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.

Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)

Okay, here's my review. This show is certain to age better than Chappelle's previous post-election episode of SNL did as it felt much less "of the moment" as a whole, but this one was WAY more uneven. This is most likely due to this being their sixth consecutive show in a row taking place on the week of an election where the results were dragged out for four whole days after words. Chappelle only making his presence known in his monologue and no more than two additional sketches also contributed to that feeling. This is understandable when you consider he was literally flying back and forth between New York and Atlanta throughout the week doing standup shows (and presumably working on his monologue in the process). I can understand why this felt like an early period Ebersol era episode as that period made the least use of its hosts possible. At times, it felt like Chappelle may have been working on a whole new show of his own that was an entirely different show than what the regular SNL staff was putting together. I say this because the sheer pacing of this episode was the thing that screamed "burnout" the most to me (they pretty much just gave Chappelle free reign for his monologue and went for small amounts of long segments) but hey, I applaud SNL for managing to put on six consecutive shows in the middle of a pandemic as safely as possible. Speaking of which, it seemed to be a good night for everyone cast-wise except for Chris Redd, the new featured players (even Punkie shockingly) and the two women who were absent due to conflicting shooting schedules. Anyway, let's break it down, shall we?

CNN Election Results Continuation 2020 - Beck had plenty of good lines as Wolf Blitzer. I'd like to think he would've made a better John King if they didn't need him in the Wolf Blitzer role but I did like Alexs' hand prosthetics as John King. With the way this elections been dragged out, it's pretty much impossible to tell exactly how much of this cold open (if any) was rewritten since this morning. I'd like to think SNL learned their lesson on smugness from season 42 (around the last time Chappelle hosted, incidentally) but considering the election was literally called the morning of this show they may not have had the time to think much about that if it just dawned on them this week. That's good because it didn't look like the results of THIS election were going to backfire and bite them in the ass nearly as hard as 2016 did. Speaking of which, Carrey’s Biden still needs some serious work if they're actually going to stick with him for even the rest of this year let alone the next four but for all the unnecessary Carrey-isms he sneaks into his Biden, this was the only time a little Ace Ventura fan service felt appropriate. Maya did fine even though most of her lines seemed designed to milk as much applause from the audience as possible. Her wardrobe and the set dressing are the only things that even vaguely suggest they saw any of the victory speech but the fact that it aired live at a time when their own dress rehearsal was scheduled to be in progress says to me that they may have YouTubed it while waiting for the game to end. Baldwin's portion seems like it could've been written at any point in the week but I have to hand it to them because having his Trump sing "Hallelujah But It's Actually Just Macho Man" at the piano may have been the only genuinely funny thing they've done with the character. It was a fitting (hopefully) final performance for him but it certainly doesn't excuse him for holding up that sign at the goodnights saying "you're welcome." It's just too bad Chloe only got to debut her Kayleigh McEnenay (sp?) impression on the air at the literal last moment of its relevancy. Overall, the writing of this had enough of an "all-purpose" feeling to it to suggest there wasn't a massive overhaul of what they had planned. B-

Monologue - Well, I honestly didn't expect this Chappelle set to feel more somber than the one he did four years ago at the START of the Trump era but I can kinda see why they let him ramble on for approximately 28 minutes at the top of their sixth consecutive show. There's no way the writers' didn't hit their wall this week. It looks like the only people this may offend are  racist whites and some women and gay men (at the pay gap/Freddie Mercury lines). I appreciated him telling us about his great grandfather even though it was such a long walk to that "bought and sold" punchline it got the monologue off to a weird start. I did like the "lock up the murderous whites" comments as well as the "farmers only/did I say it or you?/wear your Klan hood as a mask at Walmart" comments. He bought up a good point with the Reagan/stimulus comparisons but he started to lose focus a bit at that point (especially since he veered toward some just OK Trump/Covid/Christie material that seemed to be a jumping off point to some mild shock laughs and then came back to it at the end). The "black niceness conspiracy" seemed like something he could've cut altogether if he didn't need it to transition into the "lessons" callback as his conclusions. All in all, I liked this monologue but it felt far too uneven in a way that I was not expecting. C+

Black Mascots - This was genuinely funny but it had its issues. It felt a little long and sloppy but again, hey...sixth show in a row. This also felt a little dated since the Aunt Jemima/Uncle Ben story was in the news over the summer (possibly late May around the time of the George Floyd protests, IIRC) but I can overlook that for a few reasons. First of all, this felt like an idea that someone had this summer that they just couldn't use until now. Maybe Micheal Che or Bryan Tucker came up with this but couldn't get it on the air until now and needed Chappelle to champion this to make it past the table read. Maybe Chappelle originally thought of this as a standup bit but found it just wasn't working on stage so he worked with Neal Brennan to rewrite it as a sketch. It does seem more like a Chappelle's show sketch (especially with him introducing it) than an SNL sketch. Chappelle's general performance and the "breast milk" line were enough to suggest to me this was the case. Plus, this was written in such a way that only Chappelle and Rudolph had the talent to put it over (although it was kind of a bummer that Chappelle had to rely on a voice modulator to pull off a Dennis Haysbert impression which he really should've wore a wig for but I totally get why he broke before even delivering his first line). Some assists from Kenan (who sadly kinda got washed off the screen for me) and a fourth wall breaking Pete helped too. As for Baldwin, well...after bring bombarded with portraying Trump both on (and seemingly off at times) the SNL stage it may take some time for me to come around to the idea of even seeing him do non-Trump/non-political material on the show. B+

