timing on the subtitles got screwed up so bad. Also, Pete botched that Mean Girls Broadway plug so bad that they had to fix it in the repeat and it strikes me as very strange that Mikey first appearance of the entire show would be as a waiter in a non speaking role in this. C+

Update was pretty much the polar opposite of last week in that it was more worth tuning in for the jokes rather than the commentaries. As for the jokes, their best material seemed to be the non-Trump related stuff (aside from Ches' "germaphobe" comments) although his student/teacher sex joke shouldn't have been done at all. Kates' Laura Ingraham seemed a little off to me. It's like she went for a Carvey-level exaggeration there but took the exaggeration too far and the impression just got away from her entirely. Plus, I feel like SNL making fun of someone in the media who screwed up so badly that several of their sponsors had to bail out by portraying them announcing pitiful joke sponsors is a beyond tired trope on the show at this point. I mean, Jack Handy made joke sponsors in sketches his trademark for several years. Long after that, SNL created their own special episode of the sponsor-hemmorhagingly controversial ovelry sexed up MTV Teen drama "Skins" (a bastardized British import) with the cheapest product placements ever. A little over a year later, Taran Kilam depicts Rush Limbaugh gruffly rattling off new Handey-like sponsors which I actually remeber being funnier than tonights' retread of this trope mostly due to Tarans' performance. The only sponsors here tonight that really landed with me were "Reverse Mortages" & "Malaysia Airlines" as well as he line about bullying and the first amendment. I'm not sure we needed to see the return of Kenans' Lava Ball this week (as the real Lavar Ball wasn't exactly dominating headlines) but he was very funny when he was talking about his own "league" and their amneties and incidentals. C+

Hollywood Update/Switcheroo Reboot - This sketch worked more than it had any right to. Specifically, what made it work beyond the initial reveal of the joke was Cecilys' increasingly horrified reactions to Mulaneys' going into detail on the next-to-impossible logistics of pulling this wholly unnecessary "reboot" off and the damaging consequences of even doing the original show. B-

Horn Removal - Kudos to Luke Null for finally getting a leading role in a worthwhile sketch. I'm not sure this alone will guarantee him a second season at this point, but I'm rooting for him after seeing this. His and Heidis' description in his characters' other increasingly outlandish body modifications was what made this sketch for me. He seems to work best with Heidi and have a real chemistry with her from what I've been able to see thus far. If (and it's a pretty big IF at this point) he manages to come back next season it would probably behoove him to do more sketches with Heidi as his scene partner. I wouldn't mind seeing more of them together after this. Also, Mulaney was the best possible straight man thus sketch could've asked for. B+

The Real Intros Of Reality Hills - This was OK. Normally, I don't care much for reality TV parodies on this show but this was just rapid fire paced enough to keep me interested. The only people who stood out to me here were Mikey (because he had the funniest line), Cecily (because she was the only one who got to play two different characters for some reason) and Mulan (because he played twins and, along with Leslie, seemed to have the most dialogue out of everybody). I'm guessing Mulaney also wrote this because a fan of his who I recently started following on Twitter pointed out his resemblance to The Property Brothers here and I take it thats' a show he frequently watches with his wife given the amount of times I've heard him drop references to it in his stand up act and on his Instagram posts. C+

Now, for my updated rankings of this season ...

