Okay, here's my review. This was an episode that was shockingly far more uneven than last week. However, this is mostly due to the fact that the show was frontloaded with it's weaker material leaving it's truly great sketches at the bottom of the show. To me, this show started out with the strange feeling that something somewhere was a bit "off" but that may just be due to my own personal reservations about Mr. Gyllenhaal. Putting those aside just for a moment, I'll admit he was just as fine a host as he was 15 years ago. He seemed to be used more in this episode than his previous one but he still blended into the background a little too easily when he wasn't meant to be the main focus of a sketch. In fact, I heard that Jake was one of Jimmy Kimmels' guests (in L.A. of course) on Monday this week where even Kimmel questioned why he wasn't in New York as we speak. Since the last host I know of to have missed the Monday pitch meeting was Justin Beiber, I had a feeling Jake might have been just as difficult backstage, but thankfully there seemed to be no evidence of that onscreen. He still seems to have gotten along with everyone. Plus, Camilla Cabello turned in some fine musical performances. On the plus side, a lot of the newer, underused female cast members (and Alex Moffat) made major comebacks in terms of airtime this week! Still, Aristotle continues to be shut out and Pete continues to be skipping the show entirely. Other than that, the cast balance seems to makeup for the imbalance caused by this episodes runnning order. Let's just get right into it, shall we?
Kentanji In The Oval Office - Well, I liked where this WAS headed until Kate showed up but thankfully the queen of Gins-burns wasn't the sole focus of this. Kenan got it back on track. Punkie and Chris got the roles of a lifetime. Thankfully, this was more concise, focused and thoughtful than most of the political cold opens we've gotten this season. B-
Monologue - Well, I did like the mini-deep dive into his 2007 episode but I'm still not crazy about his singing (which doesn’t seem to have changed all that much in 15 years) but it's still preferable than another "personal" monologue where he goes on about method acting (which...honestly would've still been preferable to a monologue where he addresses the "All Too Well" drama at all). Oh, well. At least this was concise for a singing monologue that (thankfully) features Cecily, Ego and Chloe as backup singers. D+
Why'd You Like It? - Hmm, this felt like it could've been cut from literally any dress rehearsal since season 40 (which incidentally featured a sketch with Kevin Hart called "Why'd You Post That?" which was cut from Chris Rocks' episode earlier that season that this seemed to be a watered down version of). Still, Chris and Ego pretty much owned this with some assists from Kenan and Chloe (and helped offset the creepy "too on the nose" nature of Jake's presence in this) for me. C-
Dream Home Cousins - Hmm, I was hoping this would be more in line with the "House Hunters" and "Chopped" sketches Leslie Jones did with Melissa Villaseñor and Liev Schreiber in season 44. Unfortunately, this seemed to solely focus on Kate's unpleasant character (who had some decent line, I'll admit). Nice to see JAJ in another non-impression role but his intentionally weak character didn't do much for me. Overall, this sketch didn’t land. D+
The Cabaret Singers Four - Hmm, this seemed to be another "camp" sketch written solely for Cecily and Bowen to "vamp" in the vein of the one they did with Jonathan Majors (but with Jake and Kate sharing his role) but at least this had enough scattershot silliness to just barely work for me. C+
Flower Sprinkles - Hmm, Jake and Sarah in a sketch together was something I was hoping to see. Kenan, Cecily and Chris were solid here, too. Bowen performed well in spite of how badly he was greenscreened. Unfortunately, this seemed WAY to unfocused for its' own good and needed some serious edits to at least not feel like four rewritten versions of one sketch all jammed together. D+
Chucky - Now, THIS was a much better use of Sarah (and Chloe, Ego and DEFINITELY Melissa!) I love the insane amount if thought and visual work that went into this and the twist of Chuckys' reveal followed by the further twist of Aidy/Janet being openly badmouthed in the meeting and everyone simply being OK with that. B+
Update was more fun to watch for Che and Josts' chemistry than the jokes. However, I did like Josts' Tom Cotton/MTG Rabid Fox bite/Dosney hugs/injury attorney jokes and the meta turn in his "Will Smith should host next years Oscars as punishment" jokes. I also liked Che's Trump Capitol Steps/Obama/Miami/Tom Brady Gator/Lucky Charms jokes. I don't think we really needed to see Aidy and Bowens' trend forecasters again but I did like the "no more jogging to Kelly Clarkson" tirade and the "sounds" forecast (as well as Che being "out" as telegraphed as that was). As much as I don't like to think about who might have gotten cut, it was nice to see a short Update with only one commentary again. C+
Lights Camera Achoo - This was a very specific premise based sketch that was well acted by all involved (even if Mikey Day just had to Mikey Day the hell out of it and Cecily made a questionable choice). Plus, there was a neat little live TV verité moment with the fluid flinging stagehand crouching next to Kenan behind the bar and it was nice to see Alex and Andrew pop up. Still, it didn’t really go anywhere and the ending was kinda weak but it has to be my third favorite segment of the night. B-
Couple's Therapy - Well, Punkie is the lead in this sketch and it's the type of insane thing that ONLY Punkie could do. Plus, Melissa and Ego are her scene partners. Even Jake was put to good use here. So, automatically this is my second favorite sketch of the whole show. B+
Truck Drivin' Songs - Ooh, looks like somebody on the SNL writing staff must've been watching both John Oliver on HBO and old YouTube clips of Mason Ramsey on Sunday night and just ran with the first thing that popped into their head on Monday. This was an all right five-to-one sketch. Not all of the songs landed with me but everyone was great in it (especially Melissa and Andrew). I wasn't crazy about Aidys' performance here but I did like the idea of her doing an impromptu Wayne Porter vs Kim Plunkett/Jennifer Aniston for Privolin style fake ad for no one. C+
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. John Mulaney/LCD Soundsystem (2.26.2022)
6. Oscar Issac/Charli XCX (3.5.2022)
7. Jerrod Carmichael/Gunna (4.2.2022)
8. Jake Gyllenhaal/Camilla Cabello (4.9.2022)
9. Zoë Kravitz/Rosalía (3.12.2022)
10. Paul Rudd/
11. Jonathan Majors/Taylor Swift (11.13.2021)
12. Rami Malek/Young Thug (10.17.2021)
13. Willem Dafoe/Katy Perry (1.29.2022)
14. Will Forte/Måneskin (1.22.2022)
15. Ariana DeBose/
16. Owen Wilson/Kacey Musgraves (10.2.2021)
17. Kim Kardashian-West/Halsey (10.9.2021)
Well, that was that. It was the kind of show that made you really question what your owj expectations as a viewer were setting you up for. Next week, Lizzo returns to the show as not just mudical guest, but host as well! She may not have had much acting experience, but like most double duty pop star hosts the shoe tends to book she seems to have a big enough personality to do well with sketch comedy. See you then!
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