Mario Memories - Well, I never thought I'd see a sketch where other cast members react in disgust to something Mikey overexplained but I guess he and Steeter wanted to try a different approach for once. That actually seemed to work in this sketches' favor seeing as the disgusted reactions from Kenan, Ego, Melissa and Bowen really made this for me. Other than that, it felt like it went on longer and felt more bogged down in unnecessary details than I would've liked. Also, congratulations to Cecily on getting another voiceover check this week. C+

Take Me Back - This felt like Beck playing a type of character we see him play frequently but Ego's reactions to his increasingly dire revelations were what sold this for me. Ego really has a knack for finding a strong chemistry with this show's male cast members. B+

Update felt pretty short because they only really talked about one thing. Maybe they were just too exhausted to write jokes about anything else or they had to write all of it on Friday. Either way, I had no problem with the material they came up with. It was nice to see Colin use international celebration footage to subtly gloat without really gloating and it was even better to see Colin devolve into unclipped tie drinking for happy reasons rather than soul crushing ones. Kate's Guiliani is more watchable as the lead character in her own standalone segment as opposed to a larger Trump related sketch even if the material is about the same (the cut for time piece from David Harbours' episode also proved this). B-

Albany Hailstorm - This was a premise that almost felt a little too low key (and vaguely familiar) for its own good. The performances really heightened that. It felt like it was gonna go on longer than it did at first but it seemed like they knew when to end it. Surprisingly, Ego had less onscreen chemistry here with Alex than she did with Beck in the pretape. C-

DC Morning - Wow, Ego plays two different local anchor women in live sketches in a row. It's fitting that Chappelle was in this because it feels just like something Chappelle's show would do. Maybe this was another standup bit he reworked into a sketch? I can understand if it's not because it feels a little Jost/Che-ish as well. Also, congrats to SNL for not only getting two G-D bombs on the air but getting it on the air in print once as well even though it doesn't even touch his previous record. C+

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. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
5. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
6. Bill Burr/Morgan Wallen Jack White (10.10.20)

Well, that was a fitting end to SNLs' longest consecutive run of shows. Next week is their first week off and as of this writing, no one knows when they'll be back. Some are speculating December 5th but I think we can all agree they've more than earned the next two months off at least. See you soon!

John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)

Okay, here's my review. This episode got off to a rather frustrating start but it ended up being pretty fun overall. When I heard John Mulaney was inevitably going to host for his fourth time this season, I honestly felt like I was getting just a little burnt out on him but I hoped this show would be better than his previous one. It was better, but it felt like it merely made some minor improvements on the new template for John Mulaney hosted SNL episodes that his previous show established. At first, it felt like this show was going to be exactly like his last one and it was but this one ended up being a lot more enjoyable of an experience. Sadly, I was hoping this episode would more follow the templates for his first two episodes than his third one. His first two episodes contained very little topical material outside of Update and filled the void with very writerly sketches. Some of which gave the new underused featured players a chance to shine while others he dug out of mothballs simply because they were among his favorite dress rehearsal cuts that he always wanted to see make it to air and only now can he get them on as host. Both of his 2020 episodes were the complete opposite of this and felt like he was just dragged-and-dropped into SNLs’ template for typical modern episodes with far less creative input due to last minute scheduling conflicts and other hosts having to suddenly drop out because of them. Given the circumstances surrounding this particular season, that’s completely understandable. This time, I heard they allowed HIM to reschedule from last week to this week. I thought this could mean we could get one of Mulaney’s previous types of shows since it might give him some more lead time to plan and work out his ideas but that was foolish of me. It’s just very disappointing to me to see John Mulaney gradually turn into the Justin Timberlake of this SNL era. Both are popular well loved hosts (particularly to young people on the internet and social media) whose first two shows got enough strong press and positive buzz for the show that they easily got comfortable resting on their laurels each time they came back and doing the same types of sketches hitting the exact same beats over and over again. Timberlake is a pop star turned film actor so with him it’s understandable but Mulaney is MUCH more of a creative type with a mind geared much more toward the mechanics of modern comedy and a much deeper behind the scenes connection to SNL and it’s hard to watch Mulaney seemingly NOT taking advantage of the upper hand he has over Timberlake (who in my much younger days I grew very vocally sick of seeing pander to the crowd in each of his later episodes by constantly playing his own “greatest hits” in a way similar to what Mulaney is just starting to do now despite both of them being strong presences on the show). Cast airtime seems a little more evened out from last week with only Dismukes being completely shut out (man, you’d think Mulaney could write something for him, huh?) and Punkie and Ego being relegated to only pretapes. Kate, Kenan, Chris and Mikey seemed to dominate the show with everyone else only getting to appear in only one or two pieces tops while Cecily and Aidy remain out on assignment. Anyway, let’s get into it. Shall we?

