Amy Schumer/Kacey Musgraves (5.12.2018)

Okay, heres' my review. Given how low my expectations were for this episode, I was generally pleased with how it turned out. It seemed like they weren't bringing back so much recurring material as in previous because all the things they did recur were bought out of mothballs after a few years. Still, there wasn't as much of an aura of burnout as I thought there might be this week even if this episode didn't feel like it was full of original ideas. There wasn't as much political humor tonight either, but what was there was really pointed and strongly written. Nothing stood out as being too horrible which puts it a notch above Schumers' previous episode (along with the fact that Schumer herself didn't seem to dominate the spotlight or steal much focus from the rest of the cast). Speaking of which, cast airtime seemed pretty evenly balanced since Kate & Mikey were much more visible this week than they were over the past few months worth of shows. Of course, this means there would appear to be a decreased presence of Cecily, Alex, Melissa & Leslie but again...we still know that they are all there and we see there is a nice balance between the cast and the host. It probably helps that this show also had the fewest surprise guest cameos they've had in recent weeks. Anyway, lets' get to it, shall we?

A Mothers' Day Message From The SNL Caat - It's a little strange that they would do this cold open right after airing a "vintage" episode from three years ago where they (and Reese Witherspoon) did almost this exact same thing for the monologue but they obviously had to do this at the very top of the show since this weeks' monolog was obviously going to be reserved strictly for Schumers' act. Still, it's nice to see Jost & the newer cast members who have joined the show in that time being featured in this (along with the cast members whose mothers could make it to New York this week). Nice to see Null make the absolute most of what might be his second to last week here. Kenans' mother subtly roasting his extremely lengthy tenure in the cast was my favorite moment. Thankfully, they kept this from going on too long given how one note it turned out to be. While this does have some references to the shows penchant for topical/political cold opens and just the vague concept of political comedy in general, it was nice to get something of a break from blatant reenactment of White House events. It's especially nice to get a break from Alec Baldwin tonight as well since him being there this week with Schumer hosting would be like putting a hat on a hat in terms of sheer mediocrity. B-

Montage - Is Darrell Hammond sick this week? Something seems to be affecting his voice to where it seems lower than normal. I almost thought some other announcer could've been filling in for him at first.

Monologue  - This was pretty much duller than Kevin Harts' monologue from this seasons' Christmas show and at about the same level of quality, so...pretty much part for the course for Schumer. It should've been a given that Schumer would discuss her recent marriage since it was obviously the biggest change in her personal life since the last time she hosted this show three years ago. Still, ones' own wedding doesn't make for good standup comedy. Whether or not you happen to be a white celebrity whose career is (somehow) still going strong, weddings seem like they would be next to impossible to mine quality jokes out of. I now have to admit Patton Oswalt was really on to something about how marriage and relationships can nearly destroy a comedians' career in stand up (and since its' Schumer we're talkin' about here, you know thats' REALLY saying something). The only thing that really stood out to me here was the "gaping" size tampons joke. Boy, that plug for her movie seemed really desperately jammed in, didn't it? The best thing I can say about this is that by now, season 43 may have just tied (if not beat) season 20 (and possibly 40) for the record of most stand up monologues in a single season. While part of me hopes this trend does continue, I hope that they maybe showcase some newer, fresher talent from the top echelons of the stand up comedy community. I also realize they may have just burned through just about all the top tier stand ups who have big enough careers to be invited on SNL by this point, (maybe not restrict it so much to people who have even the most tenuous connections to the show) but lets' hope it doesn't take to long for any other rising comics to come up and join those ranks. Ah, who am I kidding? Someone I'm describing might be better off just joining the cast if they are just starting out. D+

Mother Knows Best - I couldn't really get into this game show sketch since it came off as very telegraphed and  so much of it seemed like the exact type of thing SNL has already been doing for years with little to no variation. If Mikey & Streeter wrote this one, I have to wonder how many times it previously got cut? The only genuinely funny parts to me were Leslie and Pete breaking at the worst possible moments when the camera cut to them. Also, Schumers' line about being both "a YouTube sketch comedian and a very serious musician" was so oddly specific it left me wondering who exactly that was supposed to be a jab at. Also, while it didn't seem to have much of an ending at least they took this to its' logical conclusion in a satisfying enough way. C-

