Okay, here's my review. The energy and quality level of this week's show were demonstrably above the previous episode with Kristen Stewart but not by a whole lot. The highs were a little higher and the general consistency level of the show was better but I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was still missing. As a host, well...Harry didn't exactly make anybody forget why he and his former bandmates were only used in one or two sketches per episode with as few speaking lines as possible. Cast airtime seemed pretty lopsided, but in a way that was almost encouraging. Chris, Ego, Mikey, Heidi and Melissa seemed the most "front and center" throughout the show while everybody else made scattered appearances throughout (except Chloe who sadly seemed shut out of the show entirely). Since we have a lot more to unpack here than I was expecting, let's just get right into it, shall we?
Days Of Our Impeachment - Well, I guess those rumors of Hader being seen walking into 30 Rock this afternoon were just that; mere rumors and nothing more. That's actually pretty disappointing since I actually preferred his take on Jim Jordan to Mikey's who previously played the Adam Schiff role that Alex has now been placed in. Man, they're really throwing continuity out the window tonight, aren't they? At least we still got Jon Hamm. From what little of the hearings I had the free moments to keep up with, he was a decent choice to play that second guy who testified on Wednesday. Pete, Kate, Heidi, Beck and Kyle did just fine, too but I could've done without Kenans'part as it made too little sense to include the guy he was playing in this story. Also, I was wondering why Cecily was playing Ambasador Yovanovich (sp?) instead of Melissa until I saw they needed Melissa to play AOC. Hell, I wasn't even sure they'd find it appropriate enough to have anyone portray the ambassador as I saw a few comparisons between her and Dr. Ford from the Kavanaugh hearing. Still, I think this was a more fitting and prescient cold open than most people will be willing to admit. These impeachment hearings weren't exactly on the same level of national spectacle as the Kavanaugh and Cohen hearings that they show famously parodied last season. From what I saw, they were pretty dry and straight forward. No one even bothered to put their brazen, petulant ineptitude on full display, not even Jim Jordan. Even he didn't warrant a Hader cameo apparently (but maybe Mulaney not having any reason to be at 30 Rock this week either was another bigger part of it). In fact, I wasn't even sure SNL would even be able to cover it in a cold open this week but I'm sure they felt obligated to in this era where every single cold open just HAS to focus solely on politics until at least next January. So, in a way, it makes perfect sense that they would have to get themselves through this by writing up a poor man's cross between the "Palm Beach" sketch from Val Kilmers' season 26 episode and that news soap opera sketch from Tom Arnold's 1996 episode. Hell, they themselves admitted that this was "necessary" to get people's attention. Hell, I have a feeling that it was more than just the audience being full if Harry Styles stans who couldn't have given two shits about whatever parts of the show he wasn't gonna be in that led to the low-key DOA vibe of this cold open. This is actually the most open, honest and "in the moment" I've seen SNL in quite some time and for that, they've earned my respect. C+
Monologue - Okay, here the audience really perked up here compared to what preceded it. Still, Harry seemed to be just a tiny bit more into doing the show up front than Kristen Stewart was two weeks ago but at the same time he seemed a little too laid back and aloof for his own good. Still, his best lines were delivered from behind the piano. I especially liked his "Simon Cowell grew 1D in test tubes" joke and all the "secrets" he revealed about SNL. C+
White Get Out - This seems almost like it was intended as a companion piece to the local mid-day news sketch from the PWB episode. I got the same impression that Ego at least cowrote this with Tucker and Che like she did the news sketch. It got better the more the dramatic music stings were played up. Also, I get the impression that this may have been cut from at least Kirsten Stewart's dress rehearsal since Harry's role was so generically white and non descript it could've been filled by any white host (or musical guest) this season has had under the age of 30. Plus, we got the third Jordan Peele reference the show has made this year here. They either must really be trying to lure him into a future hosting stint or they must be vocally kicking themselves on missing the boat on him as a even cast member playing Obama let alone a host. B-
Joan - This was pleasantly catchy and very cute. I'm sure it wasn't intended to be a whole lot more than that. The whole Harry Animorph number felt a little telegraphed but hey, they must have seen this as giving the people what some of them were going to want this week. Mostly, I'm surprised Aidy was in this instead of Cecily. This seemed like it was writtem specifically for Cecily given that it was essentially a song about how much a woman is in love with her dog and Aidy is a happily married woman while Cecily (according to what I've been told via Twitter FM by one of the girls from the SNL Standby Line podcast) is totally single and not romantically involved with anyone. I thought maybe this actually was written for Aidy because I can't see why Cecily would turn this down until I heard Anna Drezen co-wrote this. She obviously decided to cast Aidy as her analogue as they seem like similar women. C+
Lamaze Class - This was such a very niche piece that I suspect the only two people on staff that could've written it are Anna Drezen (as we saw with Duolingo for Children she tends to wrote a lot from her own very specific personal experiences that only small handfuls of viewers can relate to) or Mikey Day (as he may be the only person actively writing and/or performing on SNL who I know for sure is a parent in real life). Still, I can appreciate what this was going for even if I wasn't directly a part of this sketchs' target audience and didn't find this laugh out loud funny. Harry seemed well within his comfort zone here (as did everyone else, but especially Harry it seems) as he played a European man. This was obviously another role that didn't require him to do another accent he might have been unfamiliar with in any way. B-