The Biden (with sincere apologies to Edgar Allen Poe) - Well, I was expecting them to do something that combined the election with the fact that today is in fact Halloween but at least this wasn't quite as lazy  as I was expecting it to be. It was meandering and a bit drawn out and unfocused but certainly not lazy. Thankfully, they threw in a few things I wasn't totally expecting to liven things up a bit just when it got to the point where it felt like they just took some randos' Twitter thread where they tried to write a parody of SNL'S current approach to political humor and just decided to stage that. Speaking of which, the Trump Jr/Triggered reference seems like they’re just BEGGING right wing media outlets to bust their balls. I did like how they chose to dunk on Lil Wayne and Ice Cube. Plus, Beck as Mitch McConnell explaining his "old man purple" hand condition was the only genuine laugh I got from this. Kate’s walk-on as Hillary is sure to please the same type of online SNL fans who are genuinely excited to see Mulaney on again like THIS is actually his first time hosting and possibly bum everyone else out. Even Carrey as Biden seemed a bit more restrained than usual (although his putting on sunglasses and calling himself a “baller” just HAS to be intentional self parody on SNLs’ part). Of course Mikey and Maya were also there and the only line of Mayas’ I liked was the one about Walmart suddenly stopping their sale of guns. C+

Monologue - This felt exactly as unfocused as the cold open did but it still had its moments. I liked his bit about being unable to overhear conversations on the street when people are wearing their masks. Then, Mulaney kinda lost me with all the Governor Cuomo material but he one me back with the whole “elderly man contest” thing. He lost me again with the sleepover rant but got me back on board with the whole grandma/greatest generation tirade (even as much as that drivers’ license story seemed unfocused he had a strong conclusion after that). Basically, Mulaney successfully pulled off the same type of monologue that Bill Burr was going for with seemingly much less sharply divisive material. Mulaney can’t hope to ever divide the audience as hard as Bill Burr did because he’s such a perfect fit for modern SNL having worked there for so long and having proven himself to be a valuable host. Another thing this had going for it was that it was a monologue that was actually longer than the cold open for once. However, I do feel like people who may have been expecting Mulaney's stand up material (not that I'm one of those people necessarily) to provide a brief respite from current events are going to be sorely disappointed but I’m sure Mulaney still has enough young, die hard fans who he can do no wrong in the eyes of that there will be minimal disappointment with this monologue. B-

The Birds - This felt like a standup bit Mulaney was workshopping but decided to turn it into a sketch after discovering it just never worked on stage so he and the writers decided to reformat it into the predictable paint-by-numbers beats of these recurring Reese De’What sketches (since it worked for him once already with that whole Sound Of Music thing). I wanted to like this more because of how playfully chaotic it felt (and for some of the heavy Falconer vibes I got from it) but I strangely don't feel like the material was worth the strong technical execution they expertly pulled off for it. I’m tempted to say it felt like a season 20 sketch but it wasn’t THAT lazy. I don't like how it felt as meandering and unfocused as the rest of the show but I did like Kenans' meta line about how this "lost footage" added and extra day's worth of running time to the film. Yep, these sketches may be becoming to Mulaneys' episodes what the Barry Gibb Talk Show was to Timberlakes' run. C+

Strollin' - It took a while for this to get going but once it got there you could start to appreciate it for what it was. It takes some extremely likable performers to make a Bruno Mars style groove all about black voter suppression and intimidation seem pleasant and fun but hey, that's just a testament to the strength of SNL'S current black cast. B-

Sleepy Hollow, 1790 - I guess this was the sketch that picture posted on Reddit was from? I was expecting either a Hamilton parody or a Lord Of The Rings sketch and part of me was glad we didn't get either of those. I wasn't crazy about how much of a crude premise this was either but thankfully Becks' sheer commitment and Johns' sheer anachronistically meek presence sold this one for me. Some small assists from Pete and Mikey didn't hurt either. I especially liked Johns’ “mouth on your dingus” line as well as his and Pete’s “puritans, homie” and “Goodie Chastity” two hander. Call me crazy, but I think this may have been written by the same writers who wrote the Uncle Meme sketch for Pete and John back in February (or possibly Jost/Che if not them) rather than Lorne himself. C+

Thank You, New York - OK, this was just Kate having seen one or more particularly colorful old women out in the streets in New York and wanting to develop an impersonation of her, right? Without Kate, this would've just been an actual genuine PSA made by SNL'S cast for some reason. Still, I guess they gotta use Kate while they can. Also, since Mulaney wasn’t in this I do have to wonder if this had gotten cut from any of this seasons/ previous dress rehearsals? D+

Update was pretty uneven. I can't say I've ever seen Jost get the audience to boo him just by playing a clip of something particularly outrageous Trump said and then actually get in a few decent dunks on him so that was an interesting way to start. Plus, Jost seemed to have better material than Che the whole night. I wasn’t crazy about his “rappers are not black leaders” and “constipated accountant” jokes but at least his delivery put them over. The rest of their jokes kinda just washed over me aside from the police suspensions/party lines/Panera Pizza jokes. I’m not crazy about how they bought back Kyles’ Baby Yoda just to make him an even bigger central casting Gen Z dickhead. Frankly, I’m disappointed that this was Kyles’ only appearance in the whole show but I did chuckle at his threat to straight up murder Baby Groot. C+

