Okay, here’s my review. Knowing what Bill Burr is like in general, I probably shouldn’t have expected this show to go smoothly without the writers dragging him into their comfort zones with them. It seemed like some on the show who have outwardly expressed their admiration for Bill as comic must’ve enjoyed working with him and some others (who must’ve seen him as a bit rough around the edges as a comic but really trusted in his actual acting chops) seemed to want to take sketch premises they’ve done previously (which, given their schedule and the state of the world right now I don’t totally blame them for) and working Bills’ on screen persona into each of them. With all the sketch retreads that just plugged the host into interchangeable straight man roles, it really felt like I was either watching J.Lo’s episode from last season (but on steroids) or watching Zach Galifinakis’ 2010/11 episodes all over again (only they didn’t trust Zachs’ acting chops nearly as much). Still, I have to hand it to the show for not giving up on Bill nearly as early as some of the audience seemed to. Their response was inconsistent as some people were on board with him from the monologue and some were with him only on a sketch by sketch basis. Anyway, you look at it this was a wildly uneven and divisive show. Even the cast airtime balance was uneven compared to last week. In addition to Melissa still seeming to be nowhere even near the building, Andrew, Bowen, Chris, Lauren, Cecily and Aidy (understandably) were practically invisible (well, Lauren was in a pretape but that’s about it) while Kenan, Kate, Pete, Beck, Punkie and Heidi all had great nights. It’s ironic that this is another season where Chris Rock just hosted because last time he hosted in season 40, many thought that his November 2014 episode was the weakest of that whole season. I agreed with them until the Chris Hemsworth/Zac Brown Band episode aired in March 2015. That seasons’ Hemsworth episode was just flat out boring with too much bland and “safe” material whereas Rocks’s episode took far more risks (which even if they didn’t pay off made the show that much more interesting to watch). This season just proved to be the inverse of that as Burr’s took much bigger risks (some of which paid off and some didn’t) and Rocks’ most recent show (while not “safe” or boring by any means) was more consistent. Anyway, there’s a lot to unpack here so let’s get right to it. Shall we?
CNN Vice Presidential Debate – This started off like a typical “checklist”
debate sketch (COVID concerns, interruptions, fracking, supreme court packing, Kamalas’
side-eye, swine flu callbacks) but definitely more streamlined and focused than
last week and with more pleasant participants. I was expecting to see Chloe as Susan
Page but I can see why they would want to give that role to Kate if she was
still in the building. I also see they’re still taking some baby steps toward making
Maya’s Kamala an actual person and less of a walking political Beyonce meme. I
did like her breaking out into Tinas’ Philly accent at one point. That may have
been my favorite Maya moment of this sketch. At least they seemed to have made
much more progress on Beck’s Pence in that regard seeing as they’ve moved away
from the closeted/repressed homosexual jokes with him and started focusing on how
Pence spouts the real Trump party line these days. This may have been the
strongest material they’ve ever had for Becks’ Pence (and the most effort they
seemed to have put into writing for Mayas’ Kamala so far). I am glad they at least didn’t jump right into
the “Fly” material right way and focused on other things people took away from
that debate. I have to give them credit for at least finding a slightly
creative way for them to sneak in both Carreys’ Biden AND his Goldblum (putting
Carrey’s knack for spot on impressions to good use and hopefully placating the people
who wanted the actual Jeff Goldblum to show up when he obviously couldn’t make
it but then again why even have Carrey as Goldblum let alone the real Jeff Goldblum
if you’re going to have either one of them just quote more lines from Jurassic
Park and his apartments.com commercials than from The Fly anyway?). Other than
that, they pretty much staged the “flies on Pences’ head” scenes the exact way
I expected them to. In fact, by this point the sketch came off so rote and
telegraphed that it felt like Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell cowrote it. Honestly, the only things that really rubbed
me the wrong way were how they crudely pasted Carrey-as-Bidens’ face on Young
Goldblums’ head in the Fly clip they showed while Carrey (who got zero recognition applause from the audience in only his second appearance as a recurring guest this season which I don't know whether to find funny or sad at this point) was getting into his
costume (felt too lazy and Trevor Noah-esque for my tastes) and how awkwardly
they worked in Kenans’ Herman Cain as the other fly. That seemed like something
they should’ve found a better way to address on the show last week. I
appreciated that they tried to take a boiler plate debate reenactment and give
it a bizarre sci-fi twist near the end but it’s a little sad to me that it was only
a little weirder than the exact thing I was picturing after coming to terms
with the fact that a fly on a man’s head was the biggest “binders full of nasty
women” type of moment (even from a Vice Presidential debate). Speaking of
which, this honestly felt as much like the cold opens to the 2016 episodes hosted
by Lin-Manuel Mirandas’ (an empty Vice Presidential
debate veers off into a separate piece about that weeks’ much “bigger” news
story) and Emily Blunt (another rote, telegraphed almost Scary Movie-like
reenactment of the latest debates’ biggest moments) as I was expecting it to
be. C+
Monologue – At times, Bill Burr proved exactly why I thought
I’d never see him on SNL in this day and age but I gotta hand it to him. He may
have completely lost all of social media tonight in his attemptto be an
equal-opportunity-offending, middle-of-the-road centrist but he managed to at
least keep the studio audience on his side the whole time which is probably the
best outcome the show could’ve hoped for of letting Bill Burr do standup on SNL
in 2020. It was a real zigzaggy stand up set and Burr managed to zag in the
exact right moment right when he zigged unexpectedly. If Bill Burr
simultaneously telling the audience that he’s okay with you whether you wear a
mask or DON’T wear a mask didn’t clue you in that he was going to
systematically make sure everyone in this audience felt somehow both alienated
AND placated to, then I don’t know what to tell you. Honestly though, there
were only two things I was really bothered by here. The first was him
namechecking Rick Moranis and referencing his recent attack to make his “NEW YORK
IS BACK BABY” point. Still, I don’t want to “cancel” him for it since I did
like that John Wayne joke that immediately followed. I also liked him calling
out white women for “hijacking the woke movement” since he seemed to know what
he was talking about there up until the point where it seemed like he was implying
false rape accusations from white women against black men were a common thing
at one time. Now, THAT was the second thing I was bothered by. I don’t really
feel it’s my place to speak on the “why is gay pride month in June?” material
as I’m straight and not terribly educated on the history of the LGBTQ movement
myself but I will say the “Black people only get February” material seemed like
it has been done to death before. In a wildly uneven and divisive show, this definitely
WAS the most divisive and uneven part. Since it was right at the top, it really
got the show off on the wrong foot. C+
Unpresidented Times – This seems like it definitely had to
be written by whoever wrote the James Franco “Za/Zuh” courtroom sketch or the Will
Ferrell Cracker Barrell office sketch from Season 43. There’s definitely a dash
of the Sterking K Brown Shrek dinner sketch thrown in for good measure.
