Don Cheadle/Gary Clark Jr. (2.16.2019)

Okay, here's my review. People may have set their expectations a little too high given the caliber of this weeks' host and that's perfectly understandable. Don Cheadle wasn't as outwardly enthusiastic or unsubtle as some expected him to be but he still gave it his all in whatever he was in. Still, a host like him shouldn't be so shoved into the background he suddenly makes you forget he is indeed the host until Update is over. Maybe the writing wasn't necessarily playing to his or really anyone's strengths. There were some unoriginal premises throughout the night but what worked really worked and was hit out if the park. What didn't work was more forgettable than outright atrocious. Quality wise, it was about the same as last week with Halsey as host. This episode was a little more uneven than that one, so it's a close call to say which one is truly better. The cast was pretty unevenly divided tonight. Cecily, Aidy and Kate seem to be getting more and more phased out but Heidi, Mikey, Kyle, Beck and Alex seemed to have dominated the show. Ego continues to gradually break out while Pete and Leslie continue to just collect their paychecks for some reason. Let's break it down, shall we?

Trump National Emergency Press Conference - Well, I'm not sure why the show felt the need to advertise Baldwin's umpteenth cameo on Twitter. I mean, it was barely distinguishable from most of the other Trump-centric cold opens he has done in the past two years. The one thing I did enjoy was seeing them give the Attorney General William Barr role to Beck Bennett rather than going back to the outside stunt casting well once again. I realize William Barr may not be a big enough role for them to even think about doing this, but it's a step in the right direction. I have to admit, this sketch did make me realize how much Baldwin could improve his Trump impression just by being more soft spoken and beaten down in spots and not speaking in clipped, rapid fire sentence fragments (which is ironic because the one upside to having Baldwin portray Trump during the campaign against Hillary was that Baldwin captured Trump's mania better than Hammond did. Hammond's Trump was stuck in Apprentice-mode and now Baldwin's Trump is stuck in mid-to-late-2016 debate/campaign rally mode when having to actually BE president has shown Trump to be bought down by how way in over his head he is). C-

Monologue - Cheadle wasn't quite as high energy as I thought he was going to be here but he did have a very loose energy still on display here that let the audience know that he was here to have a good time. He did a fine job of poking fun at himself and his own career. His "rhythmic recognition" joke was very similar to Finesse Mitchells "snap famous" standup bit but he even made that better by adding a loose fin energy to it. Plus, this was almost the third monologue in a row where the host was just on stage alone letting us get to know them (until Leslie showed up right at the end but she didn't bring the monologue to a screeching halt or anything). B+

Fresh Takes II - Hmm, not sure why we needed a "fresh take" on this, but OK. I do appreciate how this was a little less juvenile than the previous one with Larry David and how much more committed the cast was to awkward teenage acting. They probably should've trimmed down the "cold sores" segment to make room for another commerical or two. I seem to remember those being the best parts of both of these sketches. Cheadles' teacher character got a couple of chuckles out of me admitting he bought edibles to that party. Otherwise, it hit too many of the same beats as the previous outing right down to Leslie as the nurse making an unprofessionally brief announcement. C-

Extreme Baking Championship - This got off to an awkward start but by far ended up being the best live sketch of the night. I did really appreciate how much more strange, surreal and unhinged (and less predictable) it got as it went on. Kenan and Kyle really stole this sketch for me (which is impressive in the case of the former as we only heard the formers' voice and the timing of the vomiting cake prop seemed a little off). A-

Pound Puppy - At first, I wondered why they were doing two taped Valentine's Day commercials two weeks in a row with very similar premises (especially when this one is two days late) until I realized this was just a generic marital aid commercial. This turned out very enjoyable and very well executed once they actually established what this was (even for something that had to meet the requirements of major network standards & practices). B+

Update got off to a rather listless start tonight. Che seemed to have the better Trump wall material but Jost seemed to let the actual footage of Trump's speech do the heavy lifting here (which made me think that maybe my earlier assessment of Baldwin's Trump may have been completely wrong but he could still stand to be less monotoned). The rest of the jokes didn't land that well either. Josts' Bernie joke felt tone deaf and if that wasn't enough it was followed by more pathetic corporate bootlicking. Speaking of Jost and Che, I'm starting to wonder if either of these guys might be eyeing the exits. I mean, this is their fifth season at SNL and "more writer than performer" Update-anchor types like them never seem to want to stay there much longer than that. Che has joked on his Instagram stories that he is leaving both SNL and comedy in general after this year to open up a fried chicken restaurant. I seriously wonder if the last part of that was the only part that wasn't a joke. I don't know of Becks' "Jules" character was something I wanted to see again but at least they changed up a lot of his schtick this time. I especially liked the lines about "wooden dolls carved with realistic genitalia" and how "the baby was filming the entire time". I guess Alex's Schumer and Kates' Pelosi are to be a more or less permanent fixture on the show right now. The only thing that seemed different from what they usually give us here was that Kate's Pelosi impression has just turned into her playing herself. I've started to realize that this character is pretty much a more loquacious, coherent and eccentric version of Cecilys' "Girl...at a party" with a little of Stefons' vivid imagination thrown in for good measure. Mikeys' "super centenarian" report seemed pretty one note for such a conceptual bit. Still, I do appreciate how whenever Mikey does a non-topical Update commentary he usually debuts a brand new one shot character every time. Also, does the voice he used in this remind anyone of Will Forte? Maybe it's just me since I was just watching Fortes' appearance on Seth's show before the show started. C-

