Okay, here's my review. This show was much more uneven and inconsistent than last week but everything that did work worked very well. James McAvoy proved to be an enthusiastic host immediately whose presence would give the show a much needed boost. However, the second half of the show seemed to be bogged down with the weight of too many retreads. Let's break this down, shall we?
Tucker Carlson Tonight - Well, it took until the very end of this for me to be able to like this as much as I initially wanted to. I was glad to see SNL finally attempt to satirize Tucker Carlson with Alex in the role but performance wise he seemed to be phoning it in more and more as the sketch progressed. It's like he put too much emphasis on getting Tuckers' dopey facial expressions down so the impression as a whole came off too sleepy, lethargic and devoid of malice. Also, all their jokes about him seemed more like played out snarky observations from people I follow on Twitter. I usually like Cecilys' Judge Pirro but I feel like she played it too big here. Plus, this was a strange place for them to work in their obligatory Marie Kondo reference. As much as I feel Kate playing male Trump cabinet members is another overdone thing, her Wilbur Ross impression worked surprisingly well here. It was an impression she was surprisingly well suited for and she had great "out of touch" lines that were pretty funny. Maybe I liked this as much as I did because it's a Kate impression that we're just seeing for the first time before it gets run into the cold, cold ground. Of course, the high point was Steve Martin as Roger Stone. I was expecting Alex to play him if they weren't going to parody this specific interview and Kate if they were. Steve was such a left field choice that he was inherently worth at least a chuckle but he actually seemed to be going for a specific over the top character voice/series of affectations here that were very funny any fun to watch here. It didn't matter if the impression was all that accurate with what Steve did with it. B+
Monologue - If James coming out in a kilt hinted that he may be here to have fun and make a good first impression, the Ewan McGregor jokes cemented that. Also, that was the best recovery from a minor cue card flub I have seen in recent memory. I do have to wonder if his "masculine skirt" was also an adlib because I'm not sure something scripted would've been that visibly directed at one specific audience member whom we couldn't quite hear. B+
Virgin Hunk - Well, it's their last January show this year and they didn't do their seemingly required Bachelor parody with last week's female host so they must have had to figure out a way to do one with this week's male host. I'm kidding, of course. They obviously knew they had to do it this way because they've already used both of the current male cast members who would be believable in this role so they needed a male host. Again, kidding. They obviously must've wanted to specifically parody something about this year's Bachelor. That being said, I'm not sure if McAvoy was having trouble nailing down a specific Colorado accent or something or if that was his portrayal of how he thought a stiff and frothed up adult virgin would present himself in such a situation. Either way, his acting kinda took me out of this. Unfortunately, his and Ego's performances were the only things that stood out to me in this sketch. The rest of it seemed pretty indistinguishable from the show's previous Bachelor parodies but the ending to this one worked for me. C-
Mr. H - I'm glad they actually called out how cliched this premise was and then gradually flipped it around. Redd was a solid lead in this. McAvoy provided a nice balance between serious acting and comedic dialogue. Mikey, Ego and Pete added some funny moments as well. This was one of the most thoroughly well written and produced short films in recent memory. A-
Scottish Air - Well, this seemed like it was going to be too one joke for me initially but the performances really sold it. Mikey, Kenan and Kate were very funny but Beck made the whole sketch for me. James seemed the most within his comfort zone here and that really helped the sketch play better. B-
Upper East Side - Leslie actually does have some great rap skills. I believe this is the first time she's gotten her own showcase for them in a music video where she is the lead performer rather than being a supporting player in all female song with the rest of the women in the cast. Kate and James provided a nice balance here. I guess I wasn't expecting a sudden German accent so soon. Other than that, nothing really stood out to me here because this seemed too regional and New York centric to really land with me. C-
