Okay, here's my review. I have to say this may have been the strongest season premiere since Seth MacFarlane/Frank Ocean in 2012. I compare it to that one because both episodes showed noticable amounts of promise that each of the shows' three new featured hires for that year were helping bring the show into a new era even though some of the writing and cast seniority issues of the previous era were still lingering. I know, it's hard to take me seriously when I say this while two of season 38s' "new featured hires" are somehow STILL with the show, but just go with me on this, OK? As we all know, season premieres aren't always the strongest of any seasons early run of episodes but this season premiere certainly showed enough promise to make a lot of viewers want to stick around and see how the rest of the season shakes out. Owen Wilson proved to be a fine host who was used well and managed to blend in well with the cast (which is probably due in part to how much if the post episode discussion centered around how much of a mark each NEW cast member made on the show vs why certain other cast members bothered to stay on). Even in just one or two bit parts, every member of the cast (except Kate who is filming an outside project in Australia) got some screentime tonight. Anyway, let's unpack this, shall we?
Biden Unites Democrats - Well, I gotta say the show seems to have quite a great deal of confidence in James Austin Johnson just come out on stage as a sitting president in the cold open of his very first episode! He and Pete's Cuomo gave me my only genuine laughs in this. I do like that he actually seems to have a focused take on Biden but the fact that Moffat was playing Chuck Schumer (whose line about alarmist democratic party emails I quite liked) in the same sketch after he was reportedly telling people he was still playing Biden this season and Jason Sudeikis hosting in three weeks does make me wonder if the show views "JAJ as Biden" as a permanent thing or not. Also, I find it a bit odd that the show seems to have developed more of a focused take on Kyrsten Sinema than they have on Biden at this point but hey, they were just gradually laying off politics in general as they wound down last season outside of a few notable figures on the right. It seems as they are just now figuring out what they have to say about the left so I say we give SNL some time to figure out what they're actual post-Trump era is going to be even though it's an era that we're firmly ten months into. Ego as Ilhan Omar works for me but might get an unexpected reaction. I liked seeing Melissa get to use her AOC again. I guess her placement in this right at the top almost makes up for them NOT using her impression of tonight's host on the show? Either way, I'm pleasantly surprised that that this political open had enough strong things going for it to almost make you forget that they cast Aidy Bryant as Joe Manchin. It's good to see SNL is still making progress on not having to lean on politics as hard as they did during the last presidency. Even when they just relegate politics to Update and cold opens now, it feels like the big talk about them is more "who is playing the president now" and less "what was their obligatory take on the weeks' events and why was it irresponsibly tone deaf and completely wrong?" or "how is SNL irritating insuffrably smug DSA far-leftists on Twitter who think they're so above the show but just can't seem to help themselves from putting it down each week?" B+
Monologue - Owen handled his monologue as strongly as I expected. Glad to see they just let him be himself here he was self depreciating in a charming way. Smart move to kick off a season where the show is supposed to be getting back to "normal". The ending almost felt like they let Melissa write a few of his lines. B-
The Talking - The fact that they made this a Mr. Show/CBB like "Not!The View" type sketch made me think that this could've been at least cowritten by any of the new writers (especially since one or two of the writers who I believe cowrote the two direct parodies of The View have left the show). As for the sketch itself, I'd say it's a lot sillier and more fun than the more direct View parodies the show did in season 44 (or even season 34 for that matter) even if I couldn't quite tell where they were going with it or why it was necessary. C+
Star Trek: Ego Quest - I have to say I liked the casting of Owen Wilson as Jeff Bezos and Mikey Day as Elon Musk. Owen really bought the right goofball energy to this and Mikey really nailed certain vocal tics of Elons (as wrong as it feels to have anyone on the show poke fun at him AFTER he hosted). Alex was all right as Richard Branson, Kenan had some funny lines and Heidi as that old astronaut Wally Funk is something that concerned me a bit. I'm noticing a trend that started with her performance in the Michael Jordan pretape from Keegan Michael-Keys' episode being continued here. I'm not crazy about the idea of Heidi being used to fill the Kate-in-drag void that didn't exactly do wonders for Kate's reputation among fans (but maybe as long as Heidi keeps her drag roles strictly apolitical it would be easier to take?). Other than that, this piece as a whole felt a bit too long and aimless for me. C+
Cars 4 Session - I was honestly hoping for something more reminiscent of a certain voice over sketch from Octavia Spencer's episode from 4 & 1/2 years ago and less reminiscent of a similar sketch from J.J. Watts' episode 1 & 1/2 years ago (and I'm sure I'm not alone). Still, this had enough of a random dark streak to keep it watchable and throwing in James as Larry The Cable Guy for Owen to play off of was a smart choice. C+
