Okay, here's my review. Much like last week, I had low expectations for this show. This episode met them, but didn't exceed them. I'm certainly not Amy Schumers' biggest fan but she does get the show and is willing to work within it. After Meg and Harlow, it is at least nice to see the show return to writing for itself again and not having to work around a host with little to no comedic experience and write specifically to their brand and image. Aside from Devon, a lot of the newbies got plenty of screen time. In particular, Sarah, JAJ, Marcello, Bowen and Cecily had pretty good nights. Anyway, let's break it down, shall we?
Biden Address - If they were going to do another impression parade cold open, they were smart to have JAJ carry it on his back as Biden (with some slight assists from Marcello, Molly and Ego). Also, am I the only one disappointed in how weak Kenans' Tracy Morgan turned out to be? In any other season, this would probably be one of the more forgettable cold opens. Hopefully, the rest of this seasons' cold opens keep experimenting and trying to be different because I honestly wouldn't mind eating those words. C+
Monologue - For better or worse, the only part of this monologue that stood out to me was the portion about her husbands ASD diagnosis. Otherwise, this washed over me just as much as her 2018 monologue did. D+
Manny's Matzo Ball Soup - Some interesting directing choices (the dissolves between Amy and Marcello) and Kenans' song were really the only standouts to me here. Ego had a couple of good lines calling out Amys' character. Otherwise, this seemed like something that would’ve been better executed on Inside Amy Schumer than SNL. C+
Covid - As someone who had managed to only get Covid three months ago, my experience was (thankfully) pretty much identical to Sarahs' character. Andrew had some great lines, too. It's interesting to see how the shows' Covid material has evolved since...well, the last time Mulaney hosted 10 months ago which is the last time I remember them having done something explicitly Covid related. It's nice to see they took the same relatable/slice of life approach they took with last weeks' Biden horror pretape and applied it to Covid and made it less dire in an era when it was safe to do so. B+
Jury Reacts - This reminded me too much of two specific "overly expressive/too talkative background extra" sketches. One with Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler and Kirsten Dunst in 2002 and one sketch from "The New Show" with Steve Martin and Catherine O'Hara. This felt like it tried and failed to do what the latter did and added an ending that was OK but felt too rote for this era of SNL. While this sketch didn’t do a lot for me, I did like hoe each cast member sold the hell out of it. C+
Twitter Moderation Council - If they had to do a sketch on this weeks' Elon Twitter drama, I'm at least glad they used the new PDD improved town hall template even if that alone wasn’t enough to save this. Amys' character didn't really fit in with this sketch thematically and probably should've been cut entirely. JAJs' Trump would've been a better addition if it didn’t feel way too telegraphed. Cecily, Bowen and Punkie were great, though. C-
The Looker - This sketch was oddly the complete inverse of the Matzo Ball sketch in that it was a very SNL premise that was executed like an Inside Amy Schumer piece. Aside from the high school wrestling champ pretape from Jonah Hills' 2016 episode and the "loser" pretape from John Krasinskis' episode, every sketch the show where one character is just there to cringe as embarrassing personal secrets are revealed about them has been done live. Frankly, aside from how well they used JAJ and Marcello, I felt like I had seen this too many times to really get into it. D+
Update was probably the worst it has been all season. The only jokes that stood out to me were Che's Kanye Instagram and Josts loser baby/monkey firearm/beach grenade jokes because they were the only ones that didn’t seem too lazy or poorly constructed (and thus mu only genuine laughs of the whole night). Che and Jost both looking as gassed out as ever didn’t help matters much either. Cecilys' trucker commentary seemed was nice but it seems like something that would’ve had way more impact had she not already done Goober the clown last year. Again, I appreciated the message but what I appreciated even more was Cecilys' lack of commitment to the bit. C-
Jets Tailgate - Boy, SNL sure loves to make Jets fans look like total bastards, huh? This felt like a mid 2000s era MAD TV sketch to me. Not just because of the overall meanness of it but because I've literally (callback unintended) seen MAD TV do so many sketches where "people displaying cognitive dissonance" was the main theme that it's easy to lose count. (that, and it reminded me a lot of Darrell Hammonds' Bill Kurtis sketch from sesson 30). Still, this was a sketch I actually liked and could still appreciate how everyone sold the hell out of it. I was honestly surprised that Seidell and Tucker wrote this because it gave me strong Che/Rosebud vibes initially until I realize it didn’t try to go as far or swing for the fences conceptually as much as Rhylee Rainbowlocks (which Rosebud wrote) did last April. I genuinely laughed at the reveal of children walking by and JAJ having his wheelchair stolen. B+
Pinx - This is something that felt jarringly out of place to me for SNL...or any modern sketch show really as I can't even imagine Inside Amy Schumer or any era of MAD TV doing this either. Part of me wants to appreciate SNL taking such a wild risk but, I dunno I personally just couldn't get that into this one. C-
WKTVN News - This had to have been the weakest sketch of the night for me. It was an absolute incoherent mess. It felt like they pretty much threw those America Undercover sketches from Amy Poehlers' first season in a blender with Mikey Days' Matt Schatt and American Girl Doll sketches with a dash of Cecilys' Own Trashy Accent Flavored Chex Mix. This was a good use of Molly, Marcello and JAJ though. Kudos to Michael Longfellow for getting such a substantial role even if he seemed a little young and green for it (even if that was the whole point of his character the performances around him, especially from Bowen, didn’t help). D+
Big Penis Therapy - I liked what this sketch was going for but it didn’t feel like it went anywhere. I kept expecting some kind of big reveal from Amy's character but instead it kinda belabored its own point with the whole veganism/beer/church spiel that honestly should've been cut. Good use of Sarah here, though. She's been getting a lot of support roles which I'm glad to see but at the same time I'm left wondering when they're going to let Sarah Sherman be Sarah Squirm without cutting her voice from the show entirely. C+
Big Dumb Hat - This sketch felt like SNL was parodying and badly deconstructing itself. It was like a cross between Cecily and Vanessa's porn stars and the pig tails sketch from last seasons finale. It pretty much confirms that Heidi and Chloe as a pair are going to be the ones filling the Aidy and Chloe void on the show but giving us a more empty and generic "dumb white girl" version of what they were doing. This is pretty evident in the fact that Amy Schumer was the one doing the most to sell this. Also, this sketch pretty much cements the fact that they've found a niche for Marcello and that niche seems to be "let's put him in the sleazier type male roles we used to give to Kyle Mooney." D+
1. Brendon Gleeson/Willow (10.08.2022)
2. Jