Donald Glover/Childish Gambino (5.5.2018)

Okay, heres' my review. This was still solidly a top five show for this season despite some very minor flaws. Donald Glovers' comedy background served him well as a host. He was very comitted and definitely deserves to host again in the future. He made the absolute most out of every role he was given but at times it felt like he didn't really get enough of a chance to shine as a comedic actor. It felt like he was just lifeless coasting on some rather weak material at times throughout the show. I mean, I may be a little biased on this one because I've been a fan of Glovers since the time before "Community" even premiered when Glover was still very active with the sketch group "Derrick Comedy" (and writing for 30 Rock which I didn't even know he was doing at the time). I was even a fan of his music in college (although I haven't really kept up with his Gambino albums since "Because The Internet" but I'm glad people are still raving about his songs) and I've been waiting for this exact episode to happen for at least the past seven years. I guess I was just expecting a little more (like I'm sure all of us were with Ferrells' episode from January) but this episode didn't completely dash my hopes. I guess he has just matured quite a bit since I was following his early career so closely. I also think that maybe part of the problem could've been that what I thought should have been a showcase for Donald Glover to return to his roots for a night got washed away in a sea of either just plain tired or just plain pointless and unnecessary cameos. Boy, that sure sounded like a nice segue into my comments on this weeks' cold open, didn't it? Lets' start off  there, shall we?

Cohen Makes Calls - This cold open sure was a jumbled, distractingly green-screened mess. I think I'm kinda burnt out on stunt casting and cameos right now but still, the only real highlights to this were Martin Short as Dr. Harold Bornstien (the shades of his Jerry Lewis in that portrayal were a nice touch). Fallons' chirpy, aggro Kushner (nice continuity there) & Beck as Pence revealing he was calling a "party line". I'm sure I'm not the only one who was disappointed to find that they cast Kate as Gulianni but at least it was a fairly small role here (and strangely her ONLY role because for some reason.this and the goodnights were the only things she appeared in throughout the entire show). Personally, I thought Alex could've handled the role better instead of being relegated to a no-dialogue role as an FBI witetap agent along with Chris Redd. Speaking of, I wish we had gotten to see him or Glover as Kanye instead of the actual Stormy Daniels. I don't think that was the right thing for SNL to do in the moment (or any moment ever, really). It reminded me too much of those real life Monica Lewinsky cameos in the Cuba Gooding Jr./Ricky Martin episode from May 1999. I remember staying up to watch that one when I was eight years old and even then I could see how it reeked of shameless desperation (I mean, not as much as this, and it wasn't even announced or promoted ahead of time like Lewinsky was, but still). At the very least, we can now say that at least one actual, real life porn star has beem on SNL. C-

Monologue - This got the show off to a slightly better start. I mean, I was slightly disappointed that they didn't just let Donald do his own stand up act but I guess he legitimately retired from stand up to focus on acting and music and hasn't written any jokes in years. Yeah, I could tell SNLs' writing staff wrote all of these jokes for him. They were typical monologue jokes, but at least Donald had the sheer charisma and comedic timing to make them more genuinely funny than any other actor host would have. It kinda dragged in the middle when he started walking around the studio. At that point, it pretty much morphed into a cross between Justin Timberlakes' 2009 monologue & Tom Bradys' 2005 monologue. I honestly would've preferred he go into a Childish Gambino song than...whatever this was. Still, that walk around the studio at least built up to a reasonably satisfying payoff gag (no pun intended). C+

Jurassic Lawsuit - This sketch was okay. Glover was the strongest performer in it. My only criticism is that it could've been tighter and quicker paced. I get the sense that not only did Day and Seidell not only wrote this but resubmitted it after it got cut from dress a few years ago when the first Jurassic World actually came out. I guess the "Instagram story" was filmed just before Luke Null injured his leg? That wpuld explsin this being his only appearance in the entire show this week? B-

Friendos - I wasn't expecting Childish Gambino to participate in a Migos parody but I guess he is good enough friends with them in the rap community that he thought they would dig this. This seemed like a fairly simple idea but it had some really solid writing behind it and the whole thing was executed and performed perfectly. I found it to be very funny. The A$AP Rocky cameo didn't detract too much from this. I wonder whose office this was filmed in? I think I follow just enough of this shows' cast and writers on Instagram to notice the look of a writers' office on the 17th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Plus, I wonder if they reconsidered filling this so f Glover wrote any of these sketches himself, this stands out to me as the most likely to be his. B+ g. Thats' my only criticism of this otherwise well executed piece. B+

