Okay, here's my review. As wildly uneven as this episode was, it's still the strongest one of the season by default because the highs were much higher than the previous two episodes. David Harbour proved himself to be a consummate professional who fit right in to the host role perfectly. The cast members who were either largely absent or still struggling to find their place on the show were featured almost enough to make up for it tonight (aside from Chloe who is sadly still getting washed off the screen as soon as she starts to feel visible). Ego was certainly used the most tonight during her entire SNL tenure so far but until the last third of the show I thought this was going to be a very light night for Cecily. Pete understandably made only two appearances all night and less understandably, so did Kenan. Other than that, cast airtime felt as balanced as it's been all season. Anyway, let's unpack this whole thing, shall we?
CNN Equality Town Hall - I wanted to like this cold open more than I did, but there just wasn't enough there. I guess they had to do it because the CNN LGBTQ town hall took place THIS week and the next actual Democratic Debate will be taking place NEXT week when the cast and crew will be taking off. At least this was still preferable to another Trump/Pence/Barr/Gullianni centric impeachment themed cold open. I'm not sure that the Billy Porter cameo was that necessary (or even appropriate) but at least he added some much needed energy. Redds' Cory Booker and Alex's Anderson Cooper are always solid. Nice to see they're sticking with Colin as Mayor Pete. It works, but they still seem to be struggling to come up with a take on him. I think they might be spreading Kate's Warren a bit thin but at the same time I'm glad they found a way to parody her already funny moment from the real debate in a way that didn't feel like gratuitous piling on. Nice to see Lin Manuel could be called down to 30 Rock in an attempt to shut up the detractors who complained that Julian Castro wasn't represented in the first debate sketch from the season premiere. Sadly, the only moment that stood out to me during his part was Melissa's brief look of barely concealed disappointment that she lost this part to Lin Manuel right before she asked her question (although I could be wrong and it may seem a little mean for me to say that, it's just what I was thinking). Good to see they're sticking with Woody as Biden this election cycle because it's been working. Having him REALLY pander to gays seemed a little off somehow though. Weird to see Bowen as an audience member in this but I guess Andrew Yang wasn't a part of this real event? I probably would've liked this a lot better had Larry been able to show up as Bernie. Wasn't the real Bernie at this thing anyway? C-
Monologue - This got the show off to a much better start. Even though, you could tell exactly where this was going after the first minute, that didn't necessarily spoil it for me. Harbour immediately proved he was going to be funny with his jokes about his Stranger Things castmates and mentioning his role as Hellboy after mentioning his classical training. I do wish they'd done more with the whole "cast gets trapped in the upside-down" concept but I liked the gag with Kenan having Lornes' job and Lorne being his intern. Also, as much as I kinda wish we'd be getting a slightly longer break from Pete I do appreciate how the show just let us know that this was the week he'd be returning (and that he'd be returning so abruptly that this was one of only two pieces in the live show they'd be able to place him in). B-
Little Miss Teacher's Friend Pageant - Okay, this had to have been written by whoever wrote the nephew pageant sketch from Kit Harringtons' episode last season. This was a very similar (yet slightly more abstract) concept. Harbour and Aidy were great at being the glue of this sketch. Kate's "epic tattle" story and Harbours' interactions with Bowen made me laugh. This was also a great way for the show to utilize the underused female cast members (especially Ego and Chloe). B+
Grouch - This was another one of those pop culture parodies where they took a very simple concept and ran with it executing it as expertly as they possibly could've. I'm even more impressed to learn that this was something Harbour himself pitched. This is likely the most successful host pitch in SNL history. Seeing Harbours' slow burn transformation and the rest of the cast as live action versions of Muppets were great. I especially liked Kenans' Snuffy the pimp, Heidis' Big Bird, Melissa's Elmo and Alex and Mikey as Bert and Ernie (Alex might have drawn from that Melissa impression he did with Mikey and Cecily that Melissa posted on Instagram). A-
SoulCycle Auditions - This was very fun and enjoyable sketch that helped keep up the energy the show had established since the monologue. It was also a great showcase for Ego and Bowen but Harbour clearly ran away with it. Alex, Heidi, Cecily and Kate were great supporting players in this. Since Bowen was prominently featured in this, I'm guessing there's a pretty good chance that he at least co-wrote it with some of the show's current crop of millennial female writers (Anna Drezen, Sudi Green, Fran Gillespie etc.) It does really seem like it's in at least one of their voices. B+