Charmin Focus Group - After the host doing three different accents in a row, it took me a full minute to get back in sync with his acting, but his Philly/Pittsburgh accent paired with his insane, unwarranted scatalogical ad pitches was the true highlight of this sketch. I don't know why those accents are so funny to me, but they just are. Other than that, nothing else really clicked with me. It felt too much like we shouldn't have been seeing this the week after they revived the Barbie Instagram sketch because it played out just like a cross between that and the film Q&A sketch from Seth's show. I do have to wonder if this was originally written for Tina's episode last season given that one character had a heavy Philly accent. C+
Update had its moments. I couldn't really get into it until the Roger Stone jokes. Che in particular seemed to have quite a bit of fun with his. I also had a hard time getting into Redds' Soulja Boy commentary. It made me chuckle a bit but I really didn't appreciate having to know why Soulja Boy is back in the news this week to fully appreciate this. I really didn't think we needed to see Cathy-Anne again either. B-
Return To Narnia - Speaking of things I had to have read up on to recently to get, I had to check and make sure James McAvoy was actually in the Disney Narnia franchise films. The only film adaptation of "The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe" I've seen was from long before the time when those came out and I haven't really read the book since second grade. At least this was a nice pull for a host sketch. Otherwise, I was just WAY not the target demographic for this very niche female centric sketch. Still, I'm really curious to know which writer wrote this one. C-
Boys - I'm actually surprised they chose to recur this. Beck, Kyle and Cecily were still great in it but I still feel like this should've been left a one off and this version was too much of a carbon copy of the first to make me think otherwise. Thankfully, it got to its conclusion quicker this time. I do appreciate their acknowledgment of continuity by having James' character state that Cecily "remarried" him. C-
Dogs - Well, I hate to say this but...I think I'm officially starting to tire of Chris, Pete, and Kenans' rap videos. Still, this was at least better than the RBG one and the Permission one to a certain extent. I can appreciate that this was going more for "cute" than funny. I did like Pete's "hypoallergenic" lyric, James' intensity and the fact that they gave Ego her own verse that explained why she, Aidy & Heidi were wearing bunny ears reminiscent of a certain someone from Pete's recent past. C+
New Orleans - I think I spoke too soon about them recurring sketches from earlier this season that worked better as one offs. The only thing that stood out to me was James' near breaking and how Kate's part was considerably minimized and given to Ego. C-
Now, for my updated rankings of this season...
1. Seth Meyers/Paul Simon
2. Matt Damon/Mark Ronson & Miley Cyrus
3. Rachel Brosnahan/Greta Van Fleet
4. James McAvoy/Meek Mill
5. Adam Driver/Kanye West
6. Steve Carrell/Ella Mai
7. Jason Momoa/Mumford & Sons
8. Claire Foy/Anderson .Paak*. Liev Schreiber/Lil Wayne
9. Jonah Hill/Maggie Rogers
10. Awkwafina/Travis Scott
Well, this episode kind of petered out in the second half but the first half was very fun while it lasted! In two weeks, Halsey pulls double duty for her first time as host and second as musical guest. Look, pop stars and musicians tend to make very fun and engaging hosts. However, I'm a little surprised Halsey was chosen to host because I don't think she's had any acting experience outside of a couple of voice acting gigs in animated fare. Hopefully, she can prove our preconceived wrong and be a fun and engaging host. See you then!
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Rachel Brosnahan/Greta Van Fleet (1.19.2018)
Okay, here's my review. This was a strong enough show to start out the season. Nothing was too great or too terrible even though they seemed to have made a whole lot of rather strange choices and not all of them worked. Pretty much the entire cast got a fair amount of airtime. Rachel Brosnahan proved to be dependable if not outstanding amongst her peers. Anyway, let's break it down, shall we?
