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…
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/
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!
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