Simu Liu/Saweetie (11.20.2021)

Okay, here's my review. Simu Liu bought the exact right energy to the show as host and was used more appropriately than his fellow MCU alum Jonathan Majors. Simu blended in with the cast better (which was probably more due to the writers knowing how to play to his strengths as an actor more). His presence allowed for a more consistent episode than last week, but the highs this week weren't as high (thankfully the few lows that were here weren't lower either). Everyone except Punkie and Kate (still absent) managed to get some screentime tonight. Kudos to Sarah for her notable upswing in character roles this week. Anyway, let's unpack this one, shall we?

Justice w/Judge Jeanine - Well, if they absolutely HAD to write a Kyle Rittenhouse cold open at least they knew the most appropriate framing device for it (and to clearly give Redd & (for once) Fineman) the best material here. I always like seeing Cecilys' Pirro and I especially liked her Robert Durst/"that's on you, dum dum"/build back better lines. Mikey had some OK material as the judge in the Rittenhouse case but he gave off such strong "Meyers/McKinney as Judge Ito" vibes that I could barely get past I've already pretty much memory holed his entire part. I appreciate them moving on from this subject but I didn't particularly care for Alex as Kevin McCarthy (big "how do you do, fellow kids" vibes from that incredibly dated reference to the bottle flip meme). I did appreciate seeing James Austin Johnsons' Trump return. The biggest laugh I got out of this was how he worked in references to the OG pre-HBO Max reboot of Gossip Girl (maybe one of the women writers who got to meet Blake Lively when she visited the show last week to support Taylor pitched on this?) and a Dua Lipa word search (I trust one of my Twitter followers who I hope is reading this right now can tell me if she actually does have a husband) into his freestyle ramblings. C+

Monologue - I was impressed by Simus' charisma and his ability to immediately get the audience on his side. He effortlessly carried this material and got the show off on the right foot. B+

Karaoke Recap - Kenan and Chloe (seriously though, how many different ways are we gonna have to hear her repurpose that Tiffany Trump/Miley Cyrus impression of hers?) did a nice job of moving this along but the various highlighted guests really made this for me. Each cast member contributed something funny here but the only ones I can mention individually here that stood out to me the most were Alex/Heidi and Melissa/JAJ (whose Homer Simpson impression works best if you just imagine him doing Season 1/Tracy Ullman era Homer). Sarah and Aristotles' bit seemed tailored specifically to them but I have to say I gotta feel bad for Punkie for not managing to get worked into this somehow. B+

Target - Simu was well cast and I liked Kyle, Kenan and JAJs' characters the most. Otherwise, it felt a little too much like a modern day SNL Holiday retread casserole to me. C+

Dog Head Super Soldier - I wasn't too crazy about the original dog Head man sketch from 2018 with Sam Rockwell but I did like this one a lot more (mostly for Mikey and Cecilys' improv skills). Plus, this may have been the first time we've ever seen Mikey even come close to breaking character and this whole episode in general is a first for James playing more character roles than just impressions so those added something to this for me. B-

Republican Or Not - Honestly, I wasn't too crazy about this premise but I was okay with how it was executed for the most part. I liked Kenans' coyness and I thought Simu and Ego played off Kyle and Sarah's appropriately vague clues very well but adding Cecily as Cheneys' daughter at the end just muddied it up too much for me. C+

Walking In Staten - This is actually the first time in a LONG time I can say I've seen an SNL sketch that was actually IMPROVED by the surprise celebrity cameos. I couldn't quite get on board with a heavily autotuned (at least on Pete's part) trap/hip hop parody of "Walking In Memphis" that featured Robert Loggias' creepily deepfaked joint smoking ghost or a cameo from some hobby guy on YouTube until Marc Cohn showed up for a self-effacingly meta cameo and Method Man agreed to lend some Staten Island authenticity to this. I also really liked Pete & Wets' lyrics about "wild turkeys by the hospital" and how "our zoo is shockingly small". C+

