Okay, here's my review. Given every circumstance that made it seem almost impossible for the cast and crew of SNL to put on the show in any form at all, I'm glad they were able to successfully put on the show that they did. They did a fine job of making the show feel like it did back in March and giving viewers a real "return to normalcy" feeling. It felt like just the right balance of "escapism" and "real life reminder of what we still have to deal with" was struck here. However, I'm a little conflicted about how it sounded like even the size of the live in studio audience was "back to normal" and not nearly as "limited" as they promised. They either had to have been piping in small amounts of canned laughter or putting a mic on each individual audience member (which isn't exactly a bright idea either). I liked hearing just enough laughter that it felt like nothing was bombing as hard as possible but not so little that they made it obvious that they didn't even consider the possibility of tightening up the show in general. Besides that, there were still times where the awkward silences left something to be desired. I guess that can be forgiven due to this being their first actual live show in seven months with an adjusted production schedule to allow for proper social distancing and rapid testing (for which the resources maybe could've best been used elsewhere?) I'm also impressed that they were able to get every cast member some airtime as small as it was (except for poor sweet Melissa who must have had a big showcase in whatever was cut for time that the band shot was used to fill in for). Still, nice to see Ego and Chloe are on their way to dominating the show at least. Anyway, there's a lot more to get to so let's just break it down, shall we?
Presidential Debate - Well, it's strangely comforting that SNL could just stick to giving us pretty much the EXACT Presidential Debate sketch I was expecting in spite of every little thing that happened between Tuesday and tonight. I know some people didn't want to see this open with a title card, but I guess that was a necessary evil, huh? Beck did well with the Chris Wallace impression (yeah, like they actually gonna fly Tom Hanks out just for this) and they focused on the real Wallace's ineptitude as moderator just the right amount. Baldwin was certainly...there...as expected...to exaggerate the real Trump's tendency to talk over people. He seemed to give a stronger performance than he usually does. Maybe it was Drezens' influence on the writing or Baldwin getting through this month by imagining himself literally anywhere else or maybe it's just me. After all, I have said in the past that "debate Trump" is the only Trump Baldwin comes close to being able to accurately portray and that still very much holds true four years later (although I wish we hadn't even had to consider that as a remote possibility let alone see this play out in real life). Carreys' take on Biden was the exact thing I was picturing in my mind as soon as I heard their names together in an interview with Lorne. He gave us a technically accurate Darrell Hammond style vocal impression with just a very small, comparatively restrained dash of his own Carrey style rubber face mugging. They came up with a creative way no one else thought of to work Maya's Kamala in there (and thankfully give us just the first of three very brief verbal throwaway W.A.P in passing). Speaking of things no one else might have thought of, I do like how they green screened Harry Styles and Cecily Strong in there. Good to see them make good on THAT promise and also give us the portrayal of Kimberly Guilfoyle by Cecily we've been waiting for. I was thinking about how they might have to have this one mirror either the cold opens from either the 2016 episodes hosted by Lin-Manuel Miranda (a debate is interrupted by a news flash of the weekend's biggest surprise story) Benedict Cumberbatch (scene performers mercifully break character to address the audience with a message of sincere hope that the divisiveness in America will end with the election) or the one from Daniel Craig's 2012 episode (focusing on the Democratic candidate's inner monologue as the Republican just shouts over everyone). Thankfully, they went with the latter two mixed together rather than the first former which would've been very awkward to work around. I liked that Carrey tried to end the sketch on a cathartic vibe and address the cruel irony/poetic justice of Trump's current situation as tactfully and gracefully as he could (because they way Baldwin tried to do it felt much too forced for me). Again, I appreciate what they were going for but it still felt slightly off to me in its approach. That and the slight miscues throughout the sketch throwing the timing off were really the only things I could take off points for. Actually, speaking of miscues...they seem to have put up the dress version of this debate sketch up on YouTube. I could tell because there seemed to be a lot of noticeable alternate takes and both Baldwin and Carrey (especially) have long stretches of dialogue that were completely edited out for air. Look, I know that if you're reading this, it's even money that you're one of the ten or so people that is in the same SNL Discord server and/or Twitter group chat that I regularly chat with and I know you likely hated watching this debate sketch the first time around. However, I hope you decide to give the YouTube version a look if you want to see a much smoother, slightly more focused and competently directed version looks like. C+
New Montage - As much as I thought this was a strange time for SNL to film an entire new intro, I really like the heavy 1979/80 vibes this gives off and I can see how stop motion was the best, safest way to go here. I do wonder why some cast members wore masks and some didn't but I'm guessing they did it this way so that the "masked cast" shots can be more easily replaced next season if the pandemic finally ends (god willing). The thing that really stood out to me was how Cecily's new shot seemed to show her getting off an 8H elevator despite the announcement that she would be in Vancouver working on her new show so I'm just left wondering how they pulled that off timing and travel wise. I have to hand it to Jost for getting the funniest shot in both COVID-19 era SNL intros.
