Kristen Wiig/Dua Lipa (12.19.20)

 Okay, here’s my review. I didn’t expect to enjoy a Kristen Wiig hosted episode as much as I did (especially since the did the exact same recurring characters that she did the last time she hosted an episode live in studio four years ago) but there were plenty of signs in this episode that SNL would make the right changes for the better in the coming year. I guess writing the whole show in a way that makes it feel like a throwback to an era when Kristen Wiig was on the show much more frequently may have felt necessary to balance things out for fans who were complacent about SNLs’ more troubling habits of recent years and didn’t care to see SNL finally utilize its’ current cast they way they should and gradually rely less on outside cameos. Speaking of which, this episode made possibly the best use of Andrew and Lauren yet at this point. Punkie still may have to establish herself in some ways, but still the show is making progress. Seems like the only cast members who were completely shut out of the show were the ones who weren’t even in the building. Aidy is still filming “Shrill” and Cecily was nowhere to be seen (wherever she is I hope she’s doing well). Kate popped up early in the show and seemingly disappeared. I guess since nobody even dropped any hints that this COULD be their last show everyone’s still gonna be here until the end of this season at least. Kate may return for the last few shows in April/May after she finishes her shoot in New Zealand? Anyway, let’s break it down, shall we? 

Pence Takes The Shot - Well, anyway you look at it this cold open was a good sign for SNL in the years to come. In fact, this barely even felt like a typical Trump era cold open (or something that would be a cold open in any era) until Maya showed up. Even her cameo is warranted tonight for non-Kamala related reasons given her history with tonights’ host. Speaking of warranted (and unwarranted) cameos, Carrey’s announcement that he would be stepping down from the role of President Elect Joe Biden was perhaps the thing that intrigued me the most about tonight’s episode. I wasn’t sure we would even get to see a new take on Biden as soon as tonight (I had heard a rumor that Carrey was asked to come back this week but declined and this sketch seemed like it could have been written with him in mind) as I’m sure even they weren’t sure how far ahead they could plan right now. Much like the rest of you, I’m very pleased to see that they chose to give the role to Alex Moffat. It’s about time SNL started using their established cast for prominent roles like this and Moffat has certainly been on the show long enough and put in enough work that he’s earned this. His Biden impression may not seem like much at first, but he definitely seems more solid and grounded than Carrey’s so far. Still, he may need some extra time to develop his impression seeing as this may have been the first time she show has had to put their “Biden Plan B” into action. Bennett may have turned in his strongest performance yet as Pence (getting past all the “closeted homophobe” jokes of course). Maybe he relished finally getting to drop this role as much as Baldwin did his? Good to see Kenan return as Dr. Ben Carson as well. Also, rewatching on YouTube it’s nice to see this one clocked in at just under seven minutes. Honestly, the only real negative thing I can say about this cold open was that Kates’ Rudy felt too tacked on unnecessarily. A-

Monologue - Given that all of this season's previous monologues were all solo, host-only-on-stage affairs and that Kristen's two previous ones were sprawling musical affairs involving the entire cast, I was genuinely curious how they'd pull this one off. Then again, Pete and Timothee broke the streak of cast members staying off stage for the monologue and Kristen's Thanksgiving '16 monologue stayed on stage so this could've gone either way. Appropriately, we ended up getting Kristen's lowest key monologue with only Maya and Kate joining her on stage. Unfortunately, this didn't quite go anywhere but it was fine. I enjoyed it enough for what it was. Typical low level randomness we've come to expect from non-character Wiig pieces. C-

Secret Word X - Well, the best things about this sketch were seeing Kenan reprise his Grant Choad character (apparently as an impersonation of Haders' game show host character from these) and seeing Kate play another ennui riddled European woman. Besides that and the "(t)Rimming The Tree" and "mumbai/dad bye" jokes, there wasn't much to this beyond the usual Secret Word shtick/formula. Still, I liked this more than some of the earlier Secret Words we saw from Wiigs’ peak overuse era on the show simply because this is one of the ones that felt much sharper and tighter than usual. Also, Kenans’ appearance here really cemented in my mind that he and Chris were able to make it back from their shoot as early as possible in the week. C-