Deal Or No Deal: Government Shutdown Edition - Well, this was a rather odd mishmash of a cold open. This seemed like a half thought out premise (so, I guess Deal Or No Deal really did get an inexplicable reboot last month, huh?) and they seemed to be ticking off items on a checklist of the previous weeks' notable news stories again. Plus, they decided to really Trojan Horse Baldwin's Trump on us here but at least they were thinking outside the box this week for the cold open. I know we've seen Kyle play Howie Mandell in Jonah Hills' episode a couple of months ago and I guess he could've just as easily done so again here since he wasn't playing one of the suitcase senators but Kenans' Steve Harvey actually livened this up a bit more so I think they made the right call. Other than that, the only things that stood out to me were Kate's Nancy Pelosi (which seems to have morphed into a Jennifer Tilly impression somehow) Mikey's Steve King "Whites" comment and Ego's brief Cardi B impression (because Mikey's part was the biggest laugh I got out of this whole sketch and Ego finally made it on to the show again and they seem to be close to finally figuring out how to use her) and the fact that this sketch actually had something of an ending. C+
Monologue - Rachel Brosnahan was a hard host to get a read on here. She seemed to be more into hosting than she let on and exhibited a very controlled and reserved level of enthusiasm for the show. As for the content of the monologue, the song more relatable for its time than it was outright funny (maybe aside from the drug part). It felt like they just took Jessica Chastain and Emily Blunt's monologues from the two previous seasons and just stripped them of most of their substance. It mostly left me curious as to how Cecily might have spent her Christmas/New Year's break as I've never seen her that ridiculously tan before. C+
Action 9 News At Five - Well, I was pretty foolish to think this would not be a rewrite of Matt Shatt or last seasons' Sairose Ronan American Girl sketch just because Mikey played the anchor this time. Nonetheless, the rapid fire pace of stupid silly names made this very funny. Sure, it was pretty sophomoric but I'll take what I can get right now. B+
Leave Me AlUrn - This was another female oriented piece that really appealed to everyone to some degree since it had a creative idea behind it. Alex, Ego, Pete, Kate & Kenan scored the biggest laughs here. Also, is it just me or is Rachel Brosnahan a dead ringer for Noel Wells? B+
Millenials Millions - Yeeaaah, okay...well, this was another thing that I found specifically relatable to me as someone well within the millennial age range who has fairly recently worked a freelance job at a local tech startup that offered no benefits. I'll try to be as impartial as I can here. For starters, while I think the divide between Boomers & Millennials is starting to become a tired, played out comedy topic and this might be the final nail in that coffin it was at least nice to see SNL make a trip to that well once and acknowledge this actual effect on the lives of people my age. I admire how they went after all three sides as evenly as they could manage, I also thought this could've been a little less condescending to millenials (even if that WAS on purpose). Thanks to Kenans' character, I at least have a better understanding of why my generation is supposed to also hate Generation X. Also, is it just me or is Rachel Brosnahan also a dead ringer for Claire Foy? (or is it just that they both hosted within two months of each other and played very similar roles on this show?) I actually thought for a second that Cecilys' tan might have been fake for her role in this sketch but then realized that the makeup team probably wouldn't go as far as to spray tan Cecilys' legs if she was wearing pants. At least this was one of the more creative premises for a game show sketch they've done in recent memory. Speaking of which, does anyone else think it's strange that this was the second game show sketch in tonight's show? B-
The Raunchiest Mrs. Rita - Well, this was a fine "host sketch" and a fine excuse for Leslie to just play herself stuck out of time. The only flaw here was that this took too long to establish it's one joke and it stayed once it got there without really going anywhere else. Beyond that, it just used Aidy and Kyle to establish that whoever wrote this was familiar with the show. Yeah, I figured if anyone in the current cast would play Alex Borsteins' part in a parody of this show it would be Aidy (the second time in the past year an SNL cast member had impersonated a MadTv cast member, oddly enough). Also, the Cosby reference at the end (the second in the entire show over all) felt a little too tacked on. C-
Update was pretty solid. Most of the jokes were either good or just forgettable. The entire opening Jost/Che rant and Josts' Instagram egg/Twitter egg joke and reaction to his own Florida watch joke were the funniest joke moments of the whole shoe (even if the egg joke is a little dated because Twitter replace that anonymous egg icon with a minimalist silhouette). Kate played her Elizabeth Warren much more loose and relaxed and it worked much better. Nice to see Pete in better spirits under Mulaneys' wing (who's always a welcome presence on SNL no matter what). I found their Clint Eastwood Mule commentary a little too fast paced to follow the back-and-forth of it (it actually kinda reminded me of the two man film reviews they did in 85-86 with Robert Downey Jr. and Anthony Michael Hall and 88-89 with Ben Stiller and Mike Meyers) but I like to think of it as one long setup to the "Mule-aney" punch line. B+
Tabitha - This was a strange premise that I didn't quite know what to make if (or even what it may have been parodying) but everyone's performances really sold the hell out of it and made it funny. C+
Kool-Aid - This was one of the strangest parodies of anything the show has done in recent memory. It was a very unusual take. I thought Ches' mention of it during Update was enough. It almost seemed like both segments missed the point if the ad (but not to a dangerous degree fortunately). Thankfully, this didn't detract too much or veer too far off course from the Gillette ads' basic message. I'd like to think the whole point of this parody was at least absurdity for the sake of absurdity if not to poke fun at the strange non-sequitir approach Gillette took in illustrating their representation of the "toxic masculinity" they wished to take a stand against. Seriously, did anyone else who saw the Gillette ad get a strong Tim & Eric/Kroll Show type vibe from the first part of it? C+
Kens' Instagram - Well, I'm shocked they tried to recur something from the home stretch of last season that so obviously worked best as a one off. Pete, Heidi and Kenan had some great lines but I preferred the Donald Glover version. Also, did we ever get confirmation of who wrote either sketch? I want to say it was Julio Torres but I believe he may have left the show entirely in the middle of last season to produce his own new show with Fred Armisen so I'm really not sure who on the current writing staff is that skilled at aping his existentialist malaise type style. C+
Now for my updated rankings of this season so far...