Monologue - As odd as it is seeing Chris Rock holding a mask in his hand rather than a mic, I enjoyed seeing him continue the cathartic vibe that Carrey had just started by explaining just how screwed up our whole governmental system is. A lot of these seem to be common complaints from Twitter but a lot of people can surely relate (although I'm sure that Chris Farley joke might rub some people the wrong way). Also, it was nice to see them save all the floor seats for masked first responders. That was at least a smart move on the show's part if a cast or band member suddenly gets sick on air but I'm still left wondering what they're gonna do about audience members in the balcony if the same happens to them? B-
Action News Pittsburgh - Even though this is a blatant season 44 Day/Seidell retread, I liked the first one well enough that I welcomed its' return. Still, I can't say that this one being just a bit raunchier than the first one for sure makes it better than the first one. I will say that Ego and Rock pretty much stole this from the get go (although Rock stumbled pretty badly early on and the name "Moe Lestin Jr" DEFINITELY isn't going to sit right with some). Some assists from Beck, Heidi, Lauren and Kenan didn't hurt either. Frankly, I'm stunned they could even say "Mike Litt" once I'm the air let alone nearly run it into the ground but I totally get Lorne wanting to give us another Reese Witherspoon "fucking freezing my balls off"/Ferrells' patriotic short shorts/Sam Jackson's Schrodingers' "bullshit" type moment as a brief distraction right now. B-
Bottom Of Yo Face - This is a pretty creative premise for something rapped (pardon the expression) in what might be Petes' most tired crutch (as much fun as Chris and Kenan make these seem). It's a strange feeling to realize that it took a global pandemic for me too feel like I hadn't gotten sick of Pete, Chris and Kenan producing their own rap videos after being deluded with them two seasons ago but this forced them to think outside the box (even if I kind of have to suspend my disbelief at someone actually dating a new masked person during a pandemic). I liked how they worked in Ego and Megan Thee Stallion to keep this feeling a bit more fresh and how tgey got Rock to perform an homage to his own "No Sex In The Champagne Room" video. B-
My Mom Married Kenan Thompson - I'm really grateful to Beck & Kyle for being able to give us something this silly completely off the cuff. I may be biased as not just a suckered for pointless October 2000 nostaliga (although I'm thinking maybe Eliza Dushku and Spy Kids may be either too obscure or nonexistent references even back then) but one of Kyle's few admitted fans in the general online SNL Fandom but I enjoyed what he was giving us even though I admit Kyle wasn't exactly indulging in his best tendencies as a performer here. It did seem like it dragged just a tad and belabored its' point a little but it's actual length didn't hurt it and they included just enough small twists for my liking. C+
The Drew Barrymore Show - This is another thing many of us were predicting the show would give us that's actually welcome to see. Chloe really nails all her impressions with some solid assists from Alex, Kenan and Beck. B-
Update was fairly strong. Jost & Che actually struck a decent balance between addressing Trumps' COVID-19 diagnosis appropriately while also addressing the elephant (pardon the expression) in the room. I was a little surprised to see Bowen make a live appearance after hearing he might be missing some early shows. Still, while I enjoyed seeing Chen Biao again it's starting to suffer from diminishing returns and feel too formulaic (especially after this character's occupation has been changed from "trade daddy" to "medical official" and then quickly back to "trade daddy" again) and Aidy's Carrie Krum continues to wash right over me. I wasn't even sure "if" let alone "how" they would mention RBGs' passing since it felt like several weeks ago (in spite of how many weeks ago it actually was) but I suppose it meant a lot to Kate to giver her as much closure as she got to give to Hillary. B+
NBA Bubble Draft - This sketch seemed a little unfocused to me. It had Che's conceptually muddled style of writing all over it. The only things I really liked about it were how they worked Ego, Chloe, Lauren, Aidy, (boy, it's a good thing that they put those two on one right after the other because I imagine the only thing that could possibly confuse the fuck out of peoole even less would be to have them onscreen right next to each other at the same time) Maya, Punkie, Heidi and Megan into this. I also liked Alex's performance as NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Alfred E. Neuman jug ears and all. The rest of this felt like something you'd have to follow basketball really closely to get. C+
Stunt Performers Of America - I feel like I've seen the real life video this was based on in my Twitter feed a lifetime ago which really gave this a "cut from the 'At Home' shows but not put online for whatever reason" feel even though this had to have been something they pretaped in the lead up to the season as Kate and Aidy were neither "at home" nor "socially distanced". Discuss. I wasn't crazy about the way this suddenly turned into another Kate and Aidy two hander out of nowhere (in fact, it reminded me a lot of the athletic wear pretape they did for the late Chadwick Bosemans' episode) but at least Chris, Mikey and Ego were there to keep things a little more varied. I did like the dog/octopus hat anecdotes, though. C-
Well, that was certainly refreshing.. Next week, notable Boston comic Bill Burr makes his SNL hosting debut. He's someone who's standup I could go either way on now but I liked him quite a bit more in the past than I do now but then again I haven't seen much of him despite his career being on the rise. Thankfully, he's not so much a full on MAGA Trump guy as much as he's just always been a cranky, anti-PC, get off my lawn/old man yells at cloud guy but more self aware. In fact, the last time he even acknowledged SNL was on David Spade's now cancelled Comedy Central show "Lights Out" during the whole Shane Gillis fiasco and that was just to castigate what he viewed as overly sensitive PC snowflake millenials for going through several years of people's tweets just to find something offensive enough to get them fired (despite the fact that someone just found a clip of him from just ONE year ago using slurs against Asians after the announcement that he got hired along with this show's first east Asian cast member ever and they almost mutually decided to part ways so the show could keep working in a stable environment with the guy they already spent a year getting to know and love). Anyway, so to veer off topic there but my point is Burrs' style of standup may just drastically clash with modern day SNL but I like him just fine and certainly hold nothing against him. Other standups working on SNL seem to like him and have made him out to be a great guy both on and off stage. He certainly must have a strong bond with Pete since they're both east coast based standups who did a movie together recently so this must be two different kinds of favors at once. Hope Bill gives us a great show! I'm rooting for him and SNL and I'll certainly be tuning in! See you then!
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