Idris Elba/Khalid (3.9.2019)

Okay, here's my review. After last week's show with John Mulaney hosting, my expectations were considerably lowered. Thankfully, this episode just barely went above them as there were a few ways it was different from what I was expecting. For the most part, it seemed like the writers wanted to see if they could do another show full of mostly original heavily premised based sketches. They couldn't quite pull it off at the level of Mulaney or those of his ilk as they may not have his keen attention to detail but the results were impressive nonetheless since they made up for it with a distinct lack of political and recurring material (they must have thought this was a slow week for the hard news, huh?) Idris Elba was a serviceable host, but he came off as far less polished as other recent hosts. I wouldn't mind seeing him host again because I'd like to see him do better each time. One thing about his performances that stood out to me was how he mostly stuck to just disguising his own British accent with a generic all purpose American one as opposed to how other accented hosts (James McAvoy in particular) tried to take on several different regional American dialects. As far as airtime goes, it seems like this episode was pretty much dominated by the female cast members and especially the African American sketch players (which is good since these things are always fun to see and end up being what we all root for and expect anyway when a woman or a black person does host when the show gets new black featured players) with the occasional assists from Mikey, Pete, Beck and Alex. Meanwhile, Kyle Mooney was pretty much absent from the show except for the good nights since his latest filmed piece got cut. Anyway, let's break this down, shall we?

Gayle King Interviews R. Kelly - Well, I have to say I find it refreshing that SNL appears to be taking baby steps toward a pro-Trump administration era state of normalcy by doing a pop culture themed cold open rather than a political one. Seriously, it has to have been since at least season 40 since they've done a non political cold open. Sadly, the fact that this was a non political SNL cold open in 2019 was the best thing about it. The only jokes that stood out to me were the camera gag involving Beck, R. Kelly naming his song titles as "clues", the "jail king" line and the wrong way facing LFNY tag. Everything else about this seemed a little too milquetoast for me. The frequent "Trapped In The Drive Th...uh, Closet, excuse me" callbacks were nice but they should've been a bigger buildup to something. I think the biggest thing keeping me from getting into this was how they gave the lead roles to Leslie and Kenan rather than Chris and Ego. Even Redds' appearance as R. Kellys' "crisis manager" didn't do too much for me. Kenan undoubtedly gave it his all but still seemed a bit miscast as R. Kelly. Still, I suspect this cold open (and almost all this episode now that I think about it) might have been given to him as a bit of an early going away present if this is indeed his last season. C+

Monologue - Given how little I actually seemed to know about Idris Elbas' actual career, I appreciated that he used his monologue to tell us how he got started in show business and explain his connection (however tenuous it may be) to the New York comedy scene. He may not have had as much obsession with or Nerdy love for the show as other hosts who have done solo, sincere monologues (Awkwafina, Seth, Momoa, Damon, Halsey) but nonetheless he showed us why he belonged here tonight. B+

Can I Play That? - I appreciate the low key conceptual nature of this sketch, but it looked like it lost focus somewhere in the middle as it attempted to break down the current state of movies and pop culture. Overall, it just seemed a little scattershot in execution. I wonder if Che had a hand in writing this? It seems to have shades of his humor in it. Obviously, the Twitter jabs and Idris Elba acknowledging his own false James Bond rumors from the Sony email hack (one of two things I previously remember him from for some strange reason) were the stand out material. C+

Bok Boks' - I certainly hope "sketches referencing the hot real life internet meme/moral panic of the week" doesn't become too much of a recurring feature. That bring said, this was OK even if this was a strange way of working in a Momo reference if they absolutely felt they had to for whatever reason. I appreciate Kate (and especially her makeup teams') solid commitment to her role. The highlight was Kate scaring Heidi out of her car in the drive thru. C+

Microsoft PowerPoint Seminar - This turned out to be the funniest live sketch of the night. I especially liked how, for the first time in quite a long time, they actually wrote a sketch for Kate that played to her best qualities as a cast member and let her purely just act in it rather than just trying to fit her into the mold of a political figure again. I loved how increasingly absurd and borderline dadaist their slideshow was and their laundry list of dumb confessions at the end. Leslie, Idris and Mikey were solid supporting players here. A-

The Impossible Hulk - This was the strongest taped segment of the night. Cecily did well in the type of role she usually excels at and Idris, Ego, Chris and particularly Melissa played very well off of her. The premise may have seemed a little like a concept that had been explored before elsewhere but it was executed very well in a taped sketch format with this cast. A-

