Okay, here's my review. This certainly turned out to be an interesting episode. They mostly seemed to keep the topical, political and recurring material to an absolute bare minimum in favor of original writing. They took a lot of chances with sketches tonight. Some of them paid off and some of them didn't but nothing was a total disaster. Kit Harrington was a very professional host. He didn't blow me away or anything but he was a decent fit for the show and I wouldn't mind seeing him host again if he has a decent post GoT movie to promote. The cast seemed pretty evenly balanced as far as airtime but Melissa only appeared in one thing (but at least she stood out in it). It was a pretty straightforward show to review so, let's get right into it.
Biden 2020 Campaign Headquarters - While even the implication of a Jason Sudekis cameo is exciting, this was pretty underwhelming. I mean, I'm glad we got to see him instead of Alec or DeNiro again this week but there wasn't much to laugh at here besides the Mario Batali/Lou Rawls/Dirty Dancing/ZZ Top shout outside. Plus, Leslie's part felt a little predictable. Hell, if she didn't walk in this would have felt just like a rejected cold open from season 38. Also, even though it should be expected that the show would go with this angle on Biden now at least it's nice to see them take some responsibility for their recent past and do something to counter the loveable goofball image of "Uncle Joe" that they (along with The Onion) helped cultivate that made America gloss over Bidens' many now glaring faults. C+
Monologue - This got the show off to a better, more energetic start. Kit did a great job poking fun at the non-GoT portions of his resume and Pete, the show's writers along with Kits' real life costars changing things up a bit were fun (although part of me still wishes we were seeing Emilia Clarke hosting tonight). Kits' wife, Rose Leslie was funny here. I liked how she played against my expectation that she would just ask Kit about that time he had sex with Emilia. B+
2019 Nephew Pageant - This somehow felt like a different and original premise and yet it fell in line with the infrequent "obscure, esoteric and narrowly pageant/awards show" trope that SNL has been going back to every so often fow the past 30 or so years. Aidys' singing and Kit, Mikey and Chris' characters (as well as the odd factoids presented on the right hand side graphic) were the funniest parts of this. Kudos to Kit for really disappearing into his part. B+
Game Of Thrones Spinoff Showcase - Well, the "obligatory host sketch" left a lot to unpack tonight. Heidi and Kits' parts were fun. The Daria/Arya parody was the highlight for me. I find it odd seeing Cecily and Kyle play the apparently real couple from the show that Bobby and Vanessa played in an Update piece from season 40 (especially since Kyle had to wear extra makeup for his part). Kudos to whoever remembered that Mikey and Pete got their start on MTVs' Wild'n' Out (besides them, of course) and the Ice-T/Mariska Hargitay cameos were fun. Those were the only things that stood out to me as someone who hasn't watched the show enough to get ALL these references. C+
Frank Sinatra/Micheal Jackson Cover Band - I liked this a lot more for its premise than its actual execution. It was a little troubling that this sketch had to drag with little buildup so much that the biggest laughs I got were Kate's brief moonwalk-on and the casual reveal that Leslie's character was a complete stranger to Beck and Heidi's couple. This felt like an exact cross between Fred Armisens' Danish Frank Sinatra play from season 35 and that sketch from the season 25 finale where Jackie Chan played an Elvis impersonator. B-
EarthWar 3 - This definitely has Day and Seidells' fingerprints all over it. It's interesting to see them transition from live sketches to pretaped ones. That definitely helped this one play much better. Ego and Chris were strong additions to this. I also liked how this ended at just the right moment before it started to meander. C-
Update was very largely hit and miss tonight. Namely, the commentaries were hits and most of the jokes were misses except for Ches' comments about the FBI and gays still in Wisconsin. Honestly, those were the only two moments where he seemed the least out of it. Jost had sone pretty unremarkable material but he at least appeared to have a lot of fun with it so, good for him. Alexs' LSD macrodosing movie critic was the funniest part of the entire show. I loved how it was a very writer oriented piece that hot way lore absurd as it went along. Kenans' Charles Barkely was also very funny in a similar way. It really reminded me of why he is well loved as a performer on this show. I'm guessing this may be another subtle hint that he really is leaving this May. He must've wanted to do this impression one last time and needed to take any reason he could to get it on the air. B+
Male Burlesque - Well, I liked the basic premise of this slightly more than I liked the fact that this sketch apparently felt the need to keep over explaining itself. Kate and Melissa's characters were by far the funniest and most interesting things about this. The rest of this just seemed to be blatant eye candy for Kits' female fans (one or two of which I suspect wrote this to begin with) C+
A Day In The Life Of Theresa May - I'm sure Sara's fans are pleased to see she not only got to be in a sketch, but it was a sketch based around her singing what I assume is one of the songs from her Broadway musical "Waitress". That and including Kit as an out-of-nowhere Churchill were nice touches. I would've found this more enjoyable as a whole had it not been for the confusing shift in the middle from low-key emotion to going for big broad laughs and then right back to the low-key sadness again. Also, I think making this last the entire length of the song itself hurt this because it felt way too long. C-
Graphics Department Battle - I still don't quite know how to feel about this sketch as the bulk of it didn't quite land with me. At first, this seemed like a mid-to-late-2000s era sketch oddly stuck out of time, but then it revealed the only real joke it had. It pretty much hammered home who Beck, Kit and Kyle's characters were for quite a large chunk of its runtime but it really picked up when they revealed the multiple copies of Mikey's boss character masturbating under the stairs. Kudos to Kit and Cecily for being so committed to their characters. C+
Rectal Exam - This sketch was pretty much all over the place. At first, it seemed like it was going to be a bit of a meet-cute between Kit and Cecily. Then, it was revealed that Leslie was going to be operating on Kit with long, ridiculous nails and it lingered on that point for a bit. Then, some broad physical humor to give this sketch a boost before the "Undercover Boss" twist was revealed followed by the further twist that Kit was actually proud of his employees. I wasn't crazy about the premise of this, but I sure liked how unpredictable this sketch really felt throughout. Also, I couldn't help but notice that this and the monologue were the only two live segments Pete was in throughout the whole show. Did it really take the length of the entire middle of the show to remove his makeup? C+
Now for my updated rankings of the entire season so far...
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. Kit Harrington/Sara Bareilles
9. Sandra Oh/Tame Impala
10. Don Cheadle/Gary Clark Jr.
11. Steve Carrell/Ella Mai
12. Jason Momoa/Mumford & Sons
13. Claire Foy/Anderson .Paak
14. Liev Schreiber/Lil Wayne
15. Jonah Hill/Maggie Rogers
16. Awkwafina/Travis Scott
Well, that show was quite a pleasant surprise. Next week, Emma Stone hosts for her fourth time. We know she should be a fun host and definitely a chipper and committed one even when a sketch isn't working due to her being such a fan of the show. Let's just hope she has the writing to back her up and make her look good. I sure hope this actually makes up for her last episode in 2016 being such a dud. See you then!
No comments:
Post a Comment