Christmas Morning - At first this felt like a throwback to any unspecified 1990-2019 time period (until Kyle mentioned Cameo). Then, Kristen got her first of several "robe" lines out and it became more and more clear that this was written in a similar vein to the Fifty Shades Of Grey Mothers' Day ad from Wiigs' third to last episode as a cast member. Other than that, it just felt like a pile of “underappreciated mom/put upon wife” jokes that we’ve seen before in comedy more in places other than SNL. I wanted to like it a bit more but it seemed a little too derivative to me. Beck, Kyle and Chloes’ energy were the only thing really saving it for me. C+

Christmas Eve 1944 – Once I figured out what this actually was (and that it wasn’t Wiig reprising her “don’t make me sing” character) I could actually enjoy it for what it was. The song was fun enough to make up for how telegraphed everything else about this sketch felt. I guess I maybe shouldn’t have expected all the other male characters in the sketch to react in shock or confused horror rather than try to follow along with the songs’ genuine storyline as if it were a soap opera. Also, I know a lot of you confused Dua Lipa for Gal Gadot when she first made her cameo (understandable since she and Wiig are costars in the movie Wiigs’ plugging) but the thing about that is that I’ve heard just enough of Dua Lipas’ music that I could tell the song was supposed to be a loving parody of her work so I was expecting her to show up any second. As soon as Bowen and Kristen started their duet, this started to feel like every Deep House Dish sketch ever written beamed back in time to WWII (and for some reason they sent along the Mall Santa Elves sketch from last years’ ScarJo ep, the cut for time Oregon Trail sketch from Brie Larsons’ 2016 episode and the all but forgotten USO sketch from J.Los’ first episode in 2001 for good measure). Frankly, I’m a little surprised that Fran Gillespie and Wil Stephen wrote this one and that Bowen, Mikey and James Anderson had no hand in writing this. It does pretty much scream Andersons’ style (or Bowen trying to emulate him as he was a big influence on him) because it prominently features Bowen singing with Mikey reacting to it. Maybe everyone at the show has gotten used to that being one of Mikey’s go to comedy tricks that everyone feels they can just drag and drop him doing that into any sketch? B+

A Teacher - Well, it was a nice twist that this was an Ego/Andrew two hander instead of another Wiig piece. It was a nicer twist that Ego's character was an actual responsible teacher who was there solely to unravel the premise of the show they were parodying. It was like an totally inverted version of one of Pete's Chad sketches. It also felt like a throwback to one of the "prestige/peak TV" parodies the show would do in seasons 38 and 39 (see "Homeland", "Scandal"). Even though she was the host, I feel like we could've done without Wiigs' whole character entirely. It kinda derailed the momentum this sketch had. B-

Home Alone 2 Lost Ending - Well, the biggest twist of the night might have actually been this not being another "lost screen tests" impression parades OR referencing Trump's cameo in this movie in any way. The second biggest twist may have been Melissa getting more than two lines in a live sketch let alone doing an impression without really doing an impression the way she normally does. Still, this may be the second or third most focus she's had in a sketch she's had all year (which is to be expected since she's sharing the scene with Wiig). I liked this overall. It felt like a throwback to the type of throwback pop culture sketches we'd get in season 35 (during Wiigs' era peak use on the show incidentally) which looking back were the least of the show's problems during that era. I did like Kyle and Mikey's walk on as the wet bandits (man, they really made good use of Kyle's unexpected Joe Pesci impression this year, didn't they?) but I really think their murder scene should've been better executed. Honestly, the biggest twist of the entire show for me might be finding out that John Mulaney WASN'T involved in writing this! He should be in the building regularly being one of Seths’ staff writers after all. I’d like to think this actually WAS an old, unused script of his but I can’t think of who else might have been around a decade or so ago to play the Kevin McAllister part. C+

