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!