Okay, here's my review. Overall, this was a much stronger season opener than last years' outing with Ryan Gosling & Jay-Z. Adam Driver proved to be just as comedically effective of a host as he was two-and-a-half years ago but he felt much more underutilized this year compared to then. Still, the writing didn't feel as dull, uninspired and just running on empty as it was a year ago (I'm sure we have the fact that they hired four new writers to thank for this). Strangely, it felt like no one in the cast got any airtime and everyone just got kinda shoved into the background. No one particular cast member really stood out as being the one who dominated the show. Normally, this would be a good thing for an ensemble show for SNL but this week it was quite troubling. I was a bit saddened to see the narrative surrounding the show be so largely dominated by the antics of tonight's musical guest (which most of us only got to see & hear about via social media because these moments didn't even air as part of the show) but I'll get to that later. This episode had it's much more worthwhile moments. It was a surprisingly entertaining season premiere that deserves to be held up to better scrutiny on it's own planned comedic merits which is why I'm still here.
Kavanaugh Hearing Cold Open - Well, for starters, I am glad they decided to give us something other than a Baldwin/Trump showcase to open the new season. I just knew the Kavanaugh hearing proved to be too big of a story this week for SNL to go down the beaten orange path. I originally had Bennett & Moffat pegged as potential Kavanaugh portrayers but when I noticed they were both playing Orrin Hatch and Chuck Grassley respectively, my curiosity was immediately piqued. Matt Damon was a very left field choice (I'm guessing whoever wrote this had just watched "School Ties" in the past week?) but he came out pretty strong and was genuinely very funny. I'm glad to see he was mostly concerned with getting his raw emotion down and then exaggerating it just a little and that the main focus of this whole sketch was Brett's out of control emotional displays. I especially liked his various frat nicknames and his "keg is half full" line (and yes, I was and still am fully aware of the painful irony in casting Matt Damon as an accused sexual predator even as I type this). Dratch as Klobuchar was also unexpected (I don't really see the resemblance there) but nice to see her again and I did like how she wasn't wasted too much in a small role with little to no dialogue. I also liked seeing Chris Redd & Cecily Strong revive their Cory Booker & Diane Feinstein impressions here. Kyle was also very funny here and Pete couldn't help but appear a little out of place. Nice to see Kate revive her all but forgotten Lindsey Graham impression but I think she should've been much more animated and affected a higher pitch voice. Aidy was a nice voice of reason here as well. Sure, they didn't cover much new ground here and this was mostly just filled with standard boilerplate Kavanaugh observations but I'm glad they hit all the necessary mark's here (although I'm sure they could've done so in a little less than 13 minutes) while showing they're still somewhat capable of actually surprising the audience for better or worse. B-
Montage - I like that they finally changed this up to a more hip, stylized 03-06 style package with just a hint of 94-95 era B-roll. I think that vibe is more fitting for this cast and this era of the show. Still, I have to wonder if Darrell Hammond just forgot to say Kyle Mooney's name or if his mic just cut out or something. Also, if this does turn out to be the last year for Cecily, Aidy & Kate...it would be a damn shame to see these shots of them get edited out of this montage. A couple of people I follow on Twitter have mentioned that they hated the new theme song. I don't hate it but once you do notice the subtle difference between this year's theme and last year's theme, it does kinda bug you. I kinda hear the same regression from the season 4 theme to the season 5 theme or the 06-09 theme to the 09-12 theme.