Update was a pleasant way to close out the year. Josts' "closing time" montage was a fitting way to send off the Trump presidency. Even though SNL has yet to announce when they are returning in 2021, Jost kinda gave it away with his line that this would be the last Update of his presidency. They kinda hit a lull between the McConnell/Vaccine Powerball jokes but they they quickly gained some steam. Nice to see Chris Redd also came back to the show this week (and that he and Kyle Mooney are the only cast members that can make just a string of rapid fire malapropisms entertaining). As much as Kenan has grown on all of us during his SNL tenure, his "Willie" character is still mostly white noise to me. Heidi's character at first seemed less "new" than she seemed like just Baskin Johns and Brie Bacardi dropped into a blender. As it went on, it became apparent that a dash of Kate's Laura Ingraham was thrown in there for good measure. I appreciated what she was going for but I'm not sure who still needs the concept of "Instagram Influencer" explained to them for the purposes of parody. Of course, it wouldn't be a Christmas show Update without Jost and Che doing their typical joke exchange to close it out. This one felt a little lower key than the last one but it still worked and they ended it on the exact right joke. B-

How The Grinch Made December 26th Extremely Awkward - This does function as a nice companion piece to the Cat In The Hat ten-to-one from the first episode Bill Hader hosted early in season 40. Plus, if you're familiar at all with his standup, the material seemed well within Pete's wheelhouse (suddenly I see why this was his first appearance of the whole show). Otherwise, this kinda washed right over me. Mikey and Kyle tried to give Pete an assist with this but it just wasn't working for me. D+

Surprise Sue VI - Well, this was the character that, to me at least, marked Kristen's gradual downhill slide. I liked this one better than the other ones I've seen. It felt a little more tightened up and focused but it was still really just a lot more of the same. Other than that, the best I can say is that it made good use of this season's newer and least used cast members. C-

Now, for my updated rankings for this season…

1. Timothee Chalamet/Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (12.12.2020)
2. Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)
3. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
4. Kristen Wiig/Dua Lipa (12.19.2020)
5. Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)
6. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
7. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
8. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
9. Bill Burr/Morgan Wallen Jack White (10.10.20) 

Well, that was a pleasant way for SNL to close out such a hectic year. Now, the show didn’t announce when they would be coming back but Jost seemed to all but confirm that they will be back on January 23rd (the first Saturday AFTER Joe Biden is sworn in as president). I suppose they may be scrambling for a host and musical guest or just waiting to see if New York is going to have to completely shut down again. Whatever happens I hope this cast and crew stays safe and well into the new year whenever we end up getting to see more of the show. Happy Holidays!

Timothee Chalamet/Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (12.12.20)

Okay, here’s my review. This turned show turned out to be the biggest surprise of the season for me and trust me when I say the surprise was more than pleasant. This turned out to be the best episode of the season for me as the show was able to maintain a fun and enjoyable quality throughout the most consistently of any show this season. Timothee Chalamet turned out to be a very confident and game host who bought out the best in each of his fellow performers. It’s clear he was great to work with all week and the show was able to play to his (and everyones’) strengths. Everyone in the cast who was in the building this week got some screentime this week (Kenan, Chris and Aidy are still absent filming their respective new shows and Mikey only seemed to be in a pretape this week but everyone really pulled their weight this week to make their absences barely even noticeable) with Beck and Heidi really being the only performers who seemed to dominate in terms of sheer airtime. This seasons’ new featured players are starting to really make their presences known. One thing I did hear about Timothee Chalamet beforehand is that he has one of those bizarrely dedicated “stan” followings on Twitter. BTS was the last act who appeared on the show with that kind of following and thankfully Timothees’ “Stans” didn’t trash the show on the way out or contribute to a weirdly dead atmosphere at all. They were very respectful as far as I saw. There may have been the odd strangely silent moments here and there but Timothee didn’t have anything to do with those. Anyway, let’s just break it down, shall we?