Update started strong but kinda fizzled out near the end. Good on Jost to give us a healthy dose of silliness before getting into roasting Rittenhouse, Gaetz and Bannon. I didn't think we really needed to see Kyle's Baby Yoda again but the fact that they have him dating the mom from the Berenstain Bears alone and used THAT to continue his ongoing intense feud with Baby Groot was worth bringing this back. The fact that he is also basically a thinly veiled parody of Machine Gun Kelly/Travis Barker was just icing on the cake. Aidy as Mother Earth was a lofty concept that I couldn't quite get on board with. B+

Thanksgiving Baking Championship - I didn't think we needed to see a third one of these much less a fourth but at least Kyle, Heidi and Simus' cakes kept the stakes from getting too low. I wouldn't have cared for Pete getting lazily shoved into Beck' part if we didn't get to see him basically just go "fuck it, I'm just gonna eat my entire slice of cake live on air by the time this sketch ends". C+

First Asian Men To Recieve This Series Of Oddly Specific Awards - This was a nice personal two hander for Simu and Bowen to let the audience in on together but if them placing this right after perhaps the Sarah Squirmiest of all "baking challenge" sketches ever doesn't make you realize this needed to be earlier in the show (possibly the cold open) than I don't know what will. Kudos to Andrew Dismukes on squeezing in his one on camera appearance of the night and for Sarah for getting in on this too. B+

911 Calls - Thankfully, Kenan came in to save this one as soon as I started to think this wasn't going to be silly enough for me to be able to get on board with. Kudos to Simu for attempting a different accent for the first time all night. C-

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

Now, for my updated rankings of this season...
1. Jason Sudeikis/Brandi Carlile (10.23.2021)
2. Keiran Culkin/Ed Sheeran (11.6.2021)
3. Simu Liu/Saweetie (11.20.2021)
4. Jonathan Majors/Taylor Swift (11.13.2021)
5. Rami Malek/Young Thug (10.17.2021)
6. Owen Wilson/Kacey Musgraves (10.2.2021)
7. Kim Kardashian-West/Halsey (10.9.2021)

Well, that turned out to be one of the stronger Thanksgiving shows SNL has put on in God knows how many years! In two weeks time, Billie Eillish returns to make her double duty hosting debut. Young pop stars usually make for fun hosts who gel well with the show. Billie Eillish may bring a "weird 20 year old girl" energy to the show but at least she will bring the RIGHT kind of "weird 20 year old girl" energy to the show. See you again after Turkey Day!

Jonathan Majors/Taylor Swift (11.13.2021)

Okay, here's my review. This was an episode that fortunately in some ways continued this season's trend of engaging and high quality episodes. Unfortunately, compares to the previous three episodes we saw, this was by far the most uneven. A couple of the highs were high but the lows were about the second or third lowest they've been all season thus far. Still, I can say that my expectation of Taylor Swift only having one ten minute musical performance instead of the standard two three minute ones INSTEAD of any of the sketches contributing to this episode's pacing issues was subverted.  Jonathan Majors showed promise as a host. However, he seemed to blend into the background a bit TOO Well (no pun intended) but again, when the hype surrounding the musical guest for some and then suddenly the newest cast members appearing on Weekend Update and the (fairly minor) expected fallout from a rather regressive cold open that's to be expected. Still, if Paul Rudd could get three second chances I'd say Jonathan Majors deserves a second chance to host some day just so we can see what he can really bring to the show. Kate (still filming in Australia as of this writing) was legitimately the only cast member to get no screentime this week. JAJ and Mikey took a backseat this week to let two certain underused players to get some MUCH needed airtime this week (we'll get to them later). Anyway, let's unpack this, shall we?

Ted Cruz Street - Well, my immediate takeaway from this was to be grateful Cecily, Pete, Mikey and Alex were written into this to keep it from being 100% centered around an Aidy impression I largely do not care for. Bert and Ernie provided the strongest laughs this had in my view. Pete as Joe Rogan was pretty funny too but I can't get over the sinking feeling I have that he may have singlehandedly just made Twitter insuffrable for the next 24 hours. Kyle and Chris tried their damndest to save the parts they were given and Melissa, Andrew and Pete were pretty much wasted (as was Count Aristotle but hey, at least that guys getting visible speaking parts now). Speaking of wasted cast members, while I usually like seeing Chloe as Britney, tacking her on to the end of this sketch was unnecessary. Still, at least they realized writing another apology based talk show sketch was NOT the way to go if they wanted to address the END of her conservatorship in a cold open. Thankfully, this wasn't too long. C-