Handmaids In The City - These type of easy pop culture crossover premises (i.e. "Real Housewives of Disney", "The Office: Middle Earth") usually leave plenty of room for some solid writing and execution. I was expecting much more from this sketch once I realized it would also be in that vein but for some reason it just failed to deliver. Not even the obligatory fake reviews added much to this. Maybe I just wasn't familiar enough with the Handmaids' Tale to be able to appreciate it or maybe there was only so much they could do with this in execution as opposed to filming it but it just didn't land with me. Speaking of filmed sketches, I have to wonder if Amy bought any of her old  "Inside Amy Schumer" writers with her? While watching this, I for some reason flashed on the parodies of "12 Angry Men" and "Friday Night Lights" they did on that show (which I only saw because they were the only sketches from her show strong enough to go viral) and thought this could be something they would be doing if the show was in production now. C-

The Day You Were Born - This was allright. It rounded out to not be too predictable after they established what the entire joke behind this was. At first, I genuinely couldn't even venture an educated guess as to who may have written this as I couldn't think of anyone on the current cast or writing staff who has given birth. Then, I thought of the possibility that this could have been one of the writers I just hypothesized Schumer had bought with her this week in my blurb on the preceeding sketch. Finally, I saw where this was going and realized that whoever wrote this obviously also wrote the Girls Halloween short from last seasons' Tom Hanks/Lady Gaga episode and the high school drama production of Legally Blonde film from the Jimmy Fallon/Harry Styles episode. All of those films made strong use of jarring contrasts setup by quick back-and-forth jump cuts. B-

Gospel Brunch - I still don't quite know what to make of this one. It seemed a little too meandering and low-key for its own good. It took a detour too many to get to its central premise. The only real laughs, again, came from Kenan, Leslie and Amy breaking and adlibbing to cover for the blender just not working. They covered that quite nicely. I'd say either Che, Gary Richardson or Wil Stephenson & Bryan Tucker wrote this if I had to venture another educated guess. C-

Update was very strong throughout. Jost, Che and the rest of the team that puts Update together really seemed to hit it out of the park tonight. Not everything was laugh-out-loud hilarious but they displayed some real sharp joke writing abilities tonight. The only real groaned was Ches' "one-legged woman" joke and I'll admit I thought even that was pretty solid. It's nice to see Heidis' teen YouTube movie reviewer return in a NOT completely by-the-numbers rewrite but they still need to change the ending a little bit so she doesn't always end up having a near panic attack over her high school problems when Che reveals one of her movie crushes. I liked Melissa McCarthys' cute cameo just for the fact that it was the first (and seemingly only) genuine surprise of the whole show (maybe not so much when you consider she also just essentially made a "cameo" on Colberts' show the previous night rather than be interviewed as a guest). Strangely, McCarthy actually hosted last year around this exact same time when she DIDN'T have a movie out and seemed to be coasting on her slightly increased profile from being involved in thr shows' political humor. Boy, she must be grateful that she got to make "Life Of The Party" when she did because that gig dried up pretty fast, huh? At least it was short enough that she got to bow out gracefully, unlike some other five-timer hosts, right? Even stranger, she seems to be on the biggest media blitz to promote a movie I've seen while giving the fewest actual interviews doing so. Anyway, I don't mind how long this bit seemed to go on because it was pretty grounded for a Melissa McCarthy sketch character. The only thing that could've really improved this Update would've been to let Jost handle a guest commentary instead of making Che the focus of one of the two. B-