Update was pretty much the exact point in this episode when things started to get pretty uneven. Che had a strong night but it doesn't speak well for Josts' contributions to the show when his funniest Update jokes were a Trump slideshow set to the music of Thin Lizzy and him calling himself out on how bad he thought his own Mayor Pete impression was. Personally, I didn't think the impression was that bad. I mean, Jost looks the most like Pete Buttigieg out of the current male cast but he barely tries to sound like him so the best thing I can say about it is that I can still see what they are going for. The entire short form portion of Update completely fell flat for me except for Josts papal celibacy joke and Ches' sex doll joke. Heidi's latest Bailey Gismert commentary was pretty indistinguishable from all her previous ones. The only part of Pete's latest commentary that I actually liked were his and Josts' attempts at fourth wall breaking with the audience. The rest of it seemed so unfocused and meandering that it really made it obvious just how late in the week Pete made it back to Studio 8H. C-
Folk Of The Past - This felt like the most aimless sketch of the night. Alex was funny as the cloying host but the song seemed to go nowhere. There were some funny lyrics here and there but they were too few and far in between. C-
Father-Son Podcast Microphone - This is another piece I wanted to like a bit more but I really wasn't sure what it was going for. I guess the main joke here was that podcasts in general are such a white Male dominated field that they're now the only way said white men can genuinely communicate with each other (thank you very much, Marc Maron). Still, there were some pretty solid acting moments between David and Kyle here. C+
Grandparents - This sketch had a very 90s feel to me. Specifically, it was very reminiscent of when Steve Martin played Grandma Pugga in '91 as well as those Kirstie Alley Italian restaurant sketches, that sketch where Dana Carvey and Linda Hamilton played a couple, that dinner sketch with Danny Aiello, that sketch from when Gullianni hosted and he played Cheri Oteris' grandmother in drag and those Zimmerman sketches with Oteri and Kattan. Other than that, it just seemed like a gender swapped Morning Joe sketch but if they were non-famous old world Italian grandparents mixed with every "Last Call" sketch Kate has done. That's all I really care to say about this sketch. It just seemed like an excuse for Kate and David to act very inappropriately broad and for Kyle, Cecily and Melissa to react accordingly. I did like David's performance but he didn't need to prove to us that he would be a strong and fearless host anymore by this point in the show. D+
Dog Court - Well, given her well documented love of animals in general (but especially dogs) it's pretty obvious that Cecily cowrote this with either Anderson/Sublette or whoever wrote that Judge Court sketch from Emma Thompsons' episode (which she wasn't even in) and aside from Cecily's pug near the end the dogs were surprisingly well behaved here. The intro from Cecily and the brief cutaway reactions from the dog jury were the real highlights to me (especially the Tim Allen grunt after the reveal of Kate's stretched out shirt). Also, does anyone remember that Chris Farley documentary where David Spade talked about the week that Farley tried to write that "puppy lawyer" sketch that bombed at the table read? This sketch reminded me a lot of that but in a good way because I was glad to see something at least with a similar enough concept to that actually can make it to air 27 years later to honor his spirit. Also, I have this theory that this sketch the real reason this sketch got on is because this may very well turn out to at least be Cecily's last season and people at the show happen to know it already and those same people also knew that this may have been a sketch concept she had been wanting to get on the show all these years but she just couldn't get it off the ground (sort of similar to how Jason Sudekis only got to do Maine Justice in his last season in the cast). B-
Now, for my updated rankings for this entire season so far...
1. David Harbour/Camilla Cabello
2. Woody Harrelson/Billie Eilish
3. Phoebe Waller-Bridge/Taylor Swift
Well, this was a bit of a shot in the arm for this season. In two weeks, Chance The Rapper returns for his second time as host, third time as musical guest but his first time pulling double duty on SNL. It feels a little soon and it almost seems to go against the vibe of "variety in hosts" this season has been establishing so far but I honestly don't mind seeing him again as his first hosting stint two years ago was such a strong episode. See you then!
No comments:
Post a Comment