Monologue - Thankfully, Jonathan comes right out of the gate with the type of energy this show needs to get off on the right foot. He seemed to be rushing this a bit, but he had a lot of confidence for someone who might be taking on the first ever comedic roles he's had in his career. B+

March Of The Suitors - It's nice to see Chloe get a lead-non impression role in this, but it seemed to have a bit of a shaky premise. Cecily got some chuckles, but Jonathan, Ego, Kenan and Punkie were the strongest parts of this. People who hate the way Mikey & Kyle are used in sketches are sure gonna have some issues with this one. Aidy, Andrew and Heidi were just...kinda there. Thankfully, this ended before it presented us with one suitor too many. C+

Three Sad Virgins - Well, as tired and played out of a trope as Pete's hip hop swag has been in the last three years worth of pretapes, it was smart of Please Don't Destroy to latch on to this and subvert each other's formats for a bit (in the earliest one of their shorts has got on the show, by the way).Taylor's guest verse was the perfect capper to this and it's good to see her return to the comedy portion of SNL twelve years after her successful hosting stint (I'd hate for that SNL40 Californians cameo to be the last thing she contributed to the show that wasn't a non-comedic musical performance). The only thing that bothers me about PDDs' presence at the top half of the show at this point is that they are still not officially credited as full cast members while doing so. Honestly, I can look past the nepotism by now. Still, if this goes viral (and it's got all the ingredients to) then I'm sure these boys have already secured their spots in the season 48 cast if enough people leave the show next year to the point that the cast will not be frustratingly huge with them in it. B+

Audacity Of Advertising Awards - So, apparently SNL awards show sketches either have to be interminable long or just edited far beyond what is necessary to the point of total incoherence and there's absolutely no middle ground (or self awareness) whatsoever? I honestly didn't care much for Heidis' Flo from Progressive and Jonathan noticably had quite a bit of trouble with his lines but thankfully Andrew, Alex, Kyle, James (in a rare non impression role) and Melissa had pretty solid bit parts. Also, why was tubi listed among the fake companies in the "in memoriam" segment? I quite enjoy tubi as a streaming service and didn't appreciate the out-of-nowhere slam (even if tubi just happened to go along with the theme of "infantile sounding names for new streaming platforms"). D+

Strange Kid Tales - I still don't quite know what to make of this except it felt like they just mashed Chance The Rapper's "First Impressions Court" together with Phoebe Waller-Bridges' "Mid-Day News" sketch and ended up with a sketch that, intentionally or not, came off like it was specifically designed to test the absolute limits of how much "Kenan Reacts" can be used in a script to save an aimless, directionless sketch. The child actors were a nice touch, though. I do recognize the kid playing Alex's son as the Mikeys' bearded son from the school board sketch from this season's premiere. I do have to wonder what his relationship to the show is? I did like seeing the final actress playing Heidi's daughter react to just having been on TV in general. That pretty much made the sketch for me. C+

Man Park - This was a rather unambitious premise (in terms of "relatable" humor) that was really saved by the performances and the fact that it was pretaped. As much as this felt like one of those pieces that SHOULD'VE hit too close to home for me personally, all the guys gleeful reactions to bonding with each other were what made this for me. The women played off of them (and each other well) and I especially liked the "Rick!/Morty!" shouting between Pete and Andrew (but I'm shocked that they seem to think the Killers Mr. Brightside meme reached all the dudebros before it died out). B-

