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!