The Gold Diggers Of The WNBA - This was a little lighter on laughs, but I still appreciate the premise based nature of it and the explanation of every small detail and character aspect. Still, it may have spent too much time explaining itself to be that entertaining. At one point early on, Kenan and Idris seemed to be playing exact crosses between Lavar Ball and Kings Of Comedy era Steve Harvey and Cecily seemed like she was just doing a very precise Melissa Villaseñor impression. Plus, the ending felt a little too predictable. I have a feeling Che and/or Bryan Tucker helped write this. C-

Update was all over the place tonight. I definitely liked the political stuff they led off with tonight more than I did from previous Updates this season mostly because this week, Update was shockingly the first point in the show where politics was mentioned so it at least felt like a semi fresh take. Plus, Jost seemed quite animated throughout and Che at times seemed tired and almost like he was just getting over a cold. They had a lot of good jokes, but a lot of them bordered on intentionally dark Norm MacDonald like territory. It seemed like they were going more for groans and just general crowd reactions than pure laughs. I really didn't need to see Heidi's Goop spokeswoman even the first time (which somehow felt less one-note than tonight) but I'll admit Gwennyth Paltrow herself showing up was this piece's one redeeming value. I know she's an established friend of the show at this point (three-time host and all) but it's at least admirable to me that someone as seemingly out of touch with all of reality AND humanity as Ms. Paltrow can see the humor in her ridiculous low-grade pyramid scheme masquerading as a "lifestyle brand" and could somehow be persuaded into poking even some light fun at herself over it. Pete delivered a solid and well thought out commentary on society's case by case wavering abilities to separate certain artists from their art (as it pertained to other artists besides Kanye this time) and even his additional statement on the age difference in his current relationship was funny. Speaking of which, did anyone else get the feeling Kate Beckinsale was going to also come out in person based on the crowds' reactions to Jost prodding him to talk about her? I guess I just like seeing and hearing about Pete the most when he's contributing something to the show that isn't directly based on his personal life rather than just putting said personal life out on display in the tabloids. It's refreshing to be reminded that going on SNL and saying stuff on Weekend Update once in a while is what helped him get to that point in his life before said life of his just morphed a symbiotic codependent relationship between standup and fame. Leslie's commentary was very engaging and funny. I'm glad she addressed the fact that she was sitting opposite Che instead of Jost for the first time because it also threw me for a bit of a loop. I guess both tonight's Update and the cold open both show signs that SNL is slowly returning to it's Season 40 pre-Trump era roots by having Leslie and Pete dominate the guest commentary portion of Update. B

Sky Sports - As simple and straightforward as this premise was, it got better as it went along. Mikey and Alex played roles that are sort of becoming tropes for them.on the show and Idris flourished in the one sketch of the night that required him to hide his natural Britishness the least. I have a feeling that whoever wrote the hockey sketch from Chance The Rapper's episode last season may have also written this. It also reminded me of the SportsCenter sketch from Ray Romanos first episode almost 20 years ago. B-

The Amazing Rudolpho - While this sketch was entertaining in how strongly performed it was, it felt like it stalled a little too much before revealing it's true premise/punchline at the very end and didn't take it's extremes far enough. Still, it was quite a strong piece for Leslie and Kenan. C+

Karate Actor - This was a strong piece to end the show on. Beck really sprinted away with it. Becks' general adolescent-ness and disappointment barely concealed by badly feigned enthusiasm filtered through manic energy really made this for me. Idris was a great supporting player. The only thing this sketch had going against it was it's lack of an ending. I feel like this sketch was supposed to have an actual conclusion (maybe a series of spinning newspaper headlines and magazine covers showing Becks' rise to fame as an action star specializing in dumb karate moves?) that had to be cut for time possibly because some small thing during Update or a mildly botched line or two here or there made the show run seconds long? B+

Now, for my updated rankings of this season...

1. John Mulaney/Thomas Rhett
2. Seth Meyers/Paul Simon
3. Matt Damon/Mark Ronson & Miley Cyrus
4. Rachel Brosnahan/Greta Van Fleet
5. James McAvoy/Meek Mill
6. Adam Driver/Kanye West
7. Idris Elba/Khalid
8. Halsey
9. Don Cheadle/Gary Clark Jr.
10. Steve Carrell/Ella Mai
11. Jason Momoa/Mumford & Sons
12. Claire Foy/Anderson .Paak
13. Liev Schreiber/Lil Wayne
14. Jonah Hill/Maggie Rogers
15. Awkwafina/Travis Scott

Well, that show came and went. In three weeks, Sandra Oh makes her hosting debut. I guess her cohosting the Golden Globes with Andy Samberg was as good an indication as any that she is ready to start transitioning toward comedy after years of serious acting? Still, kudos to SNL on taking enough risks to end up with two Asian-American women as hosts in the same season. See you then!