New York Souvenir Shop – I knew exactly what this was going to be once I saw the words “New York” in red neon lights at the top of what looked to be a store display. Yep, these sketches have definitely become to Mulaneys' episodes what the "Omletteville/Homelessville/Plasticville/Liquorville/Veganville" sketches were to Timberlakes' run. Part of me was hoping that they would avoid doing a fourth one of these but I guess the previous three got big YouTube hits after the initial buzz that Diner Lobster got (it didn't quite land with me but it's two follow ups were okay) and this cast and writing staff is full of big theater geeks (Mulaney must also be one himself). At least this one had a pleasant message of unity to offset the mild gross out humor that tends to inspire these. This contained my least favorite of the four “one…singular sensation” parodies I’ve ever heard in my life (still can’t say I’ve ever heard the whatever the original is all the way through yet) and my second favorite “hey big spender” parody I’ve ever heard. Kate definitely sang the better of the two (!) “Send In The Clowns” parodies this show has done in 2020 alone (right before the last time Mulaney hosted, incidentally). I could’ve done without Beck’s part entirely. I couldn’t for the life of me tell you what song Maya was parodying (I’ve heard it’s something made famous by Elaine Stritch?) she may have given the strongest performance of the night but it’s nice to see her finally get some recognition applause in her obligatory post cold open/non-Kamala appearance of the night. Thankfully, besides Maya this had fewer cameos for the sake of cameos than Airport Sushi did. Honestly, the only real bummer of this one is that it was Alex and Melissas’ only appearance of the entire night. C+

Uncle Meme II: Meme Harder - Oh, boy. Well, I actually did like the first one of these they did in February and I liked John's commitment in this one. However, because this had to be so rushed and edited at the last minute (due to this literally being the last sketch in the show) the only real laugh I could get from this was when Pete exposed John's character for being a prison dating creep at the very end. C+

Now, for my updated rankings of all of Mulaney’s episodes so far…

1. John Mulaney/Thomas Rhett (3.2.2019)
2. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
3. John Mulaney/Jack White (4.14.2018)
4. John Mulaney/David Byrne (2.29.2020)

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. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
4. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
5. Bill Burr/Morgan Wallen Jack White (10.10.20)

Well, I guess it’s quite fitting that the man who just earlier this year hosted SNLs’ first ever leap day show would also end up hosting their first Halloween night show in 18 years (and fourth one over all). This also happens to be SNLs’ last show before the election and next week, Dave Chappelle will host SNLs’ (hopefully) first post election show of 2020 just like he did four years ago. Some people might say that it’s “tempting fate” or a “bad omen” but this year it looks like there might be other factors involved in this outcome. Plus, I personally quite enjoyed Daves’ 2016 episode which was widely regarded as the one of the best of season 42. He’s also a strong host who (until now) has only hosted once. He should be a welcome presence who is far from wearing out his welcome (which is actually a little bit more than I can say for the guy who just hosted tonight, so…) Hey, I think this season might be attempting to break the record for most standup hosts in one season that was previously set by season 43 (if I’m not mistaken and if I am I encourage you to correct me here in the comments or on Twitter or Discord). See you then! Don’t forget to vote, everybody!

Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)

 Okay, here's my review. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I heard Adele was going to host this show. I must have been expecting something a little less low key. Pop starts usually make for fun hosts but Adele is a much older, more mature pop star so she wasn’t as over the top as some of the younger ones who had famously made their mark on the show. She held her own so well and was such a charming presence that I didn’t even really mind that she seemed to play slight variations on herself (when she wasn’t literally playing herself) on the show. This episode was about on the same level of quality as last weeks’ but after four consecutive weeks, I’d say some of the cracks are starting to show even if no fatigue has fully set in yet. Still, I guess this is to be expected when Adele was apparently a last minute replacement for a completely different host (more on that at the end). Generally, the show was slightly more uneven than last week. Even the casts’ airtime reflects that as Kyle Mooney was practically invisible while Melissa Villasenor made her first substantial live appearance in almost an entire month. Meanwhile, Punkie and Andrew were relegated to their one appearance each being in the same pretape while Lauren’s live airtime increased and Cecily and Aidy continue to literally be absent. Speaking of, I was actually gonna say something like “man, of all the weeks for Aidy to miss a show” until I realized that Adele doesn’t look a thing like Aidy anymore and looks more like Cecily now who will ALSO be missing this weeks’ show. Everyone elses’ airtime stayed virtually the same. Anyway, let’s break it down, shall we?

NBC Presidential Debate - Well, for starters, I'm glad to see they just had Maya play Kristin Welker rather than Kamala Harris. That was definitely the right move. It probably wouldn't have hurt to focus just a little bit more on her and a little less on Baldwin and Carrey. At least with their material you could tell the writers realized they a little more focused on the substance of this debate and tried to be a little less broad and simplistic this time as there were less silly distractions and disruptions than the first one. In fact, I was expecting them to give us something similar to the 2012 debates here (the Vice Presidential ones in particular) which they pretty much did. Even Baldwin as Trump was more tolerable this time (I did like the Army Vaccine cannon and ventilator jokes as well as how he seemed to focus on some of the real Trumps' whiny vocal tics a little more) but the cameo from Kates' Guiliani seemed to tacked on at the last minute for me. They even gave Carreys' Biden stronger material but what frustrated me is they gave him quite a few lines that Sudekis or Harrelson would've killed with. The whole "Delaware night out" and "Obamacare/Bidencare" rants as well as his calling out Baldwin’s Trump on his inconsistent attacks on him are perhaps the best examples of this. During the latter he almost even broke. Hell, I liked the idea of his "Eastwooding it" bit if they hadn't botched that along with the needless double takes. I also wanted to like the Biden Bingo bit more even though it's a carbon copy of a joke the had Kate as Hillary do four years ago in Tom Hanks' last real episode. I'd say that this confirms my theory that most people's problem with Carrey as Biden us that he's just a far less likeable performer (hell, just a far less likable celebrity in general at this point) than Jason Sudekis and Woody Harrelson (the former of which SNL audiences are FAR more used to seeing in this role). Plus, Sudekis played Biden when the real Biden was possibly under the least amount of public scrutiny in his political career and in an era when people were less PC and culturally sensitive than they are now. Harrelson played Biden after he came under some allegations of borderline sexual harassment and racial insensitivity but he and the writers worked that into his short lived portrayal (as they did with Sudekis when he briefly returned) and Woody worked in some of Bidens' general old man folksiness in a way that seemingly came natural to him as a performer but still indicated he took his portrayal just as seriously as public perception required of the show. The way the show is handling Carrey in the role seems to suggest the writers agree that this isn't the best idea in the world right now but are too afraid to bring it up to Lorne out of fear of losing their jobs mid-pandemic and are overthinking it, trying way too hard to play it as safe as possible with Carrey. Frankly, I'm starting to believe the rumor that Carrey has only heard the real Joe Biden speak only once. This isn't saying much but by default, this might just have been my favorite debate sketch of the 2020 election cycle because it suggests the show is "winding down" on its' heavy political coverage in more ways than one. C+

Monologue - We have only really seen Adele twice in public since her weight loss. I'll admit, seeing her like this took me some getting used to so it's nice to see she has adjusted her personal sense of fashion and style accordingly. I probably should have expected her to do a low-key personal, sincere season 44 type of monologue like this one. I expected her to joke around a little more but considering this is their fourth of a planned six (and now suddenly seven) consecutive shows without any weeks off. I'm sure the writers were glad to just let Adele speak from the heart in a tone that suggests "dry British wit" more than anything else at this point rather than try to write awkward jokes for her. Speaking of which the “travelling light/half of me” joke didn’t quite land with me and the giant swear jar almost didn’t either but thankfully Kenan was able to save that one. It’s also nice to see Adele giving off a general vibe that she's currently in a good place in her life and she'll be a quietly confident host. This got the show off on the right foot so far. B+

2019 Psychic - Even though Kate's character seems to be an exact cross between Dr. Wayne Weknowdis, Olga Povlatsky and her old "kiss" lady, I liked her performance and how premise driven this was. The idea of people living in last year reacting to being told what this year would be like has been thankfully unexplored until now. The worst thing I can say about this sketch is that it felt a little labored and the obligatory Jeffrey Toobin joke was a little drawn out. I did like the J.K. Rowling jab as tacked on as that felt. Also, it’s pretty obvious that the dress rehearsal take of this is what they put on YouTube. B-

The Haunted Manor - I guess we were due for another "Chad" piece in the early part of this season. As formulaic as these always were, they still have their moments and in the more recent ones they throw in something a little different each time to shake up the usual "Chad" formula. Plus, another recurring piece like this allows the writers to conserve some of their energy from the next two weeks. Also, Adeles' character being a ghost seems like the production of this allowed for plenty of green screening and proper social distancing. I did like the "Where's Waldo" joke and the twist ending. C+

The Bachelor – I usually like SNL’s reoccurring Bachelor parodies (that they do in January when ABC actually airs new seasons of the show) and I'm glad they broke the established format of the previous ones where they just parade each female cast member out one by one. Having Adele just play herself is funny enough as a twist on its own. Having her sing here instead of the monologue like most musician hosts (especially non-double duty ones) was a decent change of pace. The only things I can say this had going against it is that it seemed like a premise any local YouTube sketch group could have done five or eight years ago (although learning that former SNL writer Chris Kelly may have come back this week to write this may have contributed to that feel as he came to SNL from Funny Or Die originally) and that in order for this premise to really work you may have to ignore the fact that Adele is now a divorced mom so you don't end up wondering whether she's too focused on herself and being a mom to even think about getting another man into her life right now. That mental energy is probably best left to wondering whether or not she actually just got away with singing "and I'll lay your shit bare" on live television or if you misheard her. I also thought this ended on a touching note with Adele wandering into the audience. B-

Trump Addicts Of America - I liked this at first as the twist seemed to be SNL poking a little fun at itself (even if they unintentionally threw a little red meat out there for their conservative critics). Then, it just seemed like the show, the network and just the American news media cycle in general admitting to an uncomfortable truth about itself and potentially sending the wrong message. Still, the performances and subtle characterizations were what really sold it. C-

Update was saved by its own self aware cheesiness tonight. Jost and Che's debate/Guiliani/Borat material seemed a little too forced for my liking but they made up for it by reacting to several of their own jokes in a "joke exchange" like format. It's nice to see Melissa Villaseñor finally get to make a live on air appearance four weeks into this season. I'm sure letting her work out some standup at the desk made up for that. Still, I have to say her Fleetwood Mac parody/Stevie Nicks impression was the only thing I was that crazy about. The Village People segment was just cheesy and over the top enough to work well for me. I guess this was the thing that the guys were rehearsing with a choreographer for in that Instagram post from Keith Ray Wood? I do appreciate how the YouTube version of that feature put the lyrics at the bottom of the screen. B-

Nursing Home - I was a little nervous about this sketch once it was established that Maya (as an nursing home resident in her obligatory non-political late in the show role of the week) was to be shouted at from a balcony. Thankfully, there turned out to be more substance to this as it went along. I eventually came around on the premise of young people having to explain increasingly complex life situations to a safely socially distanced retiree. I'm sure everyone can relate to that on some level. I also liked how Maya seemed to be playing a more doddering, more ethnically ambiguous and less Southern fried version of her "Bless The Harts" character and quickly revealed she blew all her inheritance. This sketch ended at just the right point and didn't feel too long either. C+

Tourism Board Of Africa - I wasn't crazy about this as it was pretty much the exact same type of piece Kate has been doing endlessly with Aidy for the past few years. The only difference here is that in Aidy's absentia they clearly just dropped Adele and Heidi into the role she would've gotten. Honestly, the only thing this sketch did have going for it was Adele breaking much harder than even Jimmy Fallon ever did on this show (which is actually charming appropriate here as Adele is clearly not the seasoned sketch comedy veteran that Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant are supposed to be). D+

Ass Angel Perfume Jeans - I'm really not sure what this was going for and the audience didn't seem to know what to make of it either. It seemed like something Tina Fey collaborated on with Tim and Eric. I gave it a chance and I really wanted to like it more after realizing it was basically just a scaled back “Happy Fun Ball For Women” but just set about seven years earlier but something still felt a little off for me. I think there’s a definite possibility that this was made from a left over 04-05 script since Maya’s in it and I can easily picture Amy Poehler and Will Forte in Adele and Beck Bennet’s parts respectively. I guess the thing I liked most about it was how it was the first sketch where Adele attempted a different accent than her own. She handled that well and I suppose this being a pretape helped. D+

Now, for my updated rankings of this season…

1. Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)
2. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
3. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
4. Bill Burr/Morgan Wallen Jack White (10.10.20)

Well, that defied my expectations. Next week, John Mulaney makes his fourth appearance as host. I like John Mulaney just fine and he’s always a welcome presence at the show but I feel like social media and the comedy world in general has bene oversaturated with him to the point where we might be suffering from Mulaney fatigue (especially since his last episode was so weak compared to his first two but hopefully he’ll bring out enough old scripts and feature the new cast in big enough showcases to make up the difference) Still, part of me was expecting him to host sometime this season as SNL is having to resort to getting friends of the show who either already live in New York or are willing to quarantine there for two weeks if they can travel to host due to COVID restrictions. Plus, I had heard he was already scheduled to host this week but had to reschedule. It really speaks to the strangeness of our times that SNL got Adele to replace John Mulaney as host (who may have already had to replace Issa Rae back in February as evidence by his last episode feeling the least like it was in his “voice” and more like he was just another interchangeable host just dragged-and-dropped into an average season 45 episode) and ONLY as host because they already had a different musical guest. Oh well, see you then!

Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)

Okay, here’s my review. This was honestly the strongest show of the season so far. After two shows that were deemed heavily divisive it’s nice to see SNL produce a consistently enjoyable show with a host who did well in sketches and seems like she could easily be asked back. Issa did a great job and the show made much better use of its’ cast. Everyone got to participate in some form or another tonight even if they couldn’t be there in person. Anyway, let’s break this down, shall we?

Dueling Town Halls (YEEHAH!) – I honestly didn’t have the time to watch either of Thursdays’ town halls but this cold open kinda made me wish I had. Carrey seems to have sharpened his portrayal of Biden just when I thought he was slipping into just playing him as a generic pleasant Abe Simpson type. It certainly helps that he’s perfected his Biden squint. I did like Mr. Rogers/Bob Ross bits and his back and forth with Redd when wrapping up his 1939 Worlds’ Fair story. After seeing Carrey turn his Biden into Jeff Goldblum, Mr. Rogers AND Bob Ross, it’s still nice to see he (and the quick change people from SNL’s wardrobe department who really seemed to be at the top of their game compared to last season) can bring something different to the role (essentially making Carrey’s Biden like a living Family Guy cutaway but in a good way without making it too cartoony). Alexs’ brief shot with a blanket and warm milk would’ve been funnier had they not included him seemingly every time they cut back to Bidens’ whole audience. Speaking of cast cameos, nice to see Melissa actually get some screentime as brief as it was after literally being absent the last two weeks. Egos’ twerking cameo was the only part of the Trump segments that didn’t completely wash over me (mostly because after seeing Lauren Holts’ character was seemingly seen in a split screen before she was supposed to be visible which they managed to fix by the time they reaired this episode on the same two hours later because my NBC affiliate is one of the ones that does that I was wondering if it was intentional or a green screen glitch until Mayas’ Kamala acknowledged it in a pleasant but seemingly forced cameo). Upon a second viewing it seems Baldwin actually got in a few sharp jabs at Trump. The fact that Trump spent the last three years playing a very rote, stilted, clipped Trump in the exact same way week after week without changing anything because he couldn’t be bothered to do so by that point is really the only thing that warrants my praise of Carrey’s Biden from five run on sentences ago. He must still purely be motivated by the thought of Trump losing the election at this point. He even seemed like he might have broke during Egos’ bit which, to his credit, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen him do as Trump before. I heard Savannah Guthrie really held Trumps’ feet to the fire at this so of course they would have Kate “yas kween”-ing it up as her. Also, kudos to SNL on their first mention of Candace Owens and (IIRC) their first real attempt to get a jab in at QAnon? Kudos to Melissa for getting her first (and sadly only) three seconds of airtime this season so far. Chloe channeling Linda Belcher from Bobs’ Burgers’ as a rabid Trump fan was another highlight. I also liked the brief Earth animation at the end. Well, even though the scheduled debate fell through due to Trump contracting COVID, Jim Carrey, Alec Baldwin and Maya Rudolph were all apparently contractually obligated to have their whole Octobers’ free so they did the biggest news story of the week that involved the candidates each of them portray anyway (in the most predictable way they could’ve but still somehow made it fun, even moreso than last week) since the Amy Coney Barrett hearings turned out to not be that big of a deal on account of her being far less emotional than Kavanaugh, I guess? B-