Update was a shockingly high point in the middle of the show for once. Jost did a good job of getting the crowd on his side after that 10 minute Swift performance (considering the live audience was filled mostly with fans of hers anyways) and he and Che had quite a few great jokes. Josts' QAnon Shaman/nude Cambridge calendar/Vin Deisel open letter/DJ Khaled jokee were well constructed. As expected, Che was the one who tread the very shaky ground of the crying Rittenhouse testimony as well as only HE could. His Britney and Texas mask mandate jokes were telegraphed as hell but they still landed (he really shouldn't have rushed through the former to get to that very mid Josh Hawley joke but he had a nice save for the latter to transition us into that well done Santa Con joke). Ches' new e-bike joke may have been my favorite of his the whole night. It was really great to see Sarah got an Update commentary on. The fact that she was playing herself in a very meta deconstruction of the show was just icing on the cake. It may not exactly be as intense or as gleefully disturbing as what some were expecting from the woman we knew as "Sarah Squirm" prior to her joining SNL but as I said before, she's DEFINITELY someone the show had to ease the remaining generuc non-extremely-online portion of its audience into very gradually (and honestly, let's take a moment to be thankful the show is actually using her and letting her leave an impression if not for the sole purpose of shutting up those who've been saying she's been doomed since the premiere). Speaking of, great to see Aristotle suddenly get added to this Update at the last minute to bring out the second of his two Just For Laughs showcase characters (the first bring Angelo from the Rami Malek episode, the third being a Sir Patrick Stewart impression that I'd be surprised to see make it on air within the context of the bit). It was so expertly and intricately written and performed, too. The only thing negative I could possibly say about it is that I would hate to see Aristotle get baselessly accused of ripping off Max Headroom. Anyway, like I said, it's great to not only finally see SNL having been able to show us what all three of their new featured players this year can bring to the show but to also see the show allow their new featured players to have their big breakout moments during a show already taking place during sweeps month that ended up being very hyped up for ratings due to the musical guest that had just performed her big ten minute number. I could definitely see Sarah and Aristotle gaining some new fans and followers from the audience Swift bought to this show. A-

Broadway Benefit - I actually enjoyed this a lot more that I thought I would. It felt a lot more focused and sharp than previous Cecily/Bowen musical numbers. Plus, the premise of "a show tune about hard drug use with brief allusions sex acts and apparent suicide by LSD being performed in an upper class, cultured Broadway environment" was enough to keep my attention. Now, having seem the actual Rock Hudson/Bea Arthur duet this was based on and seeing that it was somehow a little bit MORE insane than the parody it inspired (I mean, Cecily and Bowen shockingly didn't work in any just straight up references to "poppers" or "amyl nitrates" like Hudson and Arthur did on one of her specials that presumably aired in primetime on CBS in 1980 nonetheless) I have to take a just a couple of points off but still, I appreciated how well crafted this was. Kyle and Aidys' parts felt a little unnecessary but thankfully they didn't cut to them too often. I guess I was a fool to expect this or "March Of The Suitors" to be the sketches Taylor makes a cameo in but at least this time my expectations were based on previous experience. B-

Dog Bones'-N-Melodies - Honestly, the thing that stood out the most to me was how Ego basically disappeared into her role of a male member of Bone Thugs-N-Harmomy. Otherwise, while I was glad Alex, Chloe and Kyle had small parts to keep this from getting too repetitive for its own good, I wish Kyle had a bigger part so he could unravel this premise a bit more (which felt so aimlessly silly I suspect Jonathan Majors may have pitched this himself on Monday). C+

First Damn Baptist Church - My main takeaway from this was how it felt like a much more successful version of Bowen pig boy/nightclub sketch where Kristen Stewart hit on Kenan and Ego as a similarly ages couple from two years ago. Otherwise, while Jonathan, Ego and Kenan did a fine job anchoring this sketch Kyle, Melissa, and Chris stood out the most to me out of those with small parts. Aidy was, once again, just kinda...there for me. Also, this sketch had just enough absurd lists and references to forgotten P!nk songs from 2003 to work for me. C+

Now, for my updated rankings of this season...

1. Jason Sudeikis/Brandi Carlile (10.23.2021)
2. Keiran Culkin/Ed Sheeran (11.6.2021)
3. Jonathan Majors/Taylor Swift (11.13.2021)
4. Rami Malek/Young Thug (10.17.2021)
5. Owen Wilson/Kacey Musgraves (10.2.2021)
6. Kim Kardashian-West/Halsey (10.9.2021)

Well, there was unexpected fun to be had this week! Next week, Simu "Shang-Chi" Liu makes his hosting debut with musical guest, rapper Saweetie. Again, this is another show I have to go into with zero expectations as both the host AND musical guest are first timers. The host, in particular, is another actor I don't believe I've seen in anything yet so hopefully this episode will be full of more fun surprises but given that it's the third show in a row and the show has had bad luck with their Thanksgiving episodes these past few years, I'm still going to tamper my expectations somewhat. See you then!

