Regé-Jean Page/Bad Bunny (2.20.2021)

 Okay, here's my review. There's no way this show wasn't in the top five for this season. Regé-Jean Page was one of the strongest first time hosts I've seen in a long time. Everyone really knew how to play to his strengths and the writers seemed to be having a particularly strong week. Almost the entire cast got an appropriate amount of airtime (except Lauren and Melissa who were both shut out entirely again but at least Melissa got to be in this week's promo so I have a feeling it might have been worth the tradeoff this time). In particular, Ego and Chloe stood out as having great weeks. Anyway, let's get right to it, shall we?

Oops, You Did It Again - Nice to see we're back to mere semi-political, out-of-left-field type cold opens. Chloe as Britney was a pretty solid anchor to this. I know the last time she did this impression on the show she got some flack from some Britney stans but hopefully any of them who happen to see this will see that this is written in a way that shows Chloe and the show are on their side too. This might actually be my favorite Chloe impression. I'm still not crazy about the just the vague idea of Aidy as Ted Cruz (it feels too much like something the show needs to have left behind in the era of the Trump presidency and Cruz himself has just been son unpleasantfor so long that any jokes about are starting to seem a little hack now) I have to admit it works and Aidys' Ted Cruz bring couched in this sketches' surroundings makes it easier to take. Speaking of impressions that work better than they should, I ended up really liking Petes' Andrew Cuomo. I was fully expecting that to be a Beck Bennett role but I guess Pete is much better at pulling of NYC/Jersey/Italian mobster roles so he got the part. I figured it was only a short matter of time before we got to see Cecily as Gina Carano as soon as Disney ended up having to fire her. Still, I kinda feel they treated her with kid gloves. More Whataboutism being thrown at Disney for their moral/ethical failings may not be the right approach here. I have to say though this being the first of her only two appearances of the night makes it seem like she really intended to keep her "Irish Goodbye" promise in regards to this season. Overall, for its few flaws this was one of the better and more enjoyable cold opens of this season. Another step in the right direction. B-

Monologue - Regé-Jean carried himself well. He didn't seem that nervous to be hosting SNL for the first time. I guess I should've expected SNL to resort to such a tried-and-true-attractive-host-monologue trope for someone who isn't as well known having their big break right now. His line about not watching Bridgerton with your mom hit a bit different for me since I still haven't seen Bridgerton but that didn't stop me from recommending it to my own mom. I just know her taste in TV and movies and a lot of it consists of flowery Jane Austen type period pieces. From what she's told me, she seems to be enjoying it. Nice to see they could at least use this to give Ego and (especially) Chloe their own spotlights. Aidy (boy, quite a jarring quick change from Ted Cruz, huh?) was a nice addition, too especially when she and Ego went all Mr. Skin on us. Speaking of Aidy, "Shrill" is another show I recommended to my mom based on Aidy being her favorite member of this current cast and having gotten bored of watching her SNL era on Peacock. Plus, they kept this monologue from turning into just Regé-Jean Page doing his impression of fellow Brit Andrew Garfield doing his impression of Justin Timberlake (remember May 2014? I sure do). After a string of shows where SNL hasn't exactly had the liveliest of audiences (whether or not they should even have ANY audiences at all let alone even be in production anymore right now is beside the point) it's nice to see Mr. Page has some vocal fans in the crowd to raise the atmosphere a bit even if they kinda stepped on his lines. In a different era, this would get on my nerves a bit but I think SNL needs more audience response now more than ever. It may make it sound like about 10 different Fridays audiences were beamed in from 1981 and it seems obvious that the show may have been anticipating this exact type of audience response and wrote large chunks of the show to cater to their tastes but hey, anything that helps the show right now in the smallest way. C+

Actors Spotlight - Kenan was the real saving grace of this. Ego, Chris and Regé-Jean supported him well. This was the most committed I've seen him in anything (and I think the same could be said for whoever wrote this as well). I loved how Alex played into it at the end as well. I liked how what they bought to the sketch really prevented the sketch from just becoming a continuation of the monologue (or too much of a repeat of last weeks' "What's Your Type" sketch). Weirdly, it took Chris Redd being shown in his own mock film clip for me to register that they did NOT bring in the actual Kingsley Ben-Adir for a cameo and that was just Regé-Jean Page playing him. B-

Loco - At least it was nice to see Ego get a chance to do the exact type of music video that the previous generation of SNL women have done a lot of before here. It's sort of a nice passing of the torch moment that didn't require the women in current possession of said torch to even be present. Pete wasn't bad here either, but I think we've seen enough of him rapping on SNL for a lifetime. Thankfully, he let Ego take center stage instead of relegating her to being his accessory. I also gotta hand it to Ego for managing to get to be in three straight segments in a row. Nice use of the musical guest in a sketch as well. I think it would behoove SNL to move on from quarrantine/lockdown based comedy right now but this was one of their more creative and better executed attempts at it and it would be the perfect capper to that era. C+