Family Feud IX - Its' nice to see this again. I was starting to think the guys that usually write these had already left the show. These sketches are the best use of Keenan's usually reliable Steve Harvey as an anchor but it was an still and odd way for the show to reference his contentious interview with Mo'nique on his talk show. Don Cheadle did a pretty solid Spike Lee but his seemed to stumble over his lines a bit. Kate's Glenn Close didn't stand out much from her other distinguished actress impressions. Becks' Sam Eliott seemed well within his vocal comfort zone but still came off funny. Cecily almost came off like she was content to just do her Gemma voice and call it a night but I do appreciate that she gave us an actual fresh take on a little known actress. Melissa's Gaga really stole this sketch. Also, this is actually the second time she has played Lady Gaga in a Family Feud sketch that aired in February so she's now done this impression on the show three times overall. Kyle is still and unexpected choice to play Bradley Cooper but he sold it as well as he could. Pete's Rami Malek and Redds' Mahershala Ali were practically invisible. C+

Lollipop Bar Brawl - This also took a little while to get to it's brilliant payoff (I mean it was a sketch that was the entire length of a song) but I enjoyed the journey well enough. I did like the big Les Jeunes Des Paris dance number at the end followed by a thrown punch. It was just a little too banal spmewhere in the middle. B-

Roach-Ex Plus+ - This was another piece best appreciated for the sake of the journey. I liked the dark, dramatic turn this took after it hit on some typical commercial tropes. This was another piece that really benefitted from being taped. This is also the second taped commercial parody tonight that featured implied/suggested sex just barely obscured from the camera. At first, I thought Micheal Che would've written this given how similar it seemed to his "Ned's Roach Away" commercial from last season with Charles Barkley but then I realized this is probably not topical enough to be one of his. It might be Mikey & Streeter given that Mikey's in this and it falls more in line with his sense of humor. B+

Regal Promenade Pavillion - Well, it took Aidy actually appearing on screen for me to actually recognize her voice. I initially thought that was Heidi. Also, it's nice to see Kate switch things up a bit by playing a Male fictional character rather than doing an impersonation of a current Male political figure. Not sure why they were channeling Roseanne Roseannedanna and Father Sarducci, but it worked. I'm not sure why Don had to play either three different characters (or more likely the same one character filling different roles in his organization) but I liked it. Everyone had their fair share of decent lines. Still, it felt like something else that is becoming a modern day SNL trope. Specifically, it was an exact cross between Armisens "Chan-de-leahs/Mah-ble Cah-lumns" pitchman and Louis CKs' "sectional couches" salesman from two seasons ago. Also, why was this filmed with a blurry filter? There were parts of this I enjoyed and parts I may never know what to make of. B-

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. Halsey
7. Don Cheadle/Gary Clark Jr.
8. Steve Carrell/Ella Mai
9. Jason Momoa/Mumford & Sons
10 Claire Foy/Anderson .Paak
11 Liev Schreiber/Lil Wayne
12 Jonah Hill/Maggie Rogers
13. Awkwafina/Travis Scott

Well, that was another show that delivered the absolute bare minimum of what it promised but there was still plenty of fun to be had. Next week, John Mulaney returns to host for his second time. I had a feeling he would do this again. Someone around here pointed out that Mulaney might be being used to fill the "hip white male friend of the show standup" host void now that Louis CK is officially persona non grata. Since Louis hosted nearly every season at one point and Mulaney will now have hosted two seasons in a row, I'm starting to think that may actually be true. Still, he is always a welcome presence at Studio 8H. It will also be interesting to see if Idris Elba is still slated to host March 9th (as accidentally revealed via Jasin Momoas' Instagram) or if he had to back out for any reason. See you then!