1. Seth Meyers/Paul Simon
2. Matt Damon/Mark Ronson & Miley Cyrus
3. Rachel Brosnahan/Greta Van Fleet
4. Adam Driver/Kanye West
5. Steve Carrell/Ella Mai
6. Jason Momoa/Mumford & Sons
7. Claire Foy/Anderson .Paak
8. Liev Schreiber/Lil Wayne
9. Jonah Hill/Maggie Rogers
10. Awkwafina/Travis Scott
Well, that got 2019 off on the right foot. Next week, James McAvoy will be making his hosting debut. I want to say he's an actor I'm more familiar with but I'm not sure what else he's been in besides Split, Glass and some of the more recent X-Men films. Still, he strikes me as someone who can have enough fun with himself and the cast to be a pleasant host. See you soon!
Deal Or No Deal: Government Shutdown Edition - Well, this was a rather odd mishmash of a cold open. This seemed like a half thought out premise (so, I guess Deal Or No Deal really did get an inexplicable reboot last month, huh?) and they seemed to be ticking off items on a checklist of the previous weeks' notable news stories again. Plus, they decided to really Trojan Horse Baldwin's Trump on us here but at least they were thinking outside the box this week for the cold open. I know we've seen Kyle play Howie Mandell in Jonah Hills' episode a couple of months ago and I guess he could've just as easily done so again here since he wasn't playing one of the suitcase senators but Kenans' Steve Harvey actually livened this up a bit more so I think they made the right call. Other than that, the only things that stood out to me were Kate's Nancy Pelosi (which seems to have morphed into a Jennifer Tilly impression somehow) Mikey's Steve King "Whites" comment and Ego's brief Cardi B impression (because Mikey's part was the biggest laugh I got out of this whole sketch and Ego finally made it on to the show again and they seem to be close to finally figuring out how to use her) and the fact that this sketch actually had something of an ending. C+
Monologue - Rachel Brosnahan was a hard host to get a read on here. She seemed to be more into hosting than she let on and exhibited a very controlled and reserved level of enthusiasm for the show. As for the content of the monologue, the song more relatable for its time than it was outright funny (maybe aside from the drug part). It felt like they just took Jessica Chastain and Emily Blunt's monologues from the two previous seasons and just stripped them of most of their substance. It mostly left me curious as to how Cecily might have spent her Christmas/New Year's break as I've never seen her that ridiculously tan before. C+
Action 9 News At Five - Well, I was pretty foolish to think this would not be a rewrite of Matt Shatt or last seasons' Sairose Ronan American Girl sketch just because Mikey played the anchor this time. Nonetheless, the rapid fire pace of stupid silly names made this very funny. Sure, it was pretty sophomoric but I'll take what I can get right now. B+
Leave Me AlUrn - This was another female oriented piece that really appealed to everyone to some degree since it had a creative idea behind it. Alex, Ego, Pete, Kate & Kenan scored the biggest laughs here. Also, is it just me or is Rachel Brosnahan a dead ringer for Noel Wells? B+
Millenials Millions - Yeeaaah, okay...well, this was another thing that I found specifically relatable to me as someone well within the millennial age range who has fairly recently worked a freelance job at a local tech startup that offered no benefits. I'll try to be as impartial as I can here. For starters, while I think the divide between Boomers & Millennials is starting to become a tired, played out comedy topic and this might be the final nail in that coffin it was at least nice to see SNL make a trip to that well once and acknowledge this actual effect on the lives of people my age. I admire how they went after all three sides as evenly as they could manage, I also thought this could've been a little less condescending to millenials (even if that WAS on purpose). Thanks to Kenans' character, I at least have a better understanding of why my generation is supposed to also hate Generation X. Also, is it just me or is Rachel Brosnahan also a dead ringer for Claire Foy? (or is it just that they both hosted within two months of each other and played very similar roles on this show?) I actually thought for a second that Cecilys' tan might have been fake for her role in this sketch but then realized that the makeup team probably wouldn't go as far as to spray tan Cecilys' legs if she was wearing pants. At least this was one of the more creative premises for a game show sketch they've done in recent memory. Speaking of which, does anyone else think it's strange that this was the second game show sketch in tonight's show? B-
