Carey Mulligan/Kid Cudi (4.10.2021)

Okay, here's my review. Carey Mulligan was certainly a strong host who elevated a lot of the material she was given. Unfortunately, you couldn't tell from how little she was used but you could get a sense from how many rehashed and repeated premises they used her in. I wouldn't mind seeing her host again some day with better material. The cast seemed a little unbalanced this week. No Cecily or Melissa. Lauren seemed to only be in one pretape all night. Mikey, Chris, Kate and Aidy seemed to dominate the show with everyone else seemingly used very sparingly. Anyway, let's break it down.

Eye On Minnesota - I guess we're back to the low key style of barely topical cold open that started out this half of the season, huh? As soon as this sketch started, I was expecting something similar to the local news sketch from last seasons' Phoebe Waller-Bridge episode that was such a hit. What we ended up getting was more resembled a direct cross between the cold open from last season's ScarJo episode and the "Inside The Beltway" sketch from Woodys' last episode but with Trumps' impeachment taken out as the jumping off point and replaced with the discourse surrounding this weeks' Derek Chauvin trial. It's no surprise to me that Che co-wrote this. Thankfully, the rapid fire energy this had (which made it perfect for the cold open, by the way) counteracted the lack of focus Che's sketch writing tends to have that brings things down. The Prince/DMX ending was allright but while Chris made this for me, I didn't really care much for his last line. I was gonna say this felt like it wasn't supposed to be the cold open in dress but knowing what a slow news week this actually was and how they would've had to dig deep for something topical. C+

Monologue - Careys' deadpan really made this for me. She pulled off standup comedy well and really elevated some of the weaker jokes. I should've expected a cameo from Marcus Mumford but his part kinda went on too long for me and killed some of the momentum his wife had been building up to that point. C+

What's Wrong With This Picture IV? - I usually like these but I didn't need to see it a fourth time (even if the show thought the one they did during the "at home" shows from last season didn't count). This was fine but Chris bring placed into what used to be Pete's role (and having all the best lines) and Careys' delivery (and at one point non-delivery when the camera was supposed to be on Aidy) were the only parts of this that stood out to me. C+

Tremfalta - Yeah, bathroom humor only works for me when Kenan is there to react to it. Funny how they aired this right after they aired the Emma Stone/BTS episode where Kenan pretty much did the exact same thing in that Ladies Room sketch. Thankfully, this was shorter than this. D+

Study Buddies - This feels like Kate and Aidy doing a type of character we haven't seen from them before with voices we've heard from them both as other characters before. Carey seems like she was a little miscast in a role a slightly younger female host would've made work just as easily. I found this a lot more watchable than a lot of Kate and Aidy two-handers from the past few seasons but I couldn't quite get as into it. I still haven't decided whether it hits too close to or too far from home for me. C+

Weird Little Flutes - Given Pete and Kid Cudis' close friendship, I suppose it was inevitable that we'd see them in a pretaped rap video together. I wasn't crazy about this at first, but I got more into it as it went along with the green screens (especially how outlandish it looked trying to pull off Chris' Airport scene) and the reveal that they were just in a music store the entire time was the perfect ending for me. The only thing I didn't care for was Chalamets' unnecessary cameo. I guess what got me more and more into this was how early the realization that this just applied the same concept behind Ferrell and Walkens' famous Blue Oyster Cult Cowbell sketch to hip-hop instead of prog-rock (emphasizing and heavily focusing on an unusual instrument that normally wouldn't belong in its' respective genre). B-

Update was quite fun this week. Jost and Che had a lot of successful jokes on a wider variety of topics than what we got recently. Ches' Will.I.Am joke in particular worked for me. A lot of Josts' Matt Gaetz jokes weren't as great as last week's but his riff on Gaetzs' actual speech was great. I never expected Chris and Beck to play Obama and Springsteen on the show and I gotta say, they each did those impressions much better than I thought they would've. Unfortunately, it seemed like they counted on the audience evaluating the impressions long enough not to notice how thin the material was. Nice to see Punkie finally get a solo breakout Update piece that also explains the Paul Pierce story that Chris' weatherman character referenced in the cold open. She turned in a great performance even if most of the material that actually WAS there was a bit lost in me. Bowen as the Titanic Iceberg was just silly enough to work for me. There were definitely shades of Samberg-as-Cathy there mixed in with what if I had to venture a guess was probably just whatever "Real Housewives" reunion interview segment that inspired Bowen to write this? B+

