Okay, here's my review. As expected, Billie Eillish turned out to be a fun double duty pop star host. She seemed to carry herself with a quiet confidence (in spite of herself as she would go in to explain to us) and bought the right level of energy to a very slightly uneven show. The writers seemed to know how to use her. Kate McKinnon finally returned and somehow managed to NOT take away anyone's airtime. No, not even Melissa suffered any side effects from both Kate and Billie (someone whom she previously impersonated) being in the building. Still, for some reason Cecily, Sarah, JAJ, Alex, Chris Pete were forced to take a backseat but at least this meant Andrew, Aristotle and Punkie got plenty of moments to shine! Anyway, let's break this down, shall we? It was a pretty straight forward show.
The Return Of The Mighty CDC Art Players - Well, they clearly just took the cold open from the Keegan Michael-Key episode in May, sprinkled in some Christmas references and added a few new impressions just to accommodate Kate's return from Australia this week. The Cuomo Bros. segment was the high point of this. Andrew Dismukes wouldn't have been my first choice to play Chris but he did well with the material they gave him. I did like seeing Cecilys' MTG again (especially since this turned out to be her only appearance of the entire show) and she had some good material as well. As a Coloradan (who is dangerously close to bring gerrymandering into her district) I have mixed feeling about Lauren Boebert finally making it on SNL. While I appreciated Chloes' take on her (even though Heidi would've been my first pick) I feel like they could've been a bit harder on her if they tried. As expected, Aidys' Cruz has just become white noise to me at this point. C+
Monologue - I liked seeing the more articulate side of Billie. She really seemed to have a clearly focused energy here. The jokes about her wardrobe were kinda iffy but I did like hearing about how she learned to accept herself and I did also get a kick out of her detailing how her mom killed her dreams of acting in a movie. Also, she was smart to realize early on "when in doubt, burn Colin Jost out of no where". C+
Silent Night Gallery - Right off the bat the things I liked the most about this sketch were how they gave Alex and Melissa prominent roles as the anchors of this sketch (wow, I guess they really DID break the trend of shutting Melissa out of the show completely when a celebrity she does an impression of hosts, huh? Finally!) and how much more a creative twist on the "rejected/damaged ornament parade" sketches we saw with Lucy Liu and Matt Damon. Honestly, it didn't really start to pick up steam until the first Kenan/Bowen segment. The Punkie/Miley card was pretty funny and a clever way to work in that understandable-this-week-and-hyped-up-a-bit-on-Twitter-once-it-happened-at-dress-yet-still-somehow-inexplicable cameo. Good for Billie for managing to be the strongest performer in the lead off sketch in her first episode as host. B-
TikTok Scrolling - I had some reservations about this at first but I'm glad I stuck with it the whole way and gave it a chance. At first, it seemed like Driver's License/Squid Game levels if "how do you do, fellow kids" trend/song/streaming show/ thing acknowledgment solely written to pander to the GenZ audience they expected Billie to bring in. Then, I noticed the rapid fire pacing of each individual TikTok gag and decided to along with it. Near the end, I noticed how about four or five of these TikTok characters turned into their own runners and were each given their own conclusion. Yes, this is one of the rare times in SNL history where a pretaped piece had its' mere existence justified by both it's pacing AND it's payoff! Naturally, Billie and Squirmy were very in their elements here. Kenan, Chris, Punkie, Heidi and Melissa were highlights. Pete, Ego, Bowen, Kate, Mikey and Aidys' material kinda washed over me but at least Aidy had the payoff of Kyle's character bring tied (no pun intended) into her storyline. Andrews' 2008 acoustic guitar rap covers were great. Chloes' growing conspiratorial insanity really grew on me. Finneas provided my first genuine laugh in this given the pacing and how certain cast members were just giving us their same old selves. Good to see JAJ being able to work his (improving) Homer Simpson impression into two consecutive episodes. Aristotle gave us a nice subversion of a tired old internet trend. Alexs' Dad getting in on this was a nice addition. B+
