Keegan Michael-Key/Olivia Rodrigo (5.15.2021)

Okay, here's my review. After last week it was certainly very nice to get such an overcorrection on hosts in terms of stage presence, acting/entertaining experience and just general qualifications to be on this show (or any scripted comedy show in general). Plus, the fact that the show apparently felt it necessary to draw from the talent pool of not just one, but TWO of their own must enduring direct competitirs/hipper cable alternatives for the first time in nearly twenty six years (and barely even have them outright mention it or even have him plug the show he just did with one of this shows current cast members that she missed this seasons' whole first block of shows for) REALLY says something. Yes, Keegan Michael-Key was just as excellent a host as you would expect but the way the show used him didn't seem to reflect that. I guess I should've learned from the Donald Glover/Childish Gambino episode from a few years ago (which was a fine episode if you tolerance for cameos is particularly high, by the way...I guess I was just building myself up to expect something a little different than what I ended up getting given my familiarity with his pre-Star Wars/Lion King era body of work) that anyone expecting anything more than just a standard, generic by-the-numbers SNL episode with minimal non-cast cameos and no appearances of the host's previous characters from other shows (that they wouldn't have the legal rights to do anyway) because a first time host comes to the show with a substantial amount of sketch comedy/dramatic acting experience they picked up outside this show was bound to be disappointed but Keys' presence really did elevate a lot of the material as I expected and he blended right in with this cast as seamlessly as ever (again, in stark contrast to the previous weeks' host but definitely nearing a point where you almost forget he is in fact the host). Speaking of, this show also did a good job of making sure each cast member got some screentime. Anyway, let's break this down and find out what worked and what didn't, shall we?

The Mighty CDC Art Players - I appreciate how lightly absurd, fast-paced and off-the-beaten-path this was (until you remember all the similarities between this and all those high school theater showcase sketches from seasons 40-42). I definitely have to say "reacting in confusion to things sight unseen" is their best use of Kate's Fauci yet. Out of all the little playlets, the Beck/Aidy, Pete/Melissa & Bowen/Ego scenes really made this for me. The Capitol reference in the Alex/Cecily bit and performative allyship in the Lauren/Punkie bit seemed a little too forced. The Andrew/Chloe scene seemed too reminiscent of a certain rap video from this season's premiere for me but I was thankful Kyle came in to save it. Out of the two scenes with four players, the "riddle" one was better. Overall, I liked seeing a different type cold open this season (one that seemingly tried to set a tone of "focusing on this weeks positive news" for this week) but it started to seem too much like a disparate mishmash of different mask takes after a while. C+

Monologue - Getting over how surreal it is seeing Keegan Michael-Key live on the SNL home base stage for a second, it seemed like they nearly wasted him on this monologue. I appreciate the change from one tuxedo to another tuxedo but not every musical number calls for even one real tuxedo. I appreciate how they tried to set this up so that we would expect some meta SNL format jokes but the few of those they actually did didn't land with me. Cecily and Kenans' cameos did but Pete's just kinda washed over me. Plus, I was surprised Cecily didn't use this opportunity to plug "Schmigadoon" at all since that's the big reason Keegan is hosting right now. Oddly looking back, the real highlights for me were Keegan using his "host states sincere love for/deep childhood connection with the show" moment to setup that wallet stealing joke and Stephen Castillo appearing just to confuse Key with Peele. Finally, to address the elephant in the room the song sounded far too much like Steve Martin's "Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight" for me to really get into. I can totally see Key wanting to do this as a tribute if that happened to be one of his favorite SNL moments I started to get worried about what type of tone they were setting for this show since if you've actually seen that Steve Martin/James Taylor episode, you'd know that no other moment that followed it quite lived up to that moment in terms of sheer hype. Thankfully, this episode as a whole is stronger than I remember that one being but not by a whole lot unfortunately. C+

Braxton High School Prom Red Carpet - Given how questionable it feels for high schools to even be having proms this year (no matter what SNL writer Dan Licata tells me on Twitter), I can appreciate a good Fran Gillespie/Sudi Green (who I guess are subtly using their position at the show to criticize Chloe for her "crazy religion" right under her nose?) penned sketch. that's just a string of outlandish character revelations. As expected, Keegans' character was really the glue holding this thing together. He was even solid enough to remind you why he and Pete DIDN'T need to have switched roles before this aired when you remember Keegans' character was supposed to be a "super-senior". Plus, that might have been the funniest used of Melissa and Andrew they've had all season. I can't believe I'm saying this but the Ego/Chris/Beck scene kinda washed over me but the sponsors were fun.The only thing I didn't like about the Aidy/Mikey scene was the minor disappointment I felt when I realized that was Aidy and NOT Lauren being given a fair chance. C+

The (Really) Last Dance - A year after this premiered is an odd time to parody it, but hey, if you feel Keegan Michael-Key was just born to impersonate Michael Jordan on SNL one day and you write for the show and this is the only week Keegan could host, so be it. Keegan (aside from some really bad deepfaking) and Kenan really made this for me (especially when they established that this entire piece would be based on Jordan's well documented gambling problems). I also appreciated the rare chance to see Heidi being placed in a role that probably would've been given to Kate if it weren't for the sneaking suspicion I had that Heidi at least co-wrote this. I haven't seen this documentary yet so I can’t really judge the impression I just found out she was doing of a real guy. Still, her performance was quite fun and I liked her commitment to being dominated and perpetually losing. I didn't even mind how badly misused Chris Redd was here. B-

