Woody Harrelson/Billie Eilish (9.28.2019)

Okay, here's my review. This episode had a fun vibe (mostly due to the host) but it wasn't enough to distract you from how wildly uneven it was in terms of pacing and cast airtime. Woody proved himself to be an always reliable host and he made a lot of sketches fun to watch despite how a lot of things felt like subtle to not so subtle retreads. The cast airtime seemed so uneven because everyone who's still here who's been there since at least seasons 38-43 was in most everything while this year's featured players clearly had to struggle to get noticed. While Bowen seems to have hit the ground running (by featured player first show standards) Ego had nothing but small straight roles and Chloe only had only had two appearances all night which made me wonder if she actually IS going to be the next female impressionist to get chewed up and spit out by the show) but she's earned a lot of goodwill pre-SNL and it seems like the cast really likes her. Also, Leslie's absence is already gradually making itself known and apparently Pete couldn't be in the show as he's busy filming Suicide Squad. Somewhat surprisingly, the literally gravity defying musical guest performances were a real highlight of the show. I'm usually not a huge fan of when musical guests use redesigning the whole stage as part of their gimmick but Billie was excellent here. Anyway, let's break it down, shall we?

Trump Makes A Few Calls - Ok, I realize it's a season premiere and they were basically shaking the cobwebs off this week but this was a little underwhelming. I mean, it picked up some steam as it went along but it's just disappointing to realize that they thought the breaking impeachment story didn't deserve much more than just the Donald Glover, Seth Meyers and Kumail Nanjiani cold opens from the last two seasons (and THEN realize that given the context of the story that they weren't totally wrong). Still, I guess my theory about Baldwin bring slightly less "miserable" about playing Trump when the real deal's impeachment is actually on the horizon is already appearing to hold up. Still, having Aidy play AG Barr at this point just feels too much like perry baiting. Let's just get to the highlights already. To me, the only real standout moments were Kate's Joe Rogan Experience namecheck, (still think someone else should be playing Gullianni though) the reprisals of Cecilys' Judge Pirro, Bowen's Kim Jong Un (good to see they're already making his presence in the actual cast known right up front) the Redd/Kenan scene and the Liev Schreiber cameo just for how completely untelegraphed it seemed. C+

Monologue - I could already tell this was going to be unexpectedly engaging once Woody came out in a tuxedo. I chuckled at his poking fun at his own fashion consciousness (or lack thereof) but once he changed into his pajamas it started to feel a little overlong and meandering. Still, Woody's sheer presence and loose easy going personality made it fun to watch. Also, I don't know if his running "apologies" were the show's own way of very subtly acknowledging the Shane Gillis controversy but I'm quite glad it was the only way they planned on even broaching the topic. B-

CNN Impeachment Town Hall - Well, I'm impressed that this was the way they decided they could do a parody of this summer's Democratic debates. They obviously realized that they're gonna have a hard time doing any Dem debate sketches as none of them take place the same week as one of their live shows this season but people are still going to expect to see their hot takes on all the hopefuls somewhere in this episode. I was thinking about how increasingly likely it seemed that they would do a "debate" sketch in the same vein as the one they did in the Anna Faris/Drake episode from October 2011 with some elements of their 2015/16 primary debate parodies and I was a bit surprised to see they actually did just that. Alex does Beto competently enough. Bowen had a great line as Andrew Yang and his impression was pretty funny. I liked seeing Redds' Cory Booker again. Surprisingly, Jost as Mayor Pete actually worked. Good to see Chloe got the Marianne Williamson role at the top of her first episode. Kates' Warren served the sketch well despite being washed away by all the cameos and new cast members making an impression for themselves. Larry clearly ran away with this whole sketch. A bit surprised to see Woody as Biden but this surprisingly this works since it's more focused and precise than Jasons' broad characterization. In fact, I wouldn't mind seeing Woody take over the role from Jason completely at this point but I doubt he'd do it and deep in the back of my mind I doubt that is what I really want. Plus, it's nice to see they realized they needed to update and sharpen their take on 2019 Candidate Biden but that "plastic straws" joke seemed a little iffy. As expected, Maya handled the Kamala impression well as only she could. Still, I wanted to like it more but I found it too frustrating. With that "weed arrest" joke, it just looked like they had the right take on Kamala but they easily let it slip out of their hands at the last second and just decided to go for more surface level pandering and turn her into a Law and Order style caricature. I'll give them credit for having a take no one else had on Kamala (because it was absolutely not a take worth having) but it still didn't work. Other than that, I have no real complaints. B-

