Okay, here's my review. This started off seeming like it was going to be the weakest of the three "at home" shows that closed out season 45 but I can't quite say that it was because the show gave us much better material as the night went on. I certainly don't think the writing was a problem as much as the inclusion of certain unannounced cameos, but while the highs were about the same as the previous "at home" show, the lows were definitely a bit lower. The cast was a little unbalanced (just in that Alex and Bowen were almost nowhere to be seen) but everybody did get some airtime. This did leave me with a fair amount to unpack, so let's break it down, shall we?
Trump Zoom Commencement - I immediately got flashbacks to the commencement cold open from the Steve Carrell/Usher season 33 finale and reflected on how we've now had two different finales of seasons interrupted and cut short (one by a writer's strike, the other by a global pandemic). There were some funny lines but I pretty much mentally checked out as soon as Baldwin appeared on screen. I liked Kenan, Ego and Chris' bit being "muted" by Baldwin's Trump but that's about it. Kate and Heidi had a funny interaction, too. I admit, I was also intrigued to hear Baldwin sneak the words "one last time" into his LFNY tag. I realize that Baldwin had loudly whined in the press about how playing Trump takes such a toll on him but SNL has changed horses midstream with their presidential impersonators before and Lorne usually seems to like making sure someone different plays the incumbent president by the time they are running for reelection and are actively debating their challenger from the other party so I'd have to say next season is the most likely time we're going to see a new Trump impressionist (whoever they may be). Honestly, the true highlight of this was trying to spot which writers (besides Sudi Green, Fran Gillespie and Will Stephen) and other possible non cast members were on this Zoom call because I'm shocked to find that they didn't think they had a large enough cast to pull off another high school commencement sketch. C+
Monologue - I guess we really should've expected this, no matter what? A lot of people have been speculating that the show would have Kristen Wiig host the originally planned 5/16 finale of this season to promote her major role in Wonder Woman 1984 (and as a possible send off to the senior women of this cast) and I guess this may confirm that this was their plan all along. Plus, Wiig can still promote WW84 as I believe it's still being released On Demand. The only real laugh I got was the bodybuilding mom photo she showed. The rest of this monologue just seemed like a cross between several things from Wiigs' final season in the cast (specifically Melissa McCarthy's first monologue and her Liza Minelli/Ann Margret sketches) with a sincere "mother's day under quarrantine" message tacked on. I was just as checked out of the rest of this as I was in the cold open. C-
Deirdre and Ripley's Zoom Call - I wasn't quite crazy about this character of Heidi's that she played opposite Seth Meyers but the inclusion of Martin Short as her scene partner here automatically makes this my favorite appearance of hers'. Sure, Marty seemed quite restrained here but he really helped make this one feel fresh and different than the last two. I also like the added detail that they went to Italy just to further derail their quarantine. I sure would've liked to have seen Marty host again this season whether or not he has anything to promote. B+
Let Kids Drink - This was a pretty funny premise. Framing it as a We Are The World like charity number was a great idea. The reveal was well executed and the little yellow chyrons really added to the humor along with Beck and Pete's scenes. Josh Gad was someone I thought I'd never see on the show (I do wonder if he was also originally on the pre-quarrantine shortlist to host in April or May?) but he was all right in his short bit. That was honestly the most I would've ever liked to have seen of him on SNL. B-
Masterclass II - A second one of these was definitely good for Chloe (especially since she did more easily accessible impressions in this one) and it ended up being good for Melissa that Chloe decided to include her in this doing an impression of a former alumni that she had previously only done on social media and podcasts. Her Mulaney is solid and ine if the better ones of the multiple Mulaney impressions I've seen lately. She nails his joke delivery even though her voice is still noticeablly higher than his. It actually does work a lot better when she makes the extra effort to actually dress like him. I know Melissa also had a Phoebe Waller-Bridge impression but she must've made a deal with Chloe to let her do PWB if she could do Mulaney (either that or Chloe just didn't have a Mulaney impression). Between the two, it's hard to say whose PWB was "better" (especially since Melissa only did hers in small pieces) but Chloe's was obviously more developed and both impressions must revolve more around nailing certain beats from "Fleabag" than her actual voice. Chloe's Britney impression really worked for me and made me start to see what others see in her (although given how little control over her own finances we now know the real Britney actually has she might get some flak online about that "being rich" line). If they can find a way to put Chloe's Britney and Melissa's Xtina in a sketch together next season, they should definitely go for it. A-
Mt. Methuselah Baptist Church Zoom Service - Kenan, Chris, Cecily and Ego really made the most out of this. It seemed like more like something that a YouTuber would make but this cast really turned it into a testament to their performance abilities. Again, I'm left wondering who else besides this cast was on this zoom call because the only people from this show's writing staff I recognized were Bryan Tucker and Gary Richardson (who likely cowrote this). If those other people were friends or relative of Chris, Kenan or Ego I'm sure they'll give them a shout out on social media tomorrow. B+
Danny Trejo - This was obviously done in the same vein as "Tucci Gang" and "RBJ" from each of the previous two seasons which makes me wonder what actual song this may have been a parody of as I didn't immediately recognize it nor do I know who "JP On Da Track" is. I didn't like this as much as I liked Pete's previous "at home" music videos. Chris' verse was OK but didn't do much for me either. He just kinda repeated a bunch of the same jokes Pete did. C+