Driver's License - This was stronger than it had any right to be. It was like a much better, more focused version of what they were going for with that RuPauls' Drag Race Garage sketch with Chris Pine in 2017 and that Mike Jukebox bar fight sketch with Don Cheadle in 2019. It also bought to mind the similar treatment SNL gave to runaway pop hits such as Adeles' "Someone Like You", PSY's "Gangnam Style", Ylvis' "What The Fox Says and (to a much lesser extent) Drakes' "Hotline Bling". I'm glad that SNL can briefly return to those type of sketches from that specific era in this specific media landscape. The only weak spot was including Kate as a Dr. Weknowdis type character but thankfully she only had two lines. Bowens' presence seemed necessary to legitimize this sketch but also suggested at first there's no way he COULDN’T have written this but I just found out Sudi Green and Fran Gillespie wrote this so yeah I was way off there. My dad said it reminded him of the Adele Thanksgiving sketch from 2015, one of his favorites. This was definitely my favorite live sketch of the night and one of the best of this season. B+

Mr. Chicken Legs - Glad to see they could make something out of such a semi-relatable/noticable premise. Good on Mikey, Andrew and Pete for willing to put their real flaws out there like that. Regé-Jean seemed at his most confident here and was a great anchor here along with Cecily. As much as I'm glad they're finally using Chloe, I could’ve done without her character here. I know, that was the whole POINT of her character but it felt too much down the beaten path in these types of pageant sketches SNL has done on and off in recent years. Also, this sounds to me like something that COULD possibly have been written for Chris Rock in his episode but got cut at dress rehearsal or (more likely) the table read because he may habe suddenly decided he didn't want to do it? I remember reading about how the only time he got to meet Sade (his crush) in person while she was a musical guest on the show was when he was dressed as Robin in that Death Of Superman sketch from '92 where he said his skinny chicken legs wrre on full display and that came across my mind while watching this sketch. B-

Job Interview - I loved this for its' sheer increasing absurd silliness. Beck seemed to be returning to his comedy roots here and Regé-Jean seemed to fit into that seamlessly. Bowen handing out unrelated little notes was a nice touch. This might have been my favorite taped piece of the entire season. A+

Update was much more uneven than last week, but thankfully it was short. Not a single Jost joke was off the beaten path, and once again Che got all the better material. As much as Pete doing a commentary as himself feels like something the show has moved on from, he had a lot of great jokes once he got going. I liked seeing Heidi play an Update character that WASN'T some kind of social media influencer for once. Still, the basic joke was so predictable it went on a little too long for me. Also, she seemed to be playing this character in the exact way Melissa would've (if she were doing a piececwritten specifically for Kate that Kate rejected) which kind of makes me wonder why Heidi could've just let Melissa have this one (since she literally had nothing this week) but I know that's not quite how the show works. The knife glove gag got kinda ruined for me more for how predictable it was than the fact that you could clearly see her putting it on under the desk. B-

Songs Of The Sea - This was something I didn't quite know what to make of. They could've lost the opening mention of sea shanties bring a TikTok trend as that seems to be over now. As for the rest of the sketch, I couldn't tell if the premise was they were singing to sugarcoat how shitty life at sea is supposed to be or to sugarcoat their own incompetence. Still, the songs were performed well and added what this sketch may have been lacking. In particular, I liked the solos from Kenan, Mikey and Bowen. Kate and Bad Bunnys' characters felt unnecessary, though. Man, the SNL cast and writing staff of the past six years are just absolutely incapable of making ANY sketch set on a pirate ship work at all, huh? C-

Saying Grace - I liked how this felt the least like something the show has done before. The cast really performed this well and it was just the right length with a strong ending. The only bummer about this sketch is that seemed a little rushed and it was Punkies' only appearance of the entire show. B-

Obligatory Bridgerton Parody - Bridgerton having "intimacy coordinators" was definitely an interesting parody angle for the show to take for this weeks' "host sketch" (is it the first show to actually have those because people certainly seem to be writing about it like it is?) I liked seeing Mikey and Pete play characters we haven't really see them play before. They type of sleaze they put on display was just the exact type that worked for me. Chloe and Kate were nice anchors once again and Regé-Jean really held his own here. B+

Grocery Rap - It seemed like Beck, Kyle and Andrew are trying to do the same thing they did in that "last fry" rap that initially got cut from Gal Gadots' episode but later got edited into the reruns to replace that SafeLite sketch that got cut because SafeLite complained. Still, they added just enough to this to make it interesting and enjoyable to watch. The only real thing this had going against it was that Regé-Jean Page seemed a little miscast in it as a regular, everyday supermarket manager. C+

Now, for my updated rankings for this season…

1. Timothee Chalamet/Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (12.12.2020)
2. Regé-Jean Page/Bad Bunny (2.20.2021)
3. Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)
4. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
5. Kristen Wiig/Dua Lipa (12.19.2020)
6. Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)
7. Regina King/Nathaniel Rateliff (2.13.2021)
8. Dan Levy/Phoebe Bridgers (2.6.2021)
9. John Krasinski/Machine Gun Kelly (1.30.2021)
10. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
11. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
12. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
13. Bill Burr/Jack White (10.10.20) 

Well, that show was a very pleasant surprise! Next week, Nick Jonas makes his hosting debut while appearing as musical guest for a fourth time. Yeah, Nick has appeared in sketches on this show each of those previous four times. He held his own well enough but he didn't exactly blow me away. If I had any expectations for next weeks show, I'd expect something on par with Adele and John Krasinskis' shows this season. See you then!