Monologue – Issa Rae pretty much delivered the same type of Phoebe Waller-Bridge style solo-but-not-quite-standup monologue I was expecting from her. Plus, for the first time this season the audience actually sounded like they were small enough to be properly socially distanced. That and the overall decent quality of this episode makes me feel much better about actively supporting the show in general. I noticed Issa mentioned she was supposed to host back in March. Unless she backed out early or something, I’m guessing she meant April since we already saw Daniel Craig host the last pre-pandemic live show back in March and John Krasinksi was booked next and Bill Burr apparently admitted on his podcast he was originally booked to host in April. Other than that, she seemed to just be talking about how the success of her show “Insecure” has raised her professional profile and boosted her career. I liked her comments about the poor timing of her shows late 2016 premiere the most and her seemingly encouraging people to mistake her for Mary J. Blige. Other than that, this monologue seemed to lack some focus but after Bill Burr it was nice to get a bit of a pallet cleanser and see someone who clearly fits better into the modern SNL mold and alienated precisely no one in the cast or audience. Issa seemed a lot less nervous than she said she was and didn’t even let the small, less responsive audience of tonights’ episode give the impression that they weren’t on her side. She did quite well and didn’t let anything stop her. B-

Bonjour Hi – This is a very different sketch for this era of SNL. I can’t really speak to the accuracy of the accents. Kate has proven to be able to handle French accents expertly in the past so no surprises there. Issa Rae surprised me a little as this is probably the last thing I expected her to be doing on the show but she pulled off a believable French accent. They had some pretty funny writing for her character as well. Bowens’ seemed a little off but I was amused enough by his performance in general enough that I really didn’t care. He seemed more like he wanted to show off his ability to SPEAK actual French than do the accent but it worked for me. He gave me strong flashbacks to Fred Armisens’ character “Leonard” from those Euro-centric “Club Traxxx” sketches from seasons 28 and 29. I wonder if Maya got as strong flashbacks to that as I did since she was in the building tonight and also in those sketches with Fred? I was a little surprised when Mikey’s character (that was seemingly written with him in mind specifically) was introduced as I was expecting Chance The Rapper to reprise his Lazlo character the way the sketch was going. I only expected him because I had seen his tweet about making a cameo on tonights’ show just to perform on the song Beiber had him featured on. Either way< I was pleased with what we got here. B+

Five Hour Empathy – I heard about this seemingly getting cut from dress rehearsal one of these last two shows. I like how fresh and inventive of a concept this felt and how perfectly it was executed. A-

Homeless Date Interruptions – Just when I was expecting a low-key slice of life sketch, Kenan, Pete and Bowen go all Anton/Buddy Valentine/Kevin Aquarius/Macy Gray/Whoopi Goldberg on us out of nowhere. I also liked how they just pulled out and showed us everyone intentionally breaking character as the sketch ended the exact way it was supposed to. The whole shows’ been pretty strong pre-Update so far. B+

Update was very fun even if it was seemingly carried by the guest commentators. Honestly, Jost and Ches’ best moment was when they broke out into a low key unintentional “joke exchange” in between the final two Update commentaries. Che’s came out swinging with the jab at NBC “having a type” (w/Cosby, Lauer and Trump) but nearly negated that when he implied that people were actually considering voting for Kanye as an alternative to Trump or Biden. He won me back with that QAnon/Lexington Steele (another odd “first” in terms of references for tonights’ show). All of Josts’ solo jokes kinda washed over me. It’s good to see Mikey and Alex can still build on their chemistry together while Alex is building brand new previously unseen (on SNL at least) chemistry with Chloe. The Trump bros still work and Chloes’ Carvey like caricature of Tiffany really adds something different in the mix. I liked Alex “zoom meeting/I was muted/white trash/hand sanitizer/debt” jokes even though they felt like they should’ve been telegraphed. Aidy’s remote segment was very brief but a very good use of her while she was in Oregon starting filming on season three of “Shrill” this week. Heidis’ 80s cocaine wife didn’t do much for me at first. It didn’t stand out too much from her previous Update characters to me but it built to something very worthwhile given the chance. I especially liked how Heidi acknowledged that she’d only known Che for three minutes. B-