Halsey (2.9.2019)

Okay, here's my review. This show was fairly inconsistent in a lot of spots and relied too heavily on premises that were either blatantly recurred or just felt derivative. Still, there were a lot of feel good vibes to be shared mostly thanks to the presence of tonight's host. Halsey was a fine, endearing performer who added some much needed energy to the show. I'm not surprised though since this is what we usually get anytime a top 40 youth culture oriented pop star hosts or pulls double duty. Still, it felt like a cross between the shows Katy Perry and Lady Gaga each hosted in 2011 and 2013 respectively. Perrys' episode was judged to be so poorly written that her performances (and possibly the Stefon but they did that night) were the best thing(s) about it. Gaga's episode was much better by comparison and her performances were also great even though she was only used very sparingly even for a host. The entire cast seemed to get a decent amount of airtime. Melissa and Ego especially really started to break out and make themselves recognizable tonight. By comparison, Kate and Aidy seem like they each have one foot out the door and are being phased out. Anyway, there's kind of a lot to unpack here, so let's just break this down, shall we?

Meet The Press - Well, it's nice to see they decided to do something besides a reenactment of this years State Of The Union (who are we kidding? Alec was only available this week to record a voiceover. They had no choice). Kyle was a surprisingly appropriate choice to play Chuck Todd. Also, is it just me or is Cecily a dead ringer for post SNL era Jane Curtin made up as Peggy Noonan? I liked Kate's Wilbur Ross impression when she debuted it two weeks ago (even her description of a "homeless dick pic(k)" got a chuckle out of me) but I'm afraid I might like it less and less every week if they use it to fill the Jeff Sessions void. The thing that stood out to me the most here was Aidy as Acting AG Matt Whitaker. Oddly, that was something I was both expecting and not expecting at the same time. Please, let me explain. I was expecting Aidy to play this guy if the show was going to have a current cast member fill that role rather than resorting to outside stunt casting for the umpteenth time. At the same time, I was expecting the Matt Whitaker story to only be mentioned in a throwaway Update joke rather than in sketch form. As for the actual substance of the sketch, it was too reminiscent of things like the Nightline cold open from '03-'04 where Hammond's Ted Koppel and Parnell's Joe Lieberman were too preoccupied with Janet Jacksons' Superbowl Wardrobe Malfunction or the CNN sketch from '02-'03 where Eric McCormacks' substitute anchor fell in love with Tina's Paula Zahn on the air and Poehler's character was the only one not consumed by it. I'm sure there are several others but I never realized until now how much "odd person out on a panel discussion show is the only one not focused in on something inappropriate and trivial" had become such a trope on this show the past several years. C+

Monologue - Well, this got the show off to a better start than that cold open. Halsey was very cute and endearing here. Her enthusiasm was welcome and it was definitely the right call to continue this seasons monologue trend that started with Awkwafina and was carried on with Seth Meyers, Liev Schreiber and Matt Damon. Halsey is the latest in a string of hosts whose monologues are just used to let the audience know just to let the audience get to know them for the first time as a regular person rather than a celebrity they may or may not have even heard of and then justify their presence by expressing their reverence and deep affection for the show. B+

Them Trumps II - This was definitely something that I thought would have worked best as a one off even when they first did it two months ago. It was still entertaining, I'm just not sure they should've made it recurring if there was going to be so little variation to the formula of "Them Trumps discuss Darius' current shady dealings/Darius gets halfway through his subsequent speech about his percieved invincibility before he is arrested/A preview shows how this exact scenario plays out the same way 'next week'". The only notable difference here was that Halsey (this week's host) was in this edition while Jason Momoa (who hosted last time they did this, IIRC) was not in the last one. Maybe they did this again because Halsey saw the previous one and liked it so much she wanted to be in it herself? C+

Virginia State Capitol - At first glance, this seemed to be a dragged out version of another topical joke that was beaten to death this week on social media. It got much funnier as it progressed and they explored the premise more and more. Kenan as a solid anchor and Mikey, Beck, Kyle and Halsey had the strongest individual performances here. I was actually starting to wonder why she would be featured front and center if her dialogue was going to be so late in the sketch but she really nailed the one line she had. I did hear somewhere that she herself is somehow actually half-back/biracial in real life so I guess it was appropriate for them to work that in here. B-

Valentine's Day - It was pretty much a given that Halsey would appear in a music video with the female cast being the main focus (since they just did a Pete & Chris rap in the last episode). I guess I shouldn't have expected the reveal to be bigger than it was given the lack of buildup but I did like how each verse added some variation on the premise (from Aidys' mom to Halsey's boss to Kate's very young son) and especially how Kate's verse really tied this whole thing together and kept it on the rails at the exact moment it seemed like it was starting to lose focus. I guess this another one of those things where the production value all the pop music bells and whistles were meant to hide the fact that this was going more for "relatable" than "funny". Thankfully, there was enough there to keep it from bombing with the audience on the same level as "Dongs All Over The World". C-