The (Rebooted?) Muppet Show - I was a little confused about the execution of this sketch, but thanks to the performances from the cast members in live action non-Muppet roles (who didn't contribute to the puppet dialogue syncing issues by recording either part or all of their dialogue across two different Muppet roles), I didn't let that stop me from enjoying it. Thankfully, Keegan and Kenans' absolutely necessary presence really pulled this sketch together and give the audience something real to focus on as they're just getting over the fact that actual puppets were involved. Nice of them to give Melissa a chance to debut her solid Lily Tomlin on the show, but that kind of thing made me question why they had to frame this is a modern Day reboot if the Muppet Show when, as I understand it, no such thing has been attempted yet and it's the old '70s ones people are watching and talking about now thanks to Disney+, disclaimers and "cancel culture" still being a thing. Maybe they just had to accept that Melissa could really only (or just simply wanted to) do a Lily Tomlin impression based on modern Day Grace and Frankie career resurgence era Tomlin and for some reason couldn't do 70s/80s Laugh-In/9 To 5 era career peak Tomlin and just had to roll with that?? Honestly, the worst thing I can say about this sketch is that it gave me a brief flashback to that overlong "Nobel Prize Awards" sketch from season 20 as soon as the unofficial Kermit puppet showed up on screen. B+

T.G(emma).I.Fridays - The SNL Stats Twitter account hinted that we would see this tonight (and if Cecily is indeed leaving next week as some have speculated, it makes sense since she named this character as one of her favorites) so with that hint out there I do appreciate how they broke this character somewhat out of her rote formula setup and Trojan Horse'd her on us a bit. I mean, I always liked this character of Cecilys'. I thought the few appearances she made were fun and her performance really put them over for me (especially in the non-Rock/non-Momoa helmed ones which kinda tanked) but this time she had much more cast support than she used to. I do appreciate that they tried to finally have an emotional, heartwarming ending to one of these but it felt a little tacked on to me. C+

Update was a little underwhelming this week, but there was some fun to be had. Jost seemed to have the lion's share of jokes this week but Che definitely got the lions' share of laughs. The guest commentaries may not have been anything to write home about either. Kate as Liz Cheney had some strong material but I definitely feel like I would've liked her piece more if she'd focused more on that than the voice. I'd say it's about time they give Andrew Dismukes his own solo Update commentary and while I liked his material and his rapport with Jost (and the fact that he probably got something cut and got less applause for mentioning his home state of Texas than he did for mentioning the title of an obscure Disney Channel Original Movie which is probably due to tonight's. musical guest having just come up from that world), I'm not sure he has the right energy to fill the Pete Davidson/Beck Bennett/Kyle Mooney shaped void on the show by himself just yet. Speaking of Beck Bennett, I wanted to like his guest commentary for his delivery but most of his material (aside from, like, every fourth line of his) seemed like white noise to me. C+

Gershwin Tribute - I'm sure there were a lot of people out there hoping for a campy musical sketch with Keegan and Cecily (since, again, their work on "Schmigadoon" may be the big reason Keegan is hosting right now) and after seeing this I sure hope all those people were thinking "...not like this". Still, Keegan and Mikey pretty much made this for me so it's nice to see Keegan show up at just the right moment for viewers that may still need to be reminded that he is, in fact, tonight's host. Plus, it was nice to see them give us a slightly inverted version of the "Cecily and male host of the week force guests to gradually remember the lyrics to an existing song everyone thought they just made up on the spot until they suddenly remember that this song exists as Cecily and male host mysteriously didappear into thin air" formula. C-

Commencement - I didn't know where this was going at first (and it seemed strategically placed and/or re-edited to fill time for whatever was cut on air) but I was more than happy to let the casts' strong commitment guide me along that journey. Plus, it definitely made the best use of Ego, Chris, Beck and Punkie all night. B+

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. Keegan Michael-Key/Olivia Rodrigo (5.15.2021)
5. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
6. Kristen Wiig/Dua Lipa (12.19.2020)
7. Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)
8. Regina King/Nathaniel Rateliff (2.13.2021)
9. Daniel Kaluuya/St. Vincent (4.3.2021)
10. Maya Rudolph/Jack Harlow (3.27.2021)
11. Dan Levy/Phoebe Bridgers (2.6.2021)
12. Elon Musk/Miley Cyrus (5.8.2021)
13. Carey Mulligan/Kid Cudi (4.10.2021)
14. Nick Jonas (2.27.2021)
15. John Krasinski/Machine Gun Kelly (1.30.2021)
16. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
17. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
18. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
19. Bill Burr/Jack White (10.10.20)

Well, there was certainly fun to be had and this show certainly nudged SNL back on the right course. Next week, Anya Taylor-Joy (wow, two hosts in a row with hyphenated last names! That's gotta be a first!) makes her hosting debut to close out the season. She's someone I've certainly heard OF more than I've seen act in anything so this should be interesting. Plus, for the first time in countless years the show got a non-alumni first time host for the season finale! Lil Nas X will also be a first time musical guest. I wouldn't be surprised if he were worked into sketches somehow but I'm not sure how I'd feel about seeing that just yet. Still, it will be nice to finally get some closure on a rather unique season that may not have seemed as ambitious under more "normal" circumstances and hopefully usher in some much needed changes to the show this fall. See you then!