Cheeto Museum - At first, this looked like it was almost going to be a rewrite of either the Denver Morning show sketches from ScarJo and Liev Schreibers' most recent host outings or the RV sketch from Steve Carrells' episode last season but just bought indoors and with Woody and Aidy swapped out for Steve and Heidi. Then, I noticed it started to take a bit more of a slice of life tone until the Cheeto evaporated and they acknowledged the big emotional turn and quickly got to the ending. Most of all, I liked how this didn't feel TOO one note and drawn out. B-

Update got off to a bit of a scattered start seeing as Che had the better and more focused Trump impeachment rant. Kenans' Big Papi had grown on me quite a bit and I wanted to like this more but the "Pelocon" joke was really the only thing that stood out to me. It felt a little odd that Big Papi being shot was the impetus for Jost to write this. After that, Che had a couple of jokes that didn't land but they closed this unusually short Update with about a half dozen string jokes in a row (especially the matches and Jost hate symbol ones). The brevity of this Update compared with how long and dense the cold open and debate/town hall sketch were are what really drives home my point of how uneven this episode was. C+

Fighting Corgis - It must be a bit more of a coincidence that both of Woody's 21st century shows had sketches where he played a Texas high school football coach. Still, not sure what to make of this obviously Day/Seidell penned piece. I really only liked it when it established it's two shock moments with Heidi's character (who, at times, felt like a character they would write for Melissa McCarthy) and kinda went all over the place from there. It just felt like they took the script from Sandra Ohs' "Tishy" sketch and plugged Heidi and Woody into the Sandra and Alex/Beck roles respectively.  C+

Inside The Beltway - Ok, Kenans' very first line pretty much established that this was going to be the direct inverse of "Them Trumps" except done live and way more stretched out. Kenans' pretty much saving this single handedly and the audience is quick to catch on. This is another example of what people mean when they call him the "glue" of the current cast. Plus, we also got to see the worst poorly executed extreme live quick change induced case of corpsing to ever air on live television. Seriously, I wonder if they will just put the dress version of this online? C+

Downton Joker - This felt about as pointless as that Samberg narrated "Fancy Entourage" ad from season 37. Still, nice way of them to sneak in Chloe and Bowen. Still, the reviews and Alex's "that's where mud goes" line were the only things I even smirked at. D+

Dad - Good thing Kyle and Chris broke out into their Fresh Prince/DJ Jazzy Jeff meets Harry Chapin style rap when they did because it was just starting to feel a little dry. I know The Fresh Prince may not seem like the freshest parody target but seeing Chris rap deep in character with Kyle is certainly preferable to seeing him rap basically as himself with Pete. I also liked the additional turns this took with Woody's separate mini rap. B+

Chickhams' Apple Farm - This felt like just a mishmash of Aidy and Kate's meat commentary from Mulaney's last show, their fancy hotel ad from Cheadles' show and the Italian vineyard ad from Emma Stone's last show. From the way they both broke so badly, I think they'd agree with me that Chris and Woody had the best lines because those animals seemed pretty well behaved. C-

Now, since this is the season premiere and I can't rank much else yet, I think I'll take a stab at ranking all of Woody's previous episodes just for fun...

1. Woody Harrelson/David Byrne (11.18.1989)
2. Woody Harrelson/Kendrick Lamar (11.15.2014)
3. Woody Harrelson/Billie Eilish (9.28.2019)
4. Woody Harrelson/Vanessa Willisms (5.16.1992)

Well, that was one of the more fun season premieres in recent memory. Next week, Phoebe Ealler-Bridge makes her hosting debut. She seems like she will be a good host given that her background seems to be mostly in comedy. See you then!