Parents Call - Well, it looks like they followed that music video with a live sketch that was pretty much the direct inverse of what I just described. This took a semi-relatable premise and further explored it to absurd lengths in order to be genuinely funny. Beck was the standout performer here. My other stray observations here were that Halsey seemed much too young to be playing Mikey's mom and her and Becks' casts were unavoidably revealed on camera in a way that spoiled their respective gags (especially Becks' "fall") otherwise this was one of the more enjoyable sketches of the night. B-

Women Of Congress - I could definitely tell what type of piece this was going to be once I saw how many intros to each individual impression we were going to get. This was the best possible way for the show to sneak in a reference to the Pelosi clap meme. Good to see Ego get a political impression she could at least *barely* get away with and Melissa getting to keep playing someone who is increasingly politically relevant and similar to her in a few ways anyway. I'm not sure Halsey was the best choice to play Rashida Talib. Sadly, the impressions and intros were the best part of this as the payoff with the Trump phone call seemed to surprisingly go against SNLs' established political viewpoint. I mean, portraying the women of Congress as hysterical and enraged Dyke and Fats style at hearing Trump's mere acknowledgment of them seemed almost like something you might see from the likes of Greg Gutfeld or Stephen Crowder but with much better production value. C+

Update was oddly the most consistent part of the show while taking the most risks they have all season at this point. First of all, I believe this is the first time this season (if not this whole era of Update) where Che gets to tell the first jokes instead of Jost. Che seemed to have the most fun with his opening blackface rant while Jost seemed to be going through the motions. Still, the blackface references were the highlight of their portion of Update (even if they leaned on them a bit too heavily). Other than that, the only stand out jokes of their's were the ones that contained the phrases "my theory" and "you guessed it" as they gave me serious Norm MacDonald flashbacks. Nice to see Melissa finally got to do an Update commentary as "herself" for once. I heard there was a bit last week that got cut at dress where James McAvoy played Bradley Cooper to her Gaga so I'm guessing this is just a slightly reworked version of that. For the most part, I somehow have managed to not hear the song "Shallow" in it's entirety so at first I thought her Gaga singing impression sounded to identical to her Xtina Aguilera impression. Then, she got to the hook of the song (which I HAVE heard in commercials for the film) and I saw how dead on she was. I knew Heidi was going to play the female character in the second commentary before Che even finished his intro. I thought I wouldn't like it as much as I did but it got more entertaining the louder and more intense it got. I'm guessing Mikey himself helped write this because it bears a strong resemblance to the S&M couple he played with Leslie (I believe she admitted he wrote those in a fairly recent interview). In fact, I'd say this is an exact cross between those and they Farley/Jackson commentary as Tom Arnold and Roseanne from season 16. Just when I thought Alex's "Guy Who Just Bought A Boat" was getting too played out, they add a little more quips and depth to the character. In addition to having a small, bad penis he is also a "Male feminist" to poorly disguise how bad he is at picking up on women's blatantly obvious signals. B+

Sorority Karaoke - This sketch seemed like it was going to be a rambling unfocused mess where Aidys' lines were the only things even resembling jokes at first. Then, it started picking up once Halsey, Cecily and Melissa moved past their song and into the crowd to pester the men in the crowd. This escalated well enough for my liking but I wish Steve Higgins' line as the voice of the bird hadn't been almost drowned out. Thankfully, Ego's character was there to bring this to it's natural conclusion and cut it off at the exact right length. C+

Black History Month - This was alright for the low key ensemble piece that it was. I'm guessing that Beck and Kyle wrote this themselves as it's pretty much the exact same thing as their Women's March sketch from Scarlett Johansson's last episode two years ago. C+

CamFansOnly - This must have been written by the same writers who wrote either the Gal Gadot Chaturbate sketch from last season or the Larry David gay club icon sketch from last season. I do like how immediately supportive Halsey and Leslie's characters were and how great Chris' dialogue was. Ego made a great voice of reason here. B-

Riverdale Morgue Scene - It was great to see Pete (and Beck too, really) branch out a bit and play parts so far out of their normal established range that they looked like were seemingly written for literally anyone but them. That really distracted me from how generally offputting I found this sketch in general. I wonder if this sketch was rewritten from a previous dress rehearsal and took place on the set of a different show than Riverdale with someone else in Pete's part. 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. Halsey
7. Steve Carrell/Ella Mai
8. Jason Momoa/Mumford & Sons
9. Claire Foy/Anderson .Paak
10. Liev Schreiber/Lil Wayne
11. Jonah Hill/Maggie Rogers
10. Awkwafina/Travis Scott

Well, that episode pretty much delivered the bare minimum of my expectations. Next week, Don Cheadle makes his hosting debut. He had actually appeared in a couple of MAD TV bits years ago and IIRC has participated in some bits on Kimmell. We know he has a not often seen sense of humor. It's just surprising that it took until he took his part on Showtime's "Black Monday" to get him on THIS show. Oh, well. See you then!