Wake Up Denver - Okay, first off...I do still appreciate the Denver shout out even if the setting seemed completely irrelevant to the rest of the sketch compared to the animal photographer/pornographer sketch from last years' Scarjo episode (also framed as a segment on a Denver based morning show but as a remote from the Denver Zoo). As for the substance of the sketch, it seemed like they really spread the basic premise of this too thin over a little too long of a sketch. I could immediately tell this was going to be some kind of "Rent" parody when I saw Kyles' costume during the brief commercial break setup preview. I could tell immediately that Kyle would be playing the character of "Mark" because he seemed to be wearing almost the exact same costume that Neil Patrick Harris wore when he played "Mark from Rent" in the "Save Broadway" sketch when he hosted back in '09. Speaking of which, Kyle and Amy really did stick out like a pair of sore thumbs among a sea of extras who were actual children (especially Amy who was quite distractingly unconvincing kneeling behind an oddly placed puppet wall). Speaking of Amy, I couldn't help but notice that she played the same "Amy Merriwheather-Sherman" character that she played in the "Toddlers & Tiaras" parody on her old sketch show and in the Town Hall sketch from the last time she hosted THIS show. Since they revived that town hall sketch later that season when Ronda Rousey hosted, I'm sure Schumer and her collaborators outside of SNL didn't write either of these sketches. I'm guessing this was a possible collaboration between Mikey, Kent Sublette and Julio Torres (shades of the latter are the most noticeable here). This feels like any of them could've written this previously and had it get cut from a past dress rehearsal/table read or two and hastily punched up this week to include Schumer character as her being a fierce conservative made so little sense it was probably tacked on at the last second. C+

Sheila Sovage VIII - Yeah, I happened to have my TV tuned to NBC during just the right portion of the hockey game where we got to see a brief glimpse of this from dress rehearsal. I noticed Amy was in this as the first woman Kate was ever paired up with in these and wondered if this might be the final "Last Call" sketch she was planning to do while in the cast since it looked like (and proved to be) such a substantial shakeup to this formula. Since we now know that Kenan isn't leaving THIS season, I suppose this gives us much more room to speculate whether or not Kate or Aidy are more likely to say goodbye next week. Speaking of Kenan, his obligatory "reactions" were the only other thing keeping this from being a complete carbon copy of the previous installment with Charles Barkley. I guess opening the ark of the covenant was the only way he could possibly follow magically turning to stone. C-

James Madison High School Graduation '18 - Its' pretty obvious that whoever wrote the "Christmas Mass Spectacular" short from the Martin Freeman/Charli XCX episode three-and-a-half years ago. This seemed like a more seasonal/topical rewrite of that (even down to Aidy possibly playing the exact same character but her jumbled, scattershot protest along with Chris chickening out of a backfill were two of the funniest moments in this) but much less grounded and realistic. The only thing that I can say I related to in this was the "literally everybody is dabbing" joke (since I attended my sisters' college graduation a year ago...yes, even among college graduates the "dab" has still managed to not go out of style in the slightest). Everything else seemed like they dug up (and then maybe watered down for network television) some old cliches from twenty years worth of teen oriented movies. I mean, even Becks' voiceover was way more hyped up than it needed to be. Still, that didn't make it any less funny than its' spiritual predecessor. B-

Now, for my updated rankings of the season so far...

1. Sterling K. Brown/James Bay

2. John Mulaney/Jack White

3. Bill Hader/Arcade Fire

4. Donald Glover/Childish Gambino

5. Tiffany Haddish/Taylor Swift

6. Chance The Rapper/Eminem

7. Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B

8. James Franco/SZA

9. Natalie Portman/Dua Lipa

10. Amy Schumer/Kacey Musgraves

11. Charles Barkley/Migos

12. Jessica Chastain/Troy Sivan

13. Sam Rockwell/Halsey

14. Will Ferrell/Chris Stapleton

15. Larry David/Miley Cyrus

16. Saoirse Ronan/U2

17. Kumail Nanjiani/P!nk

18. Gal Gadot/Sam Smith

19. Kevin Hart/Foo Fighters

20. Ryan Gosling/Jay-Z

Well, that was an all around pleasant surprise. Next week, Tina Fey returns for the finale. This will be Tinas' sixth time hosting the show since leaving the cast almost twelve years ago. I know the show likes nothing more than to have an old friend of the show (be they distinguished alumni or five timer level host) close out the season but it would have been nicer to maybe break that tradition and let another fresh faced first timer host before the season ends. Still, if this episode turns out to be at the same level of quality as the last time she hosted (when she cohosted with Amy Poehler for Christmas three years ago) I will be reasonably satisfied. See you then!