1. Sterling K. Brown/James Bay

2. John Mulaney/Jack White

3. Bill Hader/Arcade Fire

4. Tiffany Haddish/Taylor Swift

5. Chance The Rapper/Eminem

6. Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B

7. James Franco/SZA

8. Natalie Portman/Dua Lipa

9. Charles Barkley/Migos

10. Jessica Chastain/Troy Sivan

11. Sam Rockwell/Halsey

12. Will Ferrell/Chris Stapleton

13. Larry David/Miley Cyrus

14. Saoirse Ronan/U2

15. Kumail Nanjiani/P!nk

16. Gal Gadot/Sam Smith

17. Kevin Hart/Foo Fighters

18. Ryan Gosling/Jay-Z

Wwll, that was certainly the return to form that the show needed right now. In two weeks, Donald Glover makes his hosting debut with Childish Gambino as his musical guest. It's about damn time they let Troy "Butt Soup" Barnes himself pull double duty on this show. It sure took them long enough. I'm sure I'm not the only one who is excited for this one. I've been wanting this exact lineup for at least the past six years. This also means we might get two stand up monologues  in a row if Donald wasn't serious about COMPLETELY retiring from comedy! As much as I'm a fan of his music, I'd rather just see him do some new stand up material for his monologues than a song or even a typical sketch/cast interaction type "monologue" they do with your average hosts. If they could get Larry David to do it, they could certainly get him as well. See you then!

Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B (4.6.2018)

Okay, here's my review. Thus show just about met my expectations but still left a lot to be desired. It was very "middle-of-the-road" for this season. It slowly got off to a promising enough start but had completely run out of steam by the time Update was over. From what I had seen in the weeks' promos and SNLs' social media, Chadwick seemed like he was going to be as solid and game and up-for-anything of a host as his "Black Panther" costar Sterling K. Brown was even with only abut a tenth of the enthusiasm. Thankfully, this monologue showed my preconceptions to be correct. He didn't do much to drag the show down but he did do the best he could when saddled with some fairly weak material. While it's pretty much a given that Kenan and Chris would get a lot of airtime this week, it was still nice to see. I also liked seeing how Heidi and especially Melissa are being allowed to come into their own and finally begin to make their mark on the show this week. This is good news for Melissa as Noel Wells and Abby Eliott were also hired mostly on their strengths at doing female impressions and this never happened to either of them before they were let go. It's also a nice change of pace to see Cecily and (to a lesser extent) Kate get put on the back burner for a bit in favor of Aidy. Besides them, Beck and Pete were really the only other people who seemed visible this week. Anyway, lets' break it down. Shall we?

Trump-Baltic Leaders Summit - This cold open sure seemed like a mess. Until now, I had no idea "Outnumbered w/Harris Faulkner" was an actual Fox News show. Still, they got some decent jabs at FNC as a whole here (especially "Mexicans" being blurted out as a "news alert"). I'm glad it didn't focus solely on the Baltic Summitt since that was far from the biggest news story of the past two weeks. I wasn't as glad to see this turned out to be just a random grab bag of throwaway jokes about the past two weeks' worth of Trump related news they almost missed. Baldwins' Trump appearances are officially a non-entity at this point but I'm glad they are limiting them to once a month at this point. I felt pretty bad for Heidi for having to appear in such a seemingly important role with zero lines. However, I did like Alexs' "this man is lying" line, the random "Stankonia" and "Mad Max Fury Road" references, the Amazon/Jeff Bezos jabs and the brief back and forth between Kate & Cecily. Those are really the only things that stood out to me here. C-

Monologue - This is what got this show off to a better start. I did appreciate the whole meta vibe of it and that the show was able to effectively poke fun at the quality of its own sketch writing (even though things are further away from season 20 levels than they were at the beginning of the season).  Thankfully it was JUST a straight forward monologue with Kenan as the only guest. Aside from the visual of him in that ridiculous Panthro costume, his appearance just didn't do much for me. Thankfully, his brief James Brown impression allowed the monologue to end on a slightly better note (even if he seemed too visibly nervous toward the end to really put his all into it). Speaking of Chadwick Borman as James Brown, the only thing this monologue could've done without was allowing the audience to applaud one by one for each name of a IRL prominent black figure he played in a movie. It kinda killed the pacing of the monologue. B-