Keiran Culkin/Ed Sheeran (11.6.2021)

Okay, here's my review. Any way you look at it, this was a much stronger episode than I was expecting. Keiran Culkin proved to be such a strong host that you might have had a hard time believing (no matter how reliable an Inside source you may have on this) that the show hastily made a lot of last second changes to its rundown because they didn't have the utmost faith in Keiran as a host. Well, whatever reservations he may have had throughout the week, he obviously got over them pretty quickly. I would put this episode at about the same level as the Rami Malek episode because the highs seemed a little higher and this one made up for what that one lacked in writing and pacing. Kate is still gone for now but everyone who remained (except for Aristotle who is the subject of a rather jarring rumor right now that I hope isn't true) got a fair amount of airtime tonight. Anyway, this show was pretty straightforward so let's just get right to it.

Justice w/Judge Jeanine - Well, it's nice to see Cecilys' Pirro works just as well (if not better) than anchoring a parody of Pirros' actual FOX News show as she does on Update with Colin. Pete as Aaron Rodgers is something that works better on paper or in one's imagination than it does when you see it but he did just fine with the material he was given. Alex was allright, he may have seemed like the weak link here but he set up Heidis' character (my first real laughs in this, shades of Cheri Oteri there?) and played off JAJ real well. Speaking of which, as much as it feels oddly stuck out of time James Austin Johnsons' Trump impression finally making it on air (I'm honestly surprised it only took them a month to find a way to work this into the show to be honest) was still a pleasant surprise nonetheless. He really nailed both the voice and the energy of modern Trumps' rambling pointless rally speeches better than anyone who came before him (especially Baldwin even when he was starting out before Trump actually got elected). Honestly, the only Trump impressionist I can fairly compare JAJ to would be Anthony Atamanuik. JAJs' Trump is a strong enough impression to make me wonder where the hell he was five years ago (y'know...when SNL REALLY needed him) and why he and this show weren't actively seeking each other out. Among other things, JAJs' Trump also makes me wonder if SNLs' political writing during the Trump presidency would've done justice to JAJs' impression (Chris Kelly & Sarah Schneider I could see having some fun with him, but Jost & Che maybe not so much) as well as what SNL plans to do if somehow the real Trump does launch another run for the presidency in 2024. I do know that they've done a partially pretaped debate sketch in 1992 (when Dana Carvey had to play both Bush Sr. live and Ross Perot on tape) but maybe it would work better if they actually DID try to keep Alex Moffat on until season 50 so he could play Biden opposite JAJs' Trump in a 100% live debate sketch. B+

Monologue - Keiran showed very faint early signs of nerves here that he quickly got over. Nice to see the "solo monologue streak" continues this season. It's also nice to see Keiran somewhat subvert our expectations of said monologue a bit by showing a clip of the goodnights of his brothers' show rather than a clip of the Lil Richmeister/Da Bears Thanksgiving/Medieval Scalders sketches we were all expecting and NOT just bringing out Macaulay for a cameo either. I mean, I certainly wouldn't have minded a MacCauley cameo but again, it's always nice when the show doesn't always just do EVERYTHING we expect based on who the host is. B+

Spectrum Call Back - I love how Andrew Dismukes pretty much walked away with this with only one line. Bowen was a great addition too. Nice to see the show remembers that Melissa and Sarah are still in the cast from time to time. Everyone else kinda washed over me (no fault of their own, just the very rapid fire pacing of this sketch). If I had to venture an early guess as to who wrote this, I'd have to say this just SCREAMS "Please Don't Destroy" (the pacing, numerous different characters, a banal callback twist on top of a surreal twist at the end, the slight need for some cuts). C+

The Heist - This seemed like an inferior retread of "That's The Game" from two seasons ago with Harry Styles. Chris Kenan and Mikeys' performances were honestly the best thing about this for me. I didn't really care much for the ending. C-

