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’ 46th 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+
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/
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.
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