Nike Pro-Chiller Leggings - To me, this basically came across like an all female reboot of the New Balance sneakers for chubby middle aged guys ad from Zach Galifinakis' 2013 episode that Bobby Moynihan and Tim Robinson costarred in with him. Other than that, all else I can say is that it was nice to see this was a more benign piece of female humor from Kate and Aidy than a strong ardently feminist soap box statement from Cecily (no pun intended). I'm guessing Aidy and Kate collaborated with Anna Drezen and/or Sudi Green on this one (or any of the other female writers I'm forgetting about). Also, is it just me or does it seem apropos that Heidi and Melissa are the women who have to put in the hard work here while Kate and Aidy are the ones who now get to rest on their laurels? C-

Black (Panther) Jeopardy V - I knew we would be getting a Black Jeopardy sketch this week since Leslie posted a photo on Instagram of her posing with some Girl Scouts on the Black Jeopardy set during what appeared to have been Thursday/Friday rehearsals. I was curious at first to see how they would be able to pull this off since they are usually only able to do this with white hosts (and Drake) playing the odd contestant out. At first, I thought they just might have Cardi B play the third contestant until I realized she probably can't act in live sketches. I have to admit though that "Black Panther on Black Jeopardy" was such a blindingly obvious premise it should have been staring us in the face for the past two weeks. It reminded me of sketches like "The Real Housewives Of Disney", "A Serial Christmas" and "The Office: Middle Earth" because it was a heavily pop culture based sketch where the simplicity and relative unambition of its not-at-all-overthought premise allowed the writers to explore fresh new territory. Sadly, they could've focused a bit more on Chadwicks' part. I'm glad Chris fit in to the black Jeopardy mold in the absences of Mr. Pharroh and Ms. Zamata but this sketch wasn't about them as much. They should have expanded the basic formula beyond just T'Challah (sp?) buzzing in every third question with an extremely reverent and idealistic yet very naive response only to be told by Kenan that he is very wrong. Even though it was a noble effort, it felt like a missed opportunity in some spots. B-

Male Pregnancy - This seemed like it was going to be much more ambitious than it was at first which was quite disappointing seeing how one note it actually turned out to be. Also, I'm not sure Chadwicks' role called for him to purposely do a bad Obama impression but it didn't exactly hurt this sketch (neither did the back and forth between Aidy and Cecily either). Mikey had to have written this since it follows a similar formula to other sketches he was responsible for such as Matt Shatt and American Girl Doll Store. C+

Aidy B Meets Cardi B - I could automatically tell exactly where this was going as soon as I saw the establishing shot of Rockefeller Plaza based on the sheer number of times they've done this exact type of field piece since season 39 but that doesn't mean I automatically discounted it. I had to watch it a few times in order to know what to make of it and make sure I caught all the jokes I missed the first time. It does hold up better on multiple viewings. Thankfully, Cardi B herself showed up at the end to lend some credibility to this piece as it would've made absolutely no sense had she not shown up. I'm positive Aid co-wrote this with Sudi Green since she actually shows up on camera in this. C+

Bodak Yellow/Barter Cardi/Be Careful - Speaking of Cardi B, I have a few comments on her performances since there were some things that really stood out to me there. I noticed she only performed part of her breakout hit "Bodak Yellow". I realize this was just so it could be included in a medley with another song but I wonder if the reason was mere time constraints or if there were just that many lyrics from "Bodak Yellow" she absolutely could not get away with performing on live television. As for her second performance, well...I didn't hate the song itself but let's just say I think that dress she was wearing should once and for all settle those rumors about her pregnancy. Also, I do have to wonder why the musical guest stage looks like it was specifically remodeled to look the way it did circa 94-95?

