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!
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