Bouncy Waves w/ PJ Charnt - This felt like a typical Anderson penned self indulgent Wiig sketch to me that we used to see constantly ten years ago when she and Fred were dominating the show. Still, it's a new "character" from Wiig and I'd rather see this than any of her old characters from her years in the cast. I did genuinely like her stern, disappointed reaction to the spaghetti hair text as well as Kenans' character. Those were the only laughs I got. Still, this does make Wiig the most active and involved host of the "at home" episodes. C+
Update got off to a stronger start than the previous two "at home" Update. Both of their jokes seemed a lot better written this time. Speaking of, the joke that the contest winner wrote was pretty weak as far as their typical edgelord-lite cold reads go (although it's oddly fitting that that kind of a joke could come from someone who had hundreds of thousands of dollars to bid on this) but Che's joke from a "sick kid" made up for it. Tinas' commentary was something that just kinda washed over me. It was nice seeing Cecily's Judge Pirro again. I liked how she used her background and outfit changes to break from the formula of these. This must have been one of her favorite impressions to do lately which makes me wonder if this was supposed to truly be her last show. B+
What's Wrong With This Picture? III - I liked the previous two installments of this sketch but I was afraid that this one would suffer from the law of diminishing returns like the previous one did. Fortunately, that didn't happen as adding Ego and Melissa into the mix for Kenan to play off of really helped. B+
Eleanor's House - This is definitely the strongest piece Aidy contributed to the "at home" episodes so far. I really liked the animation and it reminded me a lot of the [adult swim] series "Tigtone" which I happened to catch for the first time last Sunday night. I do wonder if their animators worked on this? I did recognize Bowen and Becks' voices as the second and third animated characters (especially since Bowen was just doing his "Bottle Boi" voice) but I couldn't tell if Melissa or Chloe was the voice of the goldfish. I did like how Kyle, Heidi, Pete, Chris and Mikey's characters were specifically animated to look like them. B+
Brandons' Corny Ass Dad Pranks - This is definitely the best way any of the show's staff could've involved their real life kids on the show. Mikey and Kenan were very funny in it, too. B+
Phineas Gale - This was the weakest sketch of the night for me. I mean, it was a fine premise and I appreciated what it was going for but it was a little too low key for me and Kate may not have been the best type of performer to pull this off. D+
Kyle's House - Hearing the sole laugh track in this tricked me into thinking this was gonna be another one of Beck and Kyle's fake early '90s sitcoms until I noticed Beck wasn't in it and Kyle was playing different characters we haven't seen him do on the show yet but may have seen him do in his pre-SNL YouTube videos. He really seemed to be returning to his roots with this. Combining that with the stark shifts in tone from sheer disjointed Tim and Eric style weirdness to sappy emotional melancholy, it felt like this was Kyle's big goodbye piece (as he and Beck both seem like the type of cast members who are more than comfortable leaving without a big emotional send off). Still, I enjoyed this for the sheer unfiltered Kyle Mooney strangeness it was. It ended up being something I preferred to Kyle's previous solo piece with similar production value. I especially liked the entire "bank robbing" scene. A-
Dreams - At first, I thought this might be Cecily's official send off (and possibly Kate's) since the former seemed to be the main focus throughout and the latter was waving from the top of 30 Rock at the end but I liked how this ended up featuring the full cast. I especially liked the sheer abstract, dadaist, non sequitur "let's just use whatever footage we all can get access to and make this even weirder than Kyle's solo piece" feel of it. The only things I didn't like were how this featured Alex and Bowen's only real appearance of the night. A-
Now, for my final rankings of this entire season...
1. Eddie Murphy/Lizzo
2. David Harbour/Camilla Cabello
3. Chance The Rapper
4. Phoebe Waller-Bridge/Taylor Swift
5. Woody Harrelson/Billie Eilish
6. Scarlett Johansson/Niall Horan
7. Adam Driver/Halsey
8. SNL At Home II (Brad Pitt/Miley Cyrus)
9. SNL At Home (Tom Hanks/Chris Martin)
10. Daniel Craig/The Weeknd
11. SNL At Home III (Kristen Wiig/Boyz II Men)
12. John Mulaney/David Byrne
13. RuPaul/Justin Bieber
14. J.J. Watt/Luke Combs
15. Jennifer Lopez/DaBaby
16. Will Ferrell/King Princess
17. Harry Styles
18. Kristen Stewart/Coldplay
Well, season 45 of SNL has officially come to a close. We heard Wiig say "see you in September" but there are a lot of unknowns beyond that. We don't know when the show will be able to be truly "live" or not by September but we do know they can at least give us more of these "at home" episodes if the quarantine continues to last that long. I would've expected the show to come back on October 3rd at the earliest but this is supposed to be an election year and they might want to make up for the other three planned live shows from this Spring they had to suspend production on if NBC'S budget will allow them to do so. Naturally, they may want to transition between seasons 45 and 46 the same way they transitioned between seasons 33 and 34. We don't know for sure if this entire cast will be back in September let alone if Lorne will be able to even audition anyone to fill out the cast if anyone does leave. The only thing we can do know is keep an eye out for any press releases that may turn up between now and August. For all we know, with most of the rest of the TV, film and live performance industries having to shut down, certain cast members could probably really use the job stability/security and income that SNL has been providing so we could get most of this same cast this fall. One thing I know is that I'll be back on September to provide more of these reviews of whatever the show can provide its audience with so, see you then. Have a great summer and stay safe!