Update was saved by the guest commentaries tonight. Che and Jost had some great Chinese Trade War and Australian stabbing jokes but their unenthused delivery really bought them down. Alex as Mark Zuckerberg was really something. It was at once subtle and over the top. It was also nuanced and incredibly pointed while not treading a ton of new ground. It was also funnier than Sambergs' portrayal from the 2010-11 season of SNL but didn't make me forget about him in that role (probably because Alex is only the second person to have played that role). I'm genuinely surprised to see that Heidis' boxers' girlfriend could be more than a one shot character but its' nice to see they can adapt this role to whatever is in the news on a week-by-week basis. Still, even she must have been as burnt out as Jose and Che seemed tonight as she didn't perform it nearly as strongly as she did when she debuted the first character. Plus, "I'm taking my kids to my sisters" isn't an ideal catchphrase for a recurring SNL character. C+

R. Kelly Does Disneyland - Leslie and Beck made this much funnier than it really had any right to be. Chadwicks' R. Kelly was a little underwhelming. He performed his part well enough with the material he was given but his character could've been given more outrageous things to do. C+

Warehouse Fire - This was definitely the weakest sketch of the night. Did anyone else get strong 09-10 vibes from this or is it just me.? The premise was very convoluted and executed very awkwardly. It didn't really have an ending and it absolutely died with the audience. D-

Singing Restaurant Complaint - Kenan, Chadwick and Melissa really made this for me. I liked Chadwick and Kenan for the formers' raspy Louis Armstrong and the latter's wig and Melissas' characters' back story really added something of substance to it. I'm guessing Anderlette wrote this even though it doesn't meander as much as their other sketches usually do. C-

The Game Of Life: DACA Edition - This was quite a strong commercial that actually made a salient point successfully. I'm surprised this wasn't placed much earlier in the show. I'm guessing that Melissa cowrote this with Stephen Castillo since they seem to have gravitated toward collaborating with each other based on her Instagram. B+

Wakanda Salute - Chris and Leslie were pretty solid in this while Chadwick could've been playing himself and it wouldn't have made much of a difference. The only thing that made me laugh were Pete and Becks attempts at doing the Wakanda salute (especially the way Beck kept badly mispronouncing "Wakanda"). Kenans' part felt too tacked on. The audience seemed to view this similar to the way I did because they were pretty dead through this. I'm guessing Che wrote this since its' overly wordy and trips over itself in trying to make a much larger social point. C+

Now, for my updated rankings of this season ...

1. Sterling K. Brown/James Bay

2. Bill Hader/Arcade Fire

3. Tiffany Haddish/Taylor Swift

4. Chance The Rapper/Eminem

5. Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B

6. James Franco/SZA

7. Natalie Portman/Dua Lipa

8. Charles Barkley/Migos

9. Jessica Chastain/Troy Sivan

10. Sam Rockwell/Halsey

11. Will Ferrell/Chris Stapleton

12. Larry David/Miley Cyrus

13. Saoirse Ronan/U2

14. Kumail Nanjiani/P!nk

15. Gal Gadot/Sam Smith

16. Kevin Hart/Foo Fighters

17. Ryan Gosling/Jay-Z

Well, this episode certainly was a mixed bag. Next week, former SNL writer John Mulaney makes his hosting debut. He is only the third former writer to host without ever officially being added to the cast. Conan O'Brien and Larry David are the only others to have accomplished this. I say, good for Mulaney. It's about damn time this happened for him. He's certainly had a big enough career in comedy in general for this to happen. I'm excited to get to see HIS stand up monologue for a change. Speaking of which, this will be this season's fifth stand up monologue after Kumail Nanjiani, Larry David, Tiffany Haddish (all in a row in that order, too I might add) and Kevin Hart. This might actually be a new record for SNL. I mean, the last time they even came close to having this many stand up monologues in one season was season 20 with six (Bob Saget, Damon Wayans, Paul Reiser, Bob Newhart, Roseanne and Steve Martin depending on how you would want to classify his monologues from that seasons' premiere). I also realize he was a frequent collaborator with Bill Hader while they were both on the show but I'd sooner expect a Nick Kroll cameo than a Hader cameo since the latter just hosted and it would definitely be overkill and I'm hoping Mulaney would be willing to play Gil Faizon to the formers' George St. Geegland since those characters were actually big enough to have their own run on Broadway at one point. Anyway, see you then!