Jet Blue - This seemed like it was going to be more derivative and ine note than it was going to be. It ended up being something I could appreciate for having a series of escalations as telegraphed as they seemed. I guess this was our obligatory live dog appearance of the night? I guess one live and one taped dog appearance is the equivalent of one full on loose animal free for all? I'm surprised Kate had what was obviously supposed to be Cecily's part. Ego held her own next to everyone pretty well here. C-
That's The Game - This was something I could appreciate just for the sheer foolhardiness of it. The increasingly ludicrous incompetence of Chris's character was very funny. Kenan and Mikey played off him well. My only real criticism of this piece was just how useless and miscast Harry felt in a role that Pete could've easily replaced him in and no one would be any the wiser. B+
Update was pretty inconsistent tonight. Jost started out with some decent commentary on the impeachment hearings but they started running out of steam once Che flat out admitted he didn't watch them. Still, he managed to make up for that with the Jost/Stephen Miller comparison. By the way, someone may want to check on Dennis Perrin tomorrow just make sure he doesn't die from a massive rage stroke if he sees this week's Update since comparing Jost & Che to Hitler and Nixon were totally his original moves. I guess this is either just a coincidence or confirmation that Che and/or Jost sometimes reads Perrins' tweets. I didn't think they would ever have a valid reason to bring back Kate's Jeff Sessions again, but I guess his Alabana senate run keeps him in the news for another week. It was mostly Kate hitting the same standard old beats but her variations on the "deep fried dumb Southerner" out downs and "apple cores" line made me chuckle. For some reason, I also liked the way she chose to wear that MAGA hat sideways. Kyle's dairy diary representative was genuinely the funniest part of the entire show. Seriously, he bought me my first genuine laughs of the night. Nice tribute to Rick Ludwin at the very end, too. C+
Sara Lee Instagram - This was a close second for funniest live segment of the night. The sheer shameless raw inappropriateness of the material paired with Harry, Cecily and Bowen's characters' very real shame in having to reveal it in a professional setting made me giggle. This definitely seemed like the exact type of "hontent" most if not all of Harrys' stans were crying out for. It seemed just like Bowen and Julio got together and set out to write this almost specifically for all of them (since they're both pretty prominently featured in this). Speaking of Cecily, I wonder why all of her sketches were buried in the back half of the show? When she, Kate and Aidy introduced Harry's first song I first realized what a light night this was for her. She wasn't even in anything with a dig in it which indicated to me that something may have been seriously wrong this week. On an unrelated note, am I the only one who noticed that this is the only sketch in the entire show where they bothered to have Harry affect an American accent? He didn't struggle with it or anything. B-
"Baby" Faye - Well, the thing I liked most about this were Beck, Harry and Mikey's various padded "introductions" to Cecily's character, Cecily's whole performance in general, Harry's "Joel Hodgson imitating a 1940s newspaper boy in the old 'Hired: The Musical' sketch from MST3K" voice, and the fact that we were just thrown into this premise with as little explanation as possible. The heavily conceptual/premise based nature, rapid fire pace and old timey 42nd street nature of this sketch gave me a it of a Mr. Show-lite vibe, like someone on the current staff was trying to emulate Bob Odenkriks or Paul F. Tompkins' old writing style. I could've done without Aidys' part but I guess something had to tie this all together. C+
Funeral DJs - This is tied with Kyle's Update feature for funniest live segment of the night. It felt like the type of sketch premise we've seen before both on and off SNL for the past several years. The simple contrast of loud EDM at a funeral paired with Beck, Aidy and Alex's expertly outraged reactions worked well for me. Melissa's part felt telegraphed and I'm sure we could've done without Pete here but everything else I liked. The fact that they parodied LMFAO so obviously says to me that this must've been someone's white whale passion project that had been getting cut from several year's worth of dress rehearsals. B+
Now, for my updated rankings for this season so far...
1. David Harbour/Camilla Cabello
2. Chance The Rapper
3. Woody Harrelson/Billie Eilish
4. Phoebe Waller-Bridge/Taylor Swift
5. Harry Styles
6. Kristen Stewart/Coldplay
Well, that was a show that managed to at once meet and fall well below my already lowered expectations. Next week, Will Ferrell officially joins the five timers' club. While I'm definitely looking forward to this the most out of all the November shows since it was announced, I find it a little harder to get as excited for this as I was for his previous two hosting stints in 2012 and 2018. This is mostly because those two are so far apart compared to this one so considering Ferrell last hosted less than two full years ago, it feels a little soon too soon to be bringing him back. Plus, those last two episodes were so disappointing for a number of reasons compared to his first two in '05 and '09 that I've already been reconditioned to tamper my expectations for this one given how this season's been going in general so far. Still, it's Will Ferrell. He pretty much has an endless supply of goodwill with the show and should at least keep people's spirits up right before they all leave for Thanksgiving so at least the overall energy level in 8H will be much higher. See you then!
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