The Situation Room – Well, Kate McKinnon as Alfred E. Neuman as Dr. Anthony Fauci is something I honestly should’ve seen coming (I mean, it’s just the middle ground between her Rudy Guiliani and her Robert Durst from season 40) but Chloe Fineman almost did Dr. Deborah Birx on one of the At Home shows but it got cut so…I don’t know why they went with Heidi over her, but still Heidi did just fine with it as did Beck with his Wolf Blitzer. Even though this seemed incredibly lazily written with no standout jokes and everyone seemed like they were literally sleepwalking through this, I’m glad they’re still steadily moving away from overly long, cameo heavy white house themed cold opens. C-

Monologue – Now, THIS was what was really gonna set the tone for this episode. Nice to see Timothee reference come out with high energy and reference the fact that his mom was an extra in “Massive Headwound Harry”. Honestly, he could’ve just left his entire monologue there and I would’ve been happy but he suddenly decided to walk over to a piano and do what Harry Styles did a year ago (but better and again, with much higher energy but whoever I saw online who made the Styles/Chamalet comparison was dead on so far so…congratulations). These jokes worked well for me even though I can’t really pick out a favorite. With or without the brief assist from Pete (with whom he seems like he’s becoming fast friends) dunking on his hometown of Staten Island once again (but in a safer way that won’t earn him more ire from lockdown protestors this time), Timothee did do a great job of establishing himself as an easily likeable host (and even got a head start on displaying some chemistry with this cast). A-

A Rona Family Christmas – Well, it’s good that this is making use of this casts’ underused featured players (despite rendering them almost unrecognizable and nearly implying incest between Lauren and Andrew) but this just left me in stunned silence until Bowen and Chloe (and even Melissa) entered with a quick, solid cheap laugh and then Timothee showed up with the best lines and performances in this sketch and established some actual conflict with him as the centerpiece of it all. From there, it was apparent that there was actually one of the more subtly “heavy concept” sketches SNL has tried to do in a while. It also served this sketch well that it had such theatrical drama to cover up how pun heavy the script was (“Dancing With The SARS”, “Antiba”). I know this reminded a lot of people of season 7 but it felt a little too sharp and focused to be season 7 and it didn’t really lean into the dark griminess of itself the way most early period Ebersol era SNL would do. Despite literally humanizing a still raging global pandemic, this had too much of modern SNLs overly sanitized feel to truly be comparable to season 7. Besides, the “Herpes Gone Bananas” sketch that everyones’ thinking of was actually in season 8. B+

Lexus December To Remember – As much as this felt like a collection of tropes that SNL either has done or probably should’ve done several years ago (parodying those dopey “last minute stocking stuffer” car ads, Heidi as a long suffering spouse, Beck being the butt of the joke for his sheer idiocy, Mikey incredulously commenting on everything around him/displaying a strong rapport with Heidi) this was also much better than it had any right to be due to the premise being carried by very strong performances. B-

Dionne Warwick Talk Show – Speaking of years old SNL tropes we all though were long dead, this was a pleasant surprise. As much as the “celebrity unexpectedly hosts their own talk show” trope seems way played out, this might have been the exact thing Ego needed to secure her legacy on the show at this point in his SNL tenure. I’m sure Punkie, Andrew and Lauren needed this just as much (if not more) than she did but hey…baby steps. I’m sure they’re grateful for the screen time they were given here. Even though these usually tended to be recurring (I could’ve sworn something looked very familiar about the set they used and then I realized that there’s a good possibility that they literally just reused the same set from the old Miley Cyrus show sketches) this seemed like a one off due to how it was packed with other rapid fire, minimal dialogue impressions from the cast. Chalamet as Harry Styles seems like something I should’ve expected (it certainly did seem like the continuation of a theme tonight) but it worked despite its’ flaws. I mean, he nailed Styles’ regular speaking voice but his look as styles didn’t seem all that on point for me. Still, I appreciate him giving him a version of Harry Styles on SNL that was much more energetic and much less checked out than the real one was last year. Nice to see Melissas’ Billie Eillish finally made it on the air. It works in a sketch like this but it’s functionally the opposite of Chalamets’ Styles impression to me. Her look as Billie is slightly more accurate than the non singing voice (not that it’s inaccurate, it just sounded too “undistinctly Melissa” to me. I can definitely see what she’s going for but maybe it’s just that I’ve heard Billie Eillish singing more than I’ve heard her being interviewed. Chloes’ Chalamet impression still works but seeing he rfollow the real thing really does hammer home the point that Chloe is more an over-the-top cartoonish Carvey style impressionist who exaggerates her subjects foibles than a technical/pinpoint accurate Hammond style impressionist whose subjects sink or swim on the writing they are given. Seeing Timothees’ monologue and various other performances tonight only lets you see shades of what the basis of Chloes’ character was (but she was obviously basing her impression on a younger, much less mature and polished version of Chalamet). Pete as MGK seemed to be more of an inside joke or fan service (Pete’s fans specifically more than fans of the show) but it was a perfect note to end the sketch on as at that moment I was wondering just how many more damn impressions they could cram into this thing. B+

The Farm – OK, this left me just in silence at first but the “stunned” part came later. This gave me huge [adult swim] vibes in a good way. I started laughing at the long tearful goodbye between Timothee and his tiny horse and kept going all throughout the montage that started with the horse being named “secretary of horse affairs” and marrying Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Some say the Rona Family gave them huge Dick Ebersol season 7/8 era vibres but this honestly gave me bigger Ebersol era vibes as the stop motion (nice to see stop motion on SNL again, by the way) reminded me a lot of the Fracas/Jay Clay short that aired in the Bill Murray and Bruce Dern episodes of season 7. Also, nice of them to sneak un unexpected Fallon cameo in there as well as some unexpected singing talents I didn’t know he had (mainly because I wasn’t sure he ever showcased them anywhere). B+

Update started to bring the show so far to a slow stop. Jost and Ches’ jokes were a mix of white noise and a few decent punchlines here and there for me. Dr. Wenodis (speaking of things that that seemed like they should’ve been a one off) is something I don’t think we needed to see again but I did like her line “we blow dis” and her singing “Come On Vaccine” to “Come On Eileen” and her spraying Colin with “the vaccine”. I’m glad they kept up the continuity of Kate breaking character but I was kinda hoping this time that Kate would be coping with the reality/possibility of next week being her last show (isn’t she going to New Zealand to film her new show soon). Also, I’m amazed at how quickly they fixed Josts’ lapel mic after that slight water damage that suddenly made him sound like he was Brad Hall beamed in from 1983. I’m glad they bought Melissa back out but as soon as I saw her outfit I knew this was going to be a “find: “Lady Gaga” replace with: “Dolly Parton” version of her commentary from Halseys’ double duty episode two seasons ago. Still, I really preferred this since Melissas’ Dolly Parton is solid and a lot more fun than her Lady Gaga and she mixed it up a bit by performing a medley of different Dolly covers rather than just one long Gaga cover. Plus, she bought the energy of this whole episode back up to where it was pre-Update. B-

Holiday Baking Championship – Well, this certainly didn’t warrant three installments but I was intrigued to see how they could’ve escalated the darkness in this one. As much as I was surprised to see that they could show Timothees’, um…”chocolate starfish” (and I mean that in the most literal sense of the term possible) on network television I feel like this was scaled back to the point where this entire sketch concept would’ve worked a whole lot better if this was actually the first one. C+

XXL Rap Roundtable – This definitely felt like the most original twist on one (or two) sketch premises they did in season 43. It felt like they started with the “Champions” talk show sketch and inverted it a little and mixed it with the “History of Rap” pretape from Chance The Rappers’ first host outing that same year. Even though it was a more one note variation of those sketches, it was yet another piece that the performances carried. Still, this had a lot of other things going for it. For one thing, Punkie Johnson got to debut an impression that seemed tailor made for her. It seemed like Queen Latifah was to Punkie Johnson what Whoopi Goldberg was to Leslie Jones in that “Jurassic Park Screen Tests” sketch from season 43. Questlove (who was also in the season 43 Chance The Rapper short incidentally) was also a fun cameo (especially when he just straight up slapped Pete and Timothees’ characters) and Ego was a solid “glue” holding everything together (especially with her final line of the sketch). I know people seem to think Pete was once again channeling his friend Machine Gun Kelly here but I’ve seen and heard just enough MGK to see that what he was parodying wasn’t exactly that. The only thing I would say this sketch really had going against it would be how odd it seemed for them to try to pull off two seemingly very Kenan Thompson/Chris Redd centric sketches without either of those cast members even anywhere near the building but it still worked. C+

Sportsmax – As glad as I am to see SNL finally take on the likes of OANN and Newsmax, I’m a little disappointed to see that idea applied to New York Jets football. Once again, Pete and Timothee’s performances as surrogate Guilianis’ were really the only saving grace of this with slight assists from Pete and Kyle. I mean, if it weren’t for them I may have actually had to have followed New York sports to have even enjoyed that sketch as anything but pure white noise. C+

Goodnights – Normally, I don’t really comment on these but I was pretty impressed that Timothee was able to make the most out of the show running 30 seconds short in a real live TV verité moment. Also, with both Max Weinberg and Questlove both having participated in the show we got to see both a current AND a former Tonight Show band drummer share the same stage tonight!

Now, for my updated rankings for this season…

1. Timothee Chalamet/Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (12.12.2020)
2. Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)
3. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
4. Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)
5. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
6. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
7. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
8. Bill Burr/Morgan Wallen Jack White (10.10.20) 

Well, that was the real high point this show needed. Next week, Kristen Wiig ties John Mulaneys’ record for “alum from their respective era who’s hosted the most times” and, well…that’s going to be a bit of a comedown from this show. Still, as much as I might like to see some of her former castmates join her on stage I’d still appreciate it if they continued keeping unnecessary cameos (and old recurring characters for that matter) to a minimum. See you then!

Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.2020)

Okay, here’s my review. Looking back over this show, it felt like the most uneven show of the season. Still, out of the whole December lineup they announced this may have actually been the show I was neither the most nor least excited to see. Jason Bateman proved to be a dependable host I thought he’d be and he didn’t even seem as “checked out” of the show as some thought he was during his first hosting stint back in February 2005 (even though people have said that’s a pretty low bar to clear for this or any other more recent season of this show). I honestly felt I might have been “over” him as a comedian for some time (or maybe I was just “over” Arrested Development” for a while) but I didn’t let that cloud my enjoyment of Batemans’ performances as he ended up being an enjoyable presence on the show just the same. It started out a little too reminiscent of Bill Burr’s episode (which I wasn’t crazy about) with how many blatant retreated of previous seasons’ sketch premises to be found but there were enough moments of originality throughout the show to keep me interested. The cast is pretty unevenly divided on airtime now. Cecily has returned from filming her project in Toronto and she definitely made her presence known. However, Chris and Kenan seem to have left to film their parts on the formers’ upcoming sitcom so they could only be in one pretape each this week (one of which was taped well before this week anyway). Aidy is still absent filming her own show leaving the rest of the women to take over (with Melissa and Punkie seeming to have to catch up the most). Lauren and Andrew have been getting plenty of chances to put her face out there despite getting almost no lines. Kyle, Beck, Bowen, Pete and Mikey seem to be doing well for themselves while Alex is falling well behind them. Anyway, let’s get right into it, shall we?

C-SPAN Voter Fraud Hearing Coverage – Well, this one got off to a rather weak start but it really started to pick up some steam after they got their “ticking all the points off their checklist” portion out of the way upfront. I’m glad to see they’re moving away from cameo/candidate based cold opens but I’m still not crazy about the fact that they’re still seeming to let Twitter dictate the cold opens they do write on the stuff they would’ve felt obligated to do anyway. My only complaint about Kates’ Guiliani is that they had her fart twice as much as the real Guiliani did at the actual hearing (frankly, one would’ve felt excessive to me) but other than that it just kinda washed over me and I was glad it was just peripheral to the sketch in general. It’s really nice to see Cecily back after such a long absence and casting her as the crazy blonde woman who everyone said reminded them of her anyway (even though she was just doing Girl…at a party but blonde this time which is also what those same people wanted). I did like her “threatening my kids” line at least. Still, Heidi, Beck and Alex really bought some much needed lively absurdity into this. Chloe and Lauren could always use some more airtime in general and their presences here were definitely welcome (with or without lines as the case may be) as were Kyle and Petes’ screaming Jack Flatts protestors. Mikey and Ego were solid anchors. It’s at least nice to see they’re starting to build that bridge into the post-Trump era of SNL cold opens (political or otherwise). C+

Monologue – Bateman got the show off to a better start. He’s definitely the right host to bring SNLs’ 46^th season into the “post stand up” era of solo host monologues. I never doubted that his established comedic chops and general likability as an actor would help him carry another of this seasons Covid-mandated solo monologues. It’s not ideal that any SNL host should have that close a call with a live chimp but at least it serves the show well in a weird way that that host was Jason Bateman since he’s one of the shows’ few comedic hosts who could pull off an endearing future monologue about that. Whatever you think about that infamous “Monkeys Throwing Poop At Celebrities” sketch, you gotta admit the fact that it would one day inspire a future monologue when Bateman would come back to host a second time (and even make his “Carlin line” seem fun) may at least be enough to make airing the sketch itself worth it. B-

Another Sleepover – I could immediately tell this was going one of two ways but once Bateman adopted a somber, fatherly Michael Bluth tone I thought “okay, we’re done here”. As much as I would’ve liked to have seen Aidy’s extremely horny teen who previously lusted over Ryan Gosling and Drake, I do appreciate that they changed it from an overflowing toilet to “soapy suds and scissors to cover a period stain” but Kate is pretty much playing the same basic “heavy flow” character. It’s not setting a great tone for this episode that the opening sketch is such a blatant retread. Come to think of it, this is also similar to how the Bill Burr episode started off too. I guess there’s really no way Morgan Wallen couldn’t have been a bad omen for the show even being barred from the building, is there? C+

Stu Writes Santa – I probably liked this more than I wanted to. I appreciate the idea of a “Stan” parody but I wish SNL had done this before the age when Twitter thrust “Stan” as both a verb AND a noun into our popular lexicon and then really started meme-ing it to death because then it would have much less of a “down the beaten path” feel to it. Thankfully, it was tailor made for Pete’s specialties as a performer so he was easily able to carry it. The sheer sight of Bowen Yang of all people as Elton John also helped push this over the finish line for me as it felt like the least rote, telegraphed part of this. Still, the only thing this really had going against it was the PS5 references since it immediately reminds me of the Tony Hawk graphics sketch from Rocks’ episode when paired with the 2000 nostalgia and clues you in to exactly who might have written this. Also, I thought the ending with Santa and the elves (Bateman doesn’t seem exactly right for the role of Santa to me either) felt a little anticlimactic. Eminem was a good sport for this but his cameo I could take or leave. B-

Live Music – This started out feeling like James Anderson did a rewrite of that cut open mic night sketch from last years’ Kristen Stewart episode. Once Cecily entered, it just started feeling like Anderson just did a rewrite of every other sketch he’s ever written and less and less like just a lower energy version of the Jingle Bells sketch she did with Matt Damon two years ago. Hell, I’m willing to be good money this is a cut Maya & Kenan sketch from the last time Jason Bateman hosted with Jason in the exact same role and some obligatory Covid precaution references thrown in for good measure. Then again, it’s evident James Anderson may have had nothing to do with this since his name was not in the credits so either Kent Sublette could’ve submitted an old season 30 script they worked on together or Bowen decide to just write a James Anderson/Kent Sublette pastiche of his own. Well, at least Bowen and Cecily seem happy to work with someone whom they admire and respect again (even if Cecily seem to just play her character as Pirro and Garland thrown in a blender with maybe a dash of Carol Channing thrown in for good measure). Bowen and Batemans’ performances were a highlight. Beck had a line I wanted to like but didn’t end up caring much for. Plus, this answers my question of how early in the week Cecily was able to make it back in from Toronto (early enough to be written into an actual sketch apparently). I thought if the only got back by Thursday or so her presence might be more of a “Pete in David Harbor and Eddie Murphy’s episodes” situation where the showed up late enough in the week that they could only be in Update and the cold open and/or monologue. C-