Raz P. Berry - This was very funny mostly for the building insanity of it. Kenan and Cecily also added to it and played off Glover well. If Glover wrote any of these sketches himself, this stands out to me as the most likely to be his. B+

A Kanye Place - I have to give them some credit for the somewhat creative angle of working their obligatory take on Kanyes' antics with an unexpected "A Quiet Place" film. Maybe I would be able to appreciate this more if I had actually seen the film but I still found the Kanye commentary a little heavy handed. Plus, it really didn't seem to have an ending. I do have to wonder who wrote this one. My gut tells me it might be Che but not all of this exactly screams him. I'm thinking it could've been Anna Drezen/Sudi Green since Aidy seemed so have such a noticable presence in it. There also seem to be shades of Julio Torres & possibly Stephen Castillo here as well. C-

More Bedroom Dirty Talk - It was nice to see that they gave Melissa another chance to get this on the air, but compared to the original with Aziz Ansari it was far too rushed and underwritten. It didn't quite capture what worked about the first one at all. Hell, she didn't even try to work in any of her impressions. Maybe the show was just running a little long and a big chunk of this got cut for time. Also, she's now done this sketch opposite both Aziz Ansari AND Donald Glover. Is is just a coincidence that both versions of this sketch starred guys whose named have been frequently tossed around by women and female centric publications as the most attractive males comedians? I genuinely have to wonder if this sketch got cut from Kumails' dress rehearsal. C-

Update was consistently strong tonight. Jost and Che had some surprisingly strong jokes about all the Trump scandals this week or maybe it just seems that way to me personally since I haven't been watching as much of Colbert, Meyers, Noah & Klepper as usual this week since I had to take care of quite a few personal items that came up on top of going to two Weird Al concerts in the span of two days (one I got a VIP meet & greet ticket to and another turned out to be a five hour drive away, so yeah, my week has been pretty busy and I'm going into this episode a little worn out here but I digress). I also liked a lot of the rest of their jokes such as Josts' 7-11 joke and Che simply saying g "pass" as a photo of Kanye appeared on screen. Pete roasting the fuck out of Jost & Che upon learning of their Emmy cohosting gig was the funniest part of Update. Leslies' commentary would've felt too much like all her others if it weren't for her shaking things up a bit format wise with the Sarah McLachlan commercial takeoff. Her comments to Colin pretty much made the whole thing for me. Was anyone else at least half expecting Scarlett Johansson to come out considering she was obviously in the building? B-

Galactic Black Human Summit - This was a little dry and thin premise-wise for me, but there were some things to appreciate about it. First off, I have to say I do like Glovers' subtle take on a young Lando Calrissian. He seems able to capture the essence of the character without trying to hard to just do a straight up Billy Dee Williams impersonation. Surprisingly, Kenan and Leslie had the funniest lines here. I feel kind of bad for Heidi and whoever was in the blue monster costume for being in such heavy makeup roles with no lines. Again, I want to say Che wrote this but I'm starting to think it was actually Sam Jay or possibly Bryan Tucker & Will Stephenson. C-

Barbies' Instagram Captions - This sketch seemed very unbalanced. While Pete had the funniest lines, Donald acted the hell out of his character and seemed to be the only one who fully realized what his character was supposed to be and should've been given stronger material to work with. Plus, Kenans' character was so similar in type to his it was almost distracting. This sketch genuinely could've used another rewrite. C+

Con Call Center - This seemed like they threw the Bill Kurtis sketch from the 2005 Jason Bateman/Kelly Clarkson episode with the "Ruff, Rugged & Roker" sketch from the 2010 Tina Fey/Justin Bieber episode along with all the prison sketches they've ever done in a blender and watered it all down before setting it to "puree". Becks' character didn't work as much as it should've for some reason and I personally would've liked to have seen more insane threats instead of going in a softer direction. 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. 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. Charles Barkley/Migos

11. Jessica Chastain/Troy Sivan

12. Sam Rockwell/Halsey

13. Will Ferrell/Chris Stapleton

14. Larry David/Miley Cyrus

15. Saoirse Ronan/U2

16. Kumail Nanjiani/P!nk

17. Gal Gadot/Sam Smith

18. Kevin Hart/Foo Fighters

19. Ryan Gosling/Jay-Z

Well, that wasn't quite what everything I expected it to be but there was still some fun to be had. Next week, Amy Schumer hosts again to promote "I Feel Pretty". I guess its' an unspoken rule that she must host whenever she releases a film with two or more current or former alumni as her costars? Anyway, I'm going to be sorely disappointed if this episode turns out to be more genuinely enjoyable than this one. See you next week!