Starchaser Andromnea - At times, this felt like it put more energy into parodying specific Star Trek tropes than it did on the characters played by Mikey, Carey and Chloe who were obviously the focus of this. In fact, more than anything this reminded me of a couple of sketches from way back in 2015 that specifically made fun of whiny, privileged "millenials" (the ones from the episodes host by Dakota Johnson and Miley Cyrus that year specifically) which made me wonder if this was just another repurposed late season 41/early season 42 Day/Seidell script they resubmitted? As much as I liked the ending of the Mikey/Carey/Chloe characters just being shot out into space, it did make the ending feel a little rushed and hastily edited. C-

Lesbian Period Drama - I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that this was written by some combination of Bowen Yang, Anna Drezen, Fran Gillespie and/or Sudi Green. It was a niche genre parody in the same vein as Drezens' "Space Mistakes" and various pageant sketches but one with the specificity and pointed references of Yangs' "Cheques" and "The Actress" (also shown an hour earlier in the evening during the Emma Stone/BTS vintage rerun, incidentally). While the references were so specific, I couldn't tell which, well...ACTUAL Lesbian Period Drama(s) this was based on I could appreciate just how much though and effort went into dissecting this genre. I do like how they worked in Kate in the least obvious and yet still most "third wheel" way they could. C+

War In Words III - I suppose I should've expected this, huh? I mean, distinguished British female host...comes with the territory and all. Unfortunately, not much stood out to me here either from the previous installments and this might have been the weakest one so far. D+

Beat Buddies - This sketch was okay. I wanted to get into this more but it seemed rushed to the point where it got ahead of itself and tripped on it's own sagging pantyhose to get where it was going. Once it caught it's own breath, I could appreciate how detailed and niche they tried to get with it but it felt like they didn't realize how what a long walk this was supposed be. 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. Daniel Kaluuya/St. Vincent (4.3.2021)
9. Maya Rudolph/Jack Harlow (3.27.2021)
10. Carey Mulligan/Kid Cudi (4.10.2021)
11. Dan Levy/Phoebe Bridgers (2.6.2021)
12. Nick Jonas (2.27.2021)
13. John Krasinski/Machine Gun Kelly (1.30.2021)
14. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
15. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
16. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
17. Bill Burr/Jack White (10.10.20)

Well, that was certainly below what I was expecting. I've been told the show is returning live on May 8th but the show itself is unable to reveal any May hosts at the time of this writing so it will certainly be interesting to see who they get. See you then!

Daniel Kaluuya/St. Vincent (4.3.2021)

Okay, here's my review. Daniel Kaluuya was a much stronger host than his strangely decreasing presence throughout the show made him out to be. He carried a lot of material that felt mostly original with shades of premises I had seen before. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing him host once more if the writing could support him a bit more. Outside of Daniel, the show was good if not more than a little uneven. Compared to last week, the show seemed to have focused its energy a lot better and tightened things up. Melissa and Lauren were the only two cast members who seemed sadly shut out of the entire show this week. Anyway, let's just get into it.

Oops, SNL Did This Exact Cold Open Again - As fun as Chloes' Britney impression always is, this was best left a one-time thing. I don't think Britney's Instagram ghostwriting accusations warranted another appearance of this. I could see Chloe just wanting to do this impression one more time but aside from that I don't think anything that happened in the news this past week fit into this framework well. Least of all, the Pepe Le Pew non-controversy which feels like it was in the news last month. In fact, Kate as Pepe Le Pew felt so dated I'd be surprised to find out it WASN'T originally a cut Update commentary that Kate tried to get on last week. I mean, she and Chloe had some of the stronger material here but a lot of this felt out if place. As much as I like seeing Chris Redd on the show, I don't think we NEEDED to see him as Lil Nas X this week because aside from him giving a lap dance to Mikey as some guy named Gary cosplaying as God and later threatening Pete's character (we'll get to him in just a second) they didn't say much that hadn't already been said about the situation. I was hoping that the way they tackled Matt Gaetz wouldn't involve them fitting him into this but kudos to SNL for going the no makeup/no frills route and casting Pete in the role (who sadly for Pete I do see some natural resemblance to). The Quagmire impressions/comparisons felt a little overdone but I did genuinely crack up at the "gigging squat" line. I will admit that this cold open did grow on me upon second viewing so the worst thing I can say about it is that it's just in the right place at the wrong time. C-