Overall, this had too much of a “been there done that during an unstable season”
feel for me to really get into after reeling from such a wild ride of a
monologue but I have to say Burr made this work. It seemed like it was written
specifically for him. C-
The Blitz – Speaking of season 43 sketches that had to have
been rewritten for tonights’ show, this reminded me a lot of the “Bank Breakers”
sketch from Kumail Nanjiani’s episode (with a little of those Snapchat Filter
news report sketches from the last two seasons thrown in) but with higher
stakes. This felt much more dramatic than that Kumail sketch both because it
addressed a sadly prescient real world issue and also because the audience didn’t
seem all that responsive (or it just seemed that way because either Bill or Pete
may have majorly missed a cue and that threw the sketch off track to the point
where Bill and Ego tripped over a couple of crucial lines) but I did like how
it came back full circle and had a solid ending. C+
Enough Is Enough – Ok, now I see we’re going back to Season
42 episodes to pull old sketch premises from? Beck’s just using the same template
to make fun of things like this weeks’ nude voting video and this summers black
and white “Kesha and Jesse Pinkman accept responsibility for their racism” video
that he used to go after that infamous Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad? Hell, it almost
seemed like he was parodying the 2008 Will.I.Am/Obama “Yes We Can” video for
good measure there for some reason. Also, since Beck was the only non-virtual
participant it’s almost like this could’ve been filmed for and subsequently cut
from one of the At Home shows Either way, while I appreciated the idea behind
this (and the Jason Momoa cameo got a chuckle out of me) I just can’t get
behind the execution of this. I mean, it was produced safer than anything the
shows’ done this season but that’s about the best thing I can say about it. D+
Update was a nice palate cleanser from the odd tone this
episode got off on. Jost and Che seemed to have some fun swinging for the
fences (especially Che). It’s nice to see material in slightly questionable
taste be delivered by someone I’m used to seeing from, I guess? Kates’
character seemed like an odd cross between Sandlers’ “Cajun Man” and Kenans’ “FIX
IT/DURR IT” character from season 34. It’s like late period scripts for rejected
Maya Rudolph/Kristen Wiig/Fred Armisen characters were given to Kate. I’m glad
that she and Jost chose to address the audience directly about what this
character was really supposed to be once it started really going off the rails
and losing direction because I’m not sure how much longer I could’ve watched
that. Then, Jost and Che had a shaky moment or two until Pete came in to knock
it out of the park. Pete really went back to his roots in self deprecation (and
vocally supporting trans people in the face of their discrimination) from his
days as a featured player and that was legitimately the most I’ve laughed at
anything he’s done or said in two whole years. B+
Mob Meeting – As soon as I heard Pete deliver his first
line, I had a feeling that this might be a sketch I heard was cut from dress in
Sandlers’ episode dealing with a mafia leader just released from prison who now
has to face how “woke/PC” his crime family has become. That turned out to be
exactly what this was. I appreciate Burrs’ commitment to a role that was VERY
well suited to him but it left me wishing I could’ve seen Sandler in the Bill Burr
role. Honestly, Alex, Punkie and Beck’s characters were the only thing I could
really get behind here (especially the #MafiaSoWhite joke which really tickled
me for some reason). C+
Pumpkin Spice Sam Adams – Ok, I guess now we’re going back a little further into season 42 to do the Casey Affleck Dunkin Donuts ad but with “homages” to both Denis Leary (the second one tonight, hopefully unintentional) and Dave Chappelle (probably intentional), I see? I was expecting Burr’s energy to really carry this but he didn’t really get ramped up until Mikeys’ character (who is apparently Burrs’ characters’ son now) shouted at him. Overall, I can definitely say that was the second best Sam Adams commercial parody I’ve seen Bill Burr act in (and it was a distant second, you’ll know what I’m talking about if you could recognize the second “homage” I pointed to earlier). Still, it’s at least a little more creative of a twist to recur something that hadn’t been recurred before than to do what I was expecting they’d do with Burr and bring in Dratch and Fallon (who I guess weren’t available this week) to give us another Boston Teens sketch starring Bill Burr. C+
2. Bill Burr/
Well, that was some show, wasn’t it? Next week, Issa Rae
makes her hosting debut. I’m not familiar with much of her work (I know she’s
the star of HBOs’ “Insecure” and was in the movie “Little”) and therefore don’t
really have any set expectations for her as a host. I do expect this episode
might serve as a general pallet cleanser from this week. They might settle back
into their live groove (as much as possible with what’s going on right now) with
a much safer choice of host for this era (of both SNL and entertainment in
general). I’m sure everyone at the show will have a similarly pleasant and easy
going experience working with her. Somehow, this feels like a show that Cecily is
going to want to make sure she’s a part of somehow. I’m not sure if Issa Rae is
another standup like Rock or Burr but she seems like she could write a Phoebe
Waller-Bridge/Tina Fey style monologue that’s not quite a traditional standup
routine but still feels very much like one because it’s done so much in her own
voice rather than what the writers thought she’d be the most comfortable saying
on stage. Whether this will make for a good or bad show, I can’t say. It should
at least make for the show by which they should just find their footing by this
point in their COVID era live run. See you then!
No comments:
Post a Comment