The Christmas Conversations – Well…ignoring how this hits a little too close to home to me write now I appreciate how they wrote something to give this seasons’ new women a chance to establish themselves (especially Lauren and Chloe outside of her impression template) with some assists from Kenan, Bateman and the more-established-but-with-both-feet-as-far-as-possible-from-the-door women. Good to see that Kenan could zoom in a cameo from his set. C+

Alabama College Party – Overall, I appreciate what SNL was aiming for with this, but I ended up liking the idea of the sketch more than the actual execution. Morgan himself was a little stiff, but was he was a good sport to be in this. I did like how they solidly justified Batemans’ presence as “future” Morgan but Bowen and Petes’ characters seemed a little too needlessly tacked on (even though watching them grapple with their own Southern accents were worth a few unintentional chuckles). Also, it got a little too needlessly “inside baseball” even for a hardcore SNL nerd like myself. It feels like they put too much emphasis on writing fun “wink wink” type meta moments rather than subtle well crafted ones. It felt a little too long, too. It could’ve used some editing. It was like they overshot writing an ending when they didn’t realize how close they actually were too one. C+

Update got off to a strange start. Josts’ opening Trump/conspiracy/Help ramble seemed to muddled that Che could’ve written it but they got back on track quickly from there. The rest of their political catch up joke were solid (until they got to the Guiliani stuff). The rest of their jokes were pretty hit or miss for me. A lot of people seemed to really thought Josts’ Hamilton joke was slept on but I don’t think he had enough fun with the delivery on that one. Ches’ Chinese beads and 102-year-old woman jokes worked better for me, though. As soon as Colin said “Staten Island” I knew exactly who was gonna come out. I liked this okay. I wanted to like this more but it felt too much like Pete trying to recapture the lightning he caught in a bottle back in Chance The Rappers’ first host outing three years ago. I liked his reference to his upcoming “It’s A Wonderful Life” livestream/table read but it’s not a good sign when the best joke he had was the Godfather/Post Malone joke that set up. Again, I could tell exactly what Che was setting up when he said the words “movie theaters” but I appreciate how Heidi broke from her usual Baily Gismert formula by reviewing older movies in lieu of new ones that would’ve been in theaters. Plus, she injected the type of meta SNL verité humor that actually worked well for me. B-

Santa’s Village – I think iPad elf Kyle might have set expectations a little high for this one. I wanted to like this more for the physical comedy but it seemed pretty forced and one note. I wanted to like the character work Cecily and Bateman added to it as well but that didn’t add much for me either until Mikey and Melissa tried to get their picture with them anyway. Plus, it wasn’t a great sign for this episode that they had Bateman playing Santa in both a pretape and a live sketch. This ended up having lower energy than a bit this heavy on physical comedy really called for. D+

Brian Kills The Bit – It’s good that they decided to end this with lowkey offbeat semi-slice-of-life Kyle centric pretape that at least went back to Rob Morrows’ 1992 for some subtle inspiration and built its own original concept from there. The only thing I really didn’t like about this was how it reminded me of how Chris has practically been absent this entire episode. I heard this was cut from Chappelles’ episode last month which I immediately had a feeling about since Bateman was nowhere to be seen in this and this would’ve fit in perfectly with the lowkey hostless vibe of Chappelles’ episode. B+

Now, for my updated rankings of this season so far…

1. Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)
2. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
3. Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)
4. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
5. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
6. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
7. Bill Burr/Morgan Wallen Jack White (10.10.20)

Well, that was certainly one way for SNL to come back from an extended but well-earned break. Next week, Timothee Chalamet makes his hosting debut. Now, this kid seems like the first real wild card host of the season to me as I have no image of him as anything other than “young new hot shot actor”. He seems to have been the new “it boy” these past couple of years with a BTS like level of Twitter fandom and the only two movies I can think of him having been in (“Call Me By Your Name” and “Little Women”) I haven’t seen yet. Hell, I haven’t even seen any interviews with him so I literally have no idea what he could really bring to the show or even be like for this cast to work with. It would certainly be interesting to see but I just hope he’s not another Beiber-type host and really treats them well (especially Chloe). See you then.