Monologue - This was also surprisingly very funny given how very thin it was. Driver's angry inner monologues were very funny, but I am genuinely shocked that this portion of the show contained literally the only Star Wars/Kylo Ren references of the entire night. I'm not sure where Adams' final line about kids smoking cigarettes came from. C-
Fortnite - This seemed like it was going to have a more interesting and fleshed out premise to it than it actually did. Thankfully, it didn't go on as long as it seemed like it was going to given how repetitive and drawn out it turned out to be. Other than that, this whole sketch just seemed like a forced topical reference to one of this summer's most inexplicably huge fads. I can immediately tell this was a Day/Seidell penned piece given that Kyle's character briefly mentioned how he went by the username "DoomSnake" which I remember being used by Kenan in that Boo Boo Jeffries sketch from Tiffany Haddishs' episode last November which I remember playing out just like a rejected sketch of his he talked about on Seth Meyers' show just before he obviously rewrote and resubmitted it that week. I didn't quite have Day pegged as a huge gamer but it doesn't surprise me. I guess some of this sketch is bound not to resonate with viewers who aren't gamers. C-
A New Kyle - This short film was very funny. Kyle plays the young millennial douchebro type really well. This may have been the best possible way for the show to address the substantial changes in Pete's personal life that occurred in the offseason. Wendy William's and Kid Cudi were welcome cameos (the former especially made me chuckle just for the sheer outlandishness of her presence). The medieval sword/mace battle scene kinda dragged but that would be my only real complaint. Other than that, I liked seeing a twist on the usual formula to these short films focusing on Kyle. B-
Domenicos' vs BK Joe - I was initially disappointed at how quickly I could tell this was a retread of the underwhelming Terrazanos' vs Pizza Hut sketch from last season's premiere with Ryan Gosling. I was relieved that I gave it enough of a chance to see just how much better Adam Driver made this sketch than that one (and also how this one didn't quite belabor the point as much). B-
Rad Times At Frat U - Well, I guess the cold opening wasn't the only piece in this weeks' show that was inspired by the Kavanaugh hearing (and I guess whoever wrote the Neurotology short from Michael Keatons' season 40 episode is still on staff). I liked this okay but I guess noticing the similarities between that sketch and this one kinda took me out of it because the whole thing felt too telegraphed for me. I also feel a little bit bad for Ego seeing as this sketch seemed to be her most notable appearance of the entire night. I know this is her first episode and shes' quite new but I was hoping to see them give here more chances to make a first impression. I've heard how great she is on all the Earwolf podcasts where she is a regular and I just hope she gets a chance to make a splash early on and doesn't get cut by next year having her potential wasted if she is planning on bringing that Earwolf sensibility to the show. C+
Update was serviceable tonight. Che had the best material on the opening Kavanaugh rant. Josts' Kavanaugh punchlines could be seen coming from two towns over. He did make up for this during his Philly Flyers mascot fake Bruce Springsteen jokes, though. Kate as RBG was something else I was already predicting would happen tonight. Sadly, this was pretty indistinguishable from her previous "Gins-burn" laden commentaries. Also, its' a bit surprising to me that this was one of only four appearances for Kate the entire night. With all this talk about this being her last year under contract with the show, this makes it seem like she may be getting burnt out on SNL & may want to phase herself out and onto another bigger project by this time next year. If they were going to bring out Leslie to do her Serena William's impression tonight, I'm glad they went the extremely meta route and made the whole point of it how dated it was. Didn't like how clunky Ches' Cosby joke was but I did like how he made an instant callback to it right after Josts' next joke. Although his birth control/Tic-Tacs joke seemed a little off to me, Pete was surprisingly funny telling us all about the thing that happened in his life that made me actively want to see less and less of him. Also, I'm surprised I've already gotten used to seeing him with his blond early 2000s Eminem hairstyle. C+
Career Day - This was definitely the strongest live segment of the night. Adams' committment to just short of choking on the big chunks of scenery he managed to chew off was what saved this. Pete was a decent fool & Melissa's & Aidys' enthusiasm was a nice touch. I guess another writer had just seen "There Will Be Blood" in the past week? A-
League Of The South - I guess some of the writers had either just seen Adam in "BlacKkKlansman" (sp?) or simply just remembered that film would've been the most plausible explanation for his hosting at this moment? Anyway, while it was nice to see they chose to make white nationalists a target here Becks' commitment and Adam & Chris as foils were the only things sustaining it given how one note it was. Other than that, I just kept waiting to see if Becks' goatee would fall completely off or not even though this sketch didn't necessarily need that to save it. C+
"Goodnights" - They briefly cut to a shot of the band sandwiched between two different bumpers before this. I have to genuinely wonder if maybe the mostly Jost-led giggling during Update or a possible demand from Kanye to Lorne for a third song followed by a hissy-fit caused something to have to be cut for time. Yeah, like most of you I'm sure my local NBC affiliate cut the show off right when Kanye invited the cast back on stage with him. I only saw what was posted of his little rant on Twitter, YouTube and from secondhand exposure to Chris Rocks' Instagram stories. I agree with Rock that it sure was laughable how much Kanye had no idea what the hell he was talking about. He offered pretty much nothing of value to the show and absolutely no insight into anything whatsoever. I'm sure whatever he actually said would've managed to make even less sense unedited in full context. Honestly, I'm just more annoyed that Lorne allowed him to even do a third song on the air since that just gave him an excuse to stay up there on stage and pretty much barely hold the cast, crew and audience hostage with his own warped political views. In that moment, everyone left in Studio 8H was Mike Meyers circa 2005.
Well, that was a pretty successful season premiere all things considered. Next week, Awkwafina makes her hosting debut. She is someone I've seen very little of but I do understand she has at least some background in comedy and acting so I'm cautiously optimistic. See you then!
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