District 7 School Board Meeting - Well, I should've guessed that some of the writers would've seen this summers' Covid/CRT/Ivermectin related protests as a comedic gold mine. Overall, I was very pleased to see (mostly from the inclusion of Aidys' Jan Krang and Kenans' Scary Gary Loomis) that whoever wrote those two town hall meeting sketches from season 41 figured out a way to improve on that formula (it makes sense that the guys from Please Don't Destroy would be involved in writing this since it is as rapid-fire paced and character driven as some of their videos that I've seen). Good for them to realize Cecily works better as an audience participant in these and that Alex and Ego were the perfect performers to play the straight men running the meeting. Still, I was a little disappointed seeing Sarah Squirm just get quickly hustled of screen in her first ever appearance as a cast member but at least I'm grateful she got that instead of being given the Luke Null cold shoulder treatment. Speaking of, while I do appreciate them trying to cram each cast member in this and tighten the pacing this up as much as they could, it still could've used a few cuts here and there. Kudos to Kyle for making his one appearance of the night and proving he didn't leave with Beck Bennett. Pete as Dog The Bounty Hunter was terribly miscast. Since this was such a rapid fire scattershot showcase for everyone, I'll say that the cast members they performers they made the best use if here were Punkie, Chris, Mikey, Owen, Bowen, Andrew and James. B-
Update was worth watching more for the guest commentaries than the jokes. The only ones that really stood out to me was Josts' white paint and Che's Chicago egg jokes. Josts' opening spiel about infrastructure seemed like he wrote is specifically to give Seth Simons a nosebleed. Che's Obama joke stood out to me less for the pointedness of it or the reaction it got than the fact that it reminded me that Jost & Che may now be the only Weekend Update anchors in SNL history whose tenured at the desk saw them cover THREE presidential administrations rather than the standard two. Great to see two fresh takes on old media tropes from Ego & Pete (even how weird it felt given how he ended his last commentary on the season finale). I especially liked Ego burning Che for his Instagram presence. Kudos to them for throwing in a still from her Discover Card/Jordan Peeles' US ad parody from her first season. I also appreciate Jost & Che give Norm as much of a tribute as Wiig & Hader gave to Jan Hooks when the latter first came back to host 7 years ago. B-
Funeral Song - This was pretty low key in terms of recent "funeral song" sketches (I'm somehow not all that surprised that Che wrote this and Anderson didn't) but I liked that there was more of an escalation to this besides just the songs and had an actual ending. Unfortunately, it kinda desecrated into an undeserved emotional ending. Also, the glaring miscue at the top of this and in the cold open really drives home the fact that the old director is still there showing the ropes to the new director. C+
Crazy House on NFL On FOX - This was something else worth sticking with for the escalation of it. Unfortunately, they didn't escalate this far enough, in my opinion. I mean, JAJs' voice talents really let this some authenticity. I kinda liked the idea of a white middle aged sportscaster bring forced to stiffly read copy riddled with lines that sound like they were edited out of the first draft of "Gen Z Hospital" but I expected more out of something with a random puppet next to Sarah Squirm (once I recognized that was her). Heidi was pretty good here but I probably would've cast Cecily as Erin Andrews myself. I'm sure I'm not the only person who was reminded of "Mark" from Will Ferrells' 2009 episode but I honestly can't decide which of those two sketches was a watered down version of the other one. I'm thinking this was the watered down version of that. C-
Mail-In Stool Testing - This was just about the perfect thing to end this show on. I'm very glad to see they let Sarah Squirm do something a little Sarah Squirm-ish in her first episode with some assists from Dismukes & Redd. I mean, yeah, it seems a bit watered down compared to her pre-SNL work but hey, when SNL hires someone like Sarah Squirm they gotta pace themselves with her a little bit. B-
Well, that was a pleasant surprise in many ways. Next week, Kim Kardashian West makes her hosting debut and while I really don't think this is the right thing for either this host or this show to be engaging in right now, this show has had much worse hosts that I have said this about in the past. You all know who I'm talking about. Two guys (one of which was just impersonated on the show) who may match Kim's wealth and fame but don't quite balance being a "business figure" and an "entertainment figure" as well as she has managed to. Plus, from what I've heard Kim may just be a more pleasant person to work with behind the scenes and seems more enthusiastic to be a part of the show and she's a fairly less consequential person for them to have on at this point. That and the fact that SNL may have just dulled my sense of outrage toward their more outrageously irresponsible choices of host by now are the reasons I am going in with the most cautious of optimism at this point. See you then!
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