Your Voice Chicago – This seems like it’s just last weeks’ “Blitz” sketch thrown in a blender with last seasons’ “Mid Day News” with some “How’s He Doin?” sprinkled in. Still, like Heidis’ Update piece it builds to something great if you just give it a chance. The audience isn’t quite giving it the reaction it deserves though given how low key and “writerly” it seems. I did see someone I follow online mention that this sketch may have been based on a comment she made at a recent awards show that she will actually “vote for everybody black” and that she could’ve helped write it. If so, kudos for her for having the best sense of humor about herself out of any SNL host in recent memory. Redd, Punkie and Mayas’ parts were funny. I also like how Maya just feels like she’s back in the cast again given that her non-Kamala roles get buried late in the show with no recognition applause from the audience. Also, kudos to SNL for (IIRC) their first “Diamond and Silk” parody? I do have to wonder how the real ones are going to react? C-

Issa & Kyles’ Dance Off – This reminded me a lot of the breakdancing short Kyle did in his first season with Beck. In fact, it reminds me a lot of all the season 39 era Good Neighbor shorts in general so it’s good to see Kyle return to his roots in his (presumably) final season. I liked the TLC “No Scrubs” homage and Chance and Andrew had funny cameos as well (but Andrews’ bit felt a little too “real” honestly in a way I’ll explain at the end of this review). C+

Jack Flats – I liked seeing the show close out with a high energy performance from Beck, Kyle and Andrew. I also liked how they took a real conceptual Mr. Show/Whitest Kids U’Know type approach to satirizing these anti-mask/”liberate” protestors who can’t even manage to kidnap any of their local elected officials without even tipping off the FBI. I like how the militia guys are seemingly more preoccupied with the food and the waitstaff teasing you than anything else and are very aggro about it. At first, when Beck bought Kenan into the frame I thought one of them made the other break unintentionally until Kenans’ “playgrounds” line and I saw he was playing an intentionally goofy character and Beck just stumbled over his line. Andrew Dismukes did a great job in his first substantial sketch role but the way he played it did remind me a lot of how Beck, Kyle and Pete play certain roles (especially in his emotional breakdown). He did great, but I’d like to see how he does in the cast after Beck, Kyle and Pete leave so he doesn’t run the risk of being cancelled out in the “young goofy guy” roles. Thankfully, Lauren seemed much less Aidy like in her cameo than she did in her brief parts in the premiere with Chris Rock. Honestly, the only real bummer about this sketch was that Melissas’ opening voice over was only her second appearance in this episode. A-

eBay – This was another pretape based on a rather off-the-beaten-path COVID/Quarrantine related concept that was execute well. Heidi, Chris and Ego were great in it but…if you knew how many vintage back issues of MAD, CRACKED and CRAZY I myself bought from that site in the last two months (for clearly the opposite reason of “bettering myself”), you’d know why that episode hits just a little too close to home for me. I also liked how they used Cecily for the voiceover so she technically appeared in this episode remotely as well. C+

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

1.       Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)

2.       Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)

3.       Bill Burr/Morgan Wallen Jack White (10.10.20)

Well, it’s great to see SNL getting back into its’ groove as it successfully produced its’ first three live in studio episodes since the pandemic began. What worries me now is that no host or musical guest for next weeks’ show had even been announced on air as of this writing. I’m not sure I believe the rumor on Twitter from yesterday that Anne Hathaway was going to be next weeks’ host with Sam Smith as musical guest. Unless one or both of them had to cancel back in September, that seems like something they would’ve announced way ahead of time on social media as either of them would be the biggest “gets” the show could have this season at this point. Plus, neither of them seem like they’d be willing to travel to NYC two weeks early just to quarantine beforehand. There’s another rumor about a potential host for next week. It’s kinda been put out there by the girls who host the SNL Standby Line podcast so out of respect for them (and also because I personally find it to be a strange rumor myself) I’m not going to divulge that information here on my own blog. So, I encourage you to seek that out yourself if you know their handles (one of the hosts’ personal account is set to private). The ending to Issa and Kyles’ pretape (where Andrew Dismukes informs Kyle that he had just tested positive for Covid) made me briefly consider the very real possibility that either someone already working in 8H or a possible 10/24 host or musical act could’ve already done so leading to the next two weeks of shows’ already having been cancelled. I guess we’ll just have to wait for some kind of official press release from NBC or social media posts from the shows’ official accounts before we can be 100% sure. The last time the show went without any expected on air announcement of their next host/musical guest lineup was two seasons ago between when Matt Damon and Rachel Brosnahan hosted and that was the gulf between the 2018 Christmas show and the first show of 2019. Unfortunately, we only have a week and not a month between new episodes of SNL at this point so if the current cast and crew are unable to produce next weeks’ show I at least hope they can stay safe and healthy in quarantine.

Bill Burr/Jack White (10.10.20)

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+

N    Now, it’s time for me to start officially ranking this season from best to worst… 

      1. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.2020)
2. Bill Burr/Morgan Wallen Jack White (10.10.20)

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!