The Raunchiest Mrs. Rita - Well, this was a fine "host sketch" and a fine excuse for Leslie to just play herself stuck out of time. The only flaw here was that this took too long to establish it's one joke and it stayed once it got there without really going anywhere else. Beyond that, it just used Aidy and Kyle to establish that whoever wrote this was familiar with the show. Yeah, I figured if anyone in the current cast would play Alex Borsteins' part in a parody of this show it would be Aidy (the second time in the past year an SNL cast member had impersonated a MadTv cast member, oddly enough). Also, the Cosby reference at the end (the second in the entire show over all) felt a little too tacked on. C-
Update was pretty solid. Most of the jokes were either good or just forgettable. The entire opening Jost/Che rant and Josts' Instagram egg/Twitter egg joke and reaction to his own Florida watch joke were the funniest joke moments of the whole shoe (even if the egg joke is a little dated because Twitter replace that anonymous egg icon with a minimalist silhouette). Kate played her Elizabeth Warren much more loose and relaxed and it worked much better. Nice to see Pete in better spirits under Mulaneys' wing (who's always a welcome presence on SNL no matter what). I found their Clint Eastwood Mule commentary a little too fast paced to follow the back-and-forth of it (it actually kinda reminded me of the two man film reviews they did in 85-86 with Robert Downey Jr. and Anthony Michael Hall and 88-89 with Ben Stiller and Mike Meyers) but I like to think of it as one long setup to the "Mule-aney" punch line. B+
Tabitha - This was a strange premise that I didn't quite know what to make if (or even what it may have been parodying) but everyone's performances really sold the hell out of it and made it funny. C+
Kool-Aid - This was one of the strangest parodies of anything the show has done in recent memory. It was a very unusual take. I thought Ches' mention of it during Update was enough. It almost seemed like both segments missed the point if the ad (but not to a dangerous degree fortunately). Thankfully, this didn't detract too much or veer too far off course from the Gillette ads' basic message. I'd like to think the whole point of this parody was at least absurdity for the sake of absurdity if not to poke fun at the strange non-sequitir approach Gillette took in illustrating their representation of the "toxic masculinity" they wished to take a stand against. Seriously, did anyone else who saw the Gillette ad get a strong Tim & Eric/Kroll Show type vibe from the first part of it? C+
Kens' Instagram - Well, I'm shocked they tried to recur something from the home stretch of last season that so obviously worked best as a one off. Pete, Heidi and Kenan had some great lines but I preferred the Donald Glover version. Also, did we ever get confirmation of who wrote either sketch? I want to say it was Julio Torres but I believe he may have left the show entirely in the middle of last season to produce his own new show with Fred Armisen so I'm really not sure who on the current writing staff is that skilled at aping his existentialist malaise type style. C+
Now for my updated rankings of this season so far...
1. Seth Meyers/Paul Simon
2. Matt Damon/Mark Ronson & Miley Cyrus
3. Rachel Brosnahan/Greta Van Fleet
4. Adam Driver/Kanye West
5. Steve Carrell/Ella Mai
6. Jason Momoa/Mumford & Sons
7. Claire Foy/Anderson .Paak
8. Liev Schreiber/Lil Wayne
9. Jonah Hill/Maggie Rogers
10. Awkwafina/Travis Scott
Well, that got 2019 off on the right foot. Next week, James McAvoy will be making his hosting debut. I want to say he's an actor I'm more familiar with but I'm not sure what else he's been in besides Split, Glass and some of the more recent X-Men films. Still, he strikes me as someone who can have enough fun with himself and the cast to be a pleasant host. See you soon!
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