Dionne Warwick Talk Show III - I'm not always the most hyped for this sort of thing but I have to say the real Dionnes' cameo pretty much saved this from being the weakest of the three of these for me. Chloes' Miley was all right (not sure yet if I'd say I like it better than Vanessa's but considering these two sketches used the same set I'd say it's a nice moment of this sketch coming full circle) but Jason Mraz was a real random choice for an impression for Keiran that (along with Petes' Malone and Andrews' spurned vaccinator) didn't do much for me. Ed Sheeran certainly was...there.. After him and Nick Jonas, I'm starting to hope they end the Dionne Warwick Talk Show here just for the sake of not having to see that weeks male pop singer host/musical guest just lazily rolled out into one of these just as themselves. B-

Men's Room - This may have been my favorite live sketch of the night. Chris really carried this early on (based on his bit from the cold open of last seasons' finale, I'm guessing he cowrote this?) and the assists from Bowen, Keiran, Andrew and (especially) Alex and (out of nowhere?) Tracy certainly helped. The ending seemed a little odd and rushed for time to me though (did everyone just decide they were gonna step on Alexs' closing line there?) A-

The Jockey - Just when I thought the pretapes as a whole were going to be the weakest part of this episode, this wonderful piece of '90s flavored, green screen fueled ska absurdity comes along! I loved the sheer level of commitment to a premise that seems to cartoonist both visually and conceptually. Plus, Keiran showed he had enough confidence in his (taped, at lesst) sketch comedy ability to sing which is something he's not known for. B+

Update was a little uneven in terms of jokes. Jost & Che got off to a bit of a slow start but I did genuinely like their Jersey/Durr, Virginia Lt. Gov/Trump Tomahawk Chop jokes. Kenans' Ice Cube is always fun and although some of the fake movie titles made me laugh, dragging and dropping Kenans' Ice Cube into his Lavar Ball template (anyone still remember that guy?) isn't the best use of this impression. Cecilys' "Goober The Clown Who Has An Abortion Just Before Her 23rd Birthday" was something that it took me a minute to get an accurate read on. At first, it seemed like something that would've been firmly in Sarah's wheelhouse until Colin addressed her as "Cecily" early on and then I realized this was WAY more in Kate's wheelhouse (she's the cast member I most associate with the recent SNL trope of what I like to call "fourth wall breakdowns" where cast members wrap their true life confessionals or just general real world anxiety in a goofy character or costume and then just stop and address the audience and their scene partners as "themselves" but...weknowdis). Anyway, I do know Cecily has been going through some rough personal developments in her life while doing this show, Schmigadoon and other projects these past few years (she even wrote a book about some of them) so for her sake I'm actually pretty relieved to see her finally work through some of her deep personal issues on the show. Also, did anyone else think that she and Chloe might have been having a bit of an emotional moment over this at the goodnights? B+

Wake Up, Rhode Island - Thankfully, this turned out to be something much more ominous and chaotic than either of the two sketch templates I was expecting when I saw a local morning news sketch being set up. Keiran and Punkie turned in solid performances here. Too bad this couldn't realistically escalate any further though. B-

Please Don't Destroy - Wow, even as a setup for a turn I usually never expect any dramatic acting from these guys but this turned out pretty funny. I'm more sold on them continuing these types of short films on the show after this one than I was after the Selzer short. Good to see them work Sarah into this one, too! B+

Now, for my updated rankings of this season...

1. Jason Sudeikis/Brandi Carlile (10.23.2021)
2. Keiran Culkin/Ed Sheeran (11.6.2021)
3. Rami Malek/Young Thug (10.17.2021)
4. Owen Wilson/Kacey Musgraves (10.2.2021)
5. Kim Kardashian-West/Halsey (10.9.2021)

Well, that was certainly another fun show! Next week, Jonathan Majors makes his hosting debut. Since he is another in a string of hosts who I've seen very little of acting-wise (I understand he's been in Marvel's Eternals and HBOs' Lovecraft Country) I'll be going into this with the same lack of real host expectations that I did for this and Ramis' episode and just hoping that the surprises will be pleasant ones. See you then!