Hip Hop Nativity Pageant - Surprisingly, Heidi and Billie turned in my favorite performances in this with Chris a close third and Dismukes a slightly distant fourth and all the rest just set dressing. Billie was surprisingly well suited for her character (even though her and Heidi seemed like they were performing a script cowritten by Dan Licata and Stephen Castillo for Kristen Wiig last year that got cut at the table read). Honestly, the only problem I had with this one was its' serious lack of an appropriate ending. C+
Lonely Christmas - Hmm, I guess Kate returned slightly earlier in the week than I thought. Either way, while I thought most of Kates' "twists" were a little obvious and low stakes I did like the twist of Mikeys' entire "Rutger" character bring a victim of Kate's Munchausen by Proxy. The Next door tag wasn't too great a twist but I appreciated it nonetheless. C+
Update was a little uneven at first. Colins' Jussie Smollett jokes didn't quite land with me but pretty much every joke that followed did. The Russia/Ukraine and Anime/Omicron jokes were saved by Josts' delivery of it. The Vaccine cards and Cuomo jokes felt too much like retreads of the cold open to me and the Nunes joke should've just been cut. The Ghislane/Epstien and women doctors' jokes were pretty much saved by their audience reaction (or Che & Josts' response to the formers' lack thereof in the case of the former). Other than that, the rest of their jokes were alright. Punkies' commentary was so solid I'd say she immediately earned the right to giggle through the beginning and end of her debut as herself doing her own standup act at the Update desk. Hell, I'm just glad to see anyone added to the cast mid-Covid get any airtime this week. Speaking of which, Andrew's commentary gave me some odd deja vu but I loved how he sold the sheer ennui of it (even more than the dog was willing to...seriously, did NO ONE just think to turn the dogs' cart around? I mean, at this point, you might as well let a stage hand be visible on camera and at least TRY to create another "Inside The Beltway" style blooper. It might have actually behooved Dusmukes' tenure on the show). B+
The Night I Met Santa - Obviously, Billie seemed the most in her comfort zone here as the sketch as it was centered on her singing smooth jazz. She, Ego and Kate really sold the low key absurdity of it and Kenan as Santa was a nice touch. I'm actually shocked that PDD did NOT write this as it fit so well with their style of "awkward absurdity that lands just well enough for me personally" but at a much slower pace. B-
Kyle's Holiday - This is the second deja vu moment I've had tonight. I feel like we've seen numerous variations on the "Kyle tries and fails hard to awkwardly bond/make plans with his castmates outside the show". In fact, this reminded me the most of a piece that I think git cut from either last years' Dan Levy or Regina King episodes where Kyle tries to organize a Valentine's day party with the cast. Still, I did like how they changed things up by taking the turn towards "sweet and heartwarming then suddenly extremely dark and creepy with several 'Inside Baseball/fan service references for regular SNL viewers along the way." Good to see Kyles' trajectory on the show still going upwards when he's by himself. A-
Business Garden - Right off the bat, I appreciate how Kate is paired with Billie rather than Aidy. Even if they both still inexplicably broke, it's something a little different (and something we can give Billie a break for, I mean...c'mon). Aidy was put to slightly better use as the manic front desk pamphlet lady. Once again, Phineas comes out of nowhere with the best performance of the whole sketch. That was the only thing that stood out to me here since I feel like I've seen so many Anna Drezen penned bad local Kste commercials (and commercials parodying bad hotel amenities in general) that most of it kinda washed over 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. Simu Liu/Saweetie (11.20.2021)
4. Billie Eillish (12.11.2021)
5. Jonathan Majors/Taylor Swift (11.13.2021)
6. Rami Malek/Young Thug (10.17.2021)
7. Owen Wilson/Kacey Musgraves (10.2.2021)
8. Kim Kardashian-West/Halsey (10.9.2021)
Well, that was just as much fun (and a bit more restrained) than I expected. Next week, Paul Rudd returns to host the final SNL of 2021 AND join the five-timers club. Even though his last episode was pretty forgettable without a big name musical guest seemingly there JUST to overshadow him (which at this point, I'd honestly say Charli XCX has about a 50/50 chance of doing depending on what she gets to do and how the show uses her) he will be a welcome comedic presence (especially at Christmas time). See you then (oh and speaking of Christmas, be sure and check out my guest appearance on the Saturday Night Vibes podcast where Greg, Emily and myself each break down our favorite Christmas sketches. Enjoy!)
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