Monologue - Daniel really had the right confidence and charisma to pull off a monologue that seemed a bit shaky at first. He really powered through the "British racism" material to get us through to the self effacing Golden Globes material and the reveal that he interpreted a Kenan and Kel episode into his own stage play at age nine (!) steering this monologue directly into Season 44 territory. Now, THAT'S something I'd like the complete oral history of someday! B+

Will You Take It? - This show hadn't had much success with vaccination themed game show sketches so far this season, but I gotta say the third time was definitely the charm here. A fresh perspective helmed by the strongest performers in this cast really behooved the show here. The worst thing I can say about it is that it still managed to remind me of similar but more forgettably weak game show sketches from the past few years such as "Should I Chime In On This?" from Matthew McConaugheys' 2015 episode and "Can I Play That?" from Idris Elbas' episode two years ago. B+

Prank Posse - As much as it felt like this should've been done in early 2018 if you take away the obvious shrimp tails/mouse bones framing device, Kyle made this for me. The idea of him as Not!Jake Paul and Daniel as Not!KSI satirizing sociopathic YouTubers incapable of self reflection putting out a series of meaningless, insincere "apology" videos and stumbling ass backwards into their own/each other's comeuppance turned out to be much funnier in execution than it would’ve been on paper due to a hint of Mooney-brand of absurdism with an assist from Daniel Kaluuya. B+

Rummy Cube - This felt too much like a leftover Kristen Wiig sketch from 2010 for me to really get into. It had a decent ending, though and was the exact length it absolutely needed to be. D+

Creative Writing Major - Once the premise of this sketch was established, I really liked it where it went and how great of a job Ego, Chris and Daniel did anchoring it! In fact, this sketch gave me the vibe that it might have been something so personal to Ego or Daniel I was NOT surprised to find out Ego was co-credited as writing it with Dan Bulla (but I was surprised to find that she herself hadn't taken credit for it on social media). The only thing this really had going against it (much like the rest of the show) was some extremely botched directing. B+

Update got off to a strong start tonight joke wise and kept that going in-between guest commentaries. Jost especially in some great Mat Gaetz slams. Kate and Aidys' meat mavens kinda killed the momentum they bought but I liked the very loose adlibby vibe of it. If anything, they continued what I saw as a theme Jost and Che established at the start of long time performers enjoying themselves as this is rumored to be the hone stretch of their final season until Alex showed up. Guy Who Just Bought A Boat didn't do much for me tonight but kudos to Mikey and Heidi for giving us two NEW characters to close out this Update. C+

Tahoe Frat Road Trip - This sketch felt like the entire second half of it had to be cut for time. It was literally edited to the point where it made no sense. There needed to be some explanation as to why everyone was gradually on board with Daniel's idea of bringing everyone's moms' on the trip except for Mikey being the lone holdout. I may not have liked the board fame sketch from earlier but at least that had the sensible conclusion that this was lacking. Otherwise, the only thing that made this work was the sheer energy it needed to power through the post-Update portion of the show. Also, Andrew as a pledge being light hazed was a nice touch but this being both Cecily and Pete's first appearances in the entire show (live or otherwise) felt strange to me. Speaking of Pete, he DOES realize he didn't need to just dye his hair blonde again just for that Eminem NFT thing, right? I mean, he could've worn a wig (unless he had to dye his hair again for resorts of "The Suicide Squad" or something in which case good for him for making something out of it). C+

Dog Voices - Good to see both Ego AND Andrew leading their own sketch (even though this seemed like something they would've wrote for Cecily at first for some reason). I wasn't crazy about where it was going at first but the Andrew/Daniel confrontation really made this for me (especially with Andrew's energy which I guess makes those who view him as Kyle's replacement feel pretty validated right now, huh?) C+

All About That (Upright) Bass (ugh, I am SO sorry) - Your typical Cecily/male host/Anderson/Sublette musical two hander to close out the night, I suppose? Yeah, this was fitting as it felt just as uneven as the rest of the show. 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. Daniel Kaluuya/St. Vincent (4.3.2021)
9. Maya Rudolph/Jack Harlow (3.27.2021)
10. Dan Levy/Phoebe Bridgers (2.6.2021)
11. Nick Jonas (2.27.2021)
12. John Krasinski/Machine Gun Kelly (1.30.2021)
13. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
14. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
15. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
16. Bill Burr/Jack White (10.10.20)

Well, that was all over the place. Next week, Carey Mulligan makes her hosting debut and since she is pretty much the same caliber of host as Daniel Kaluuya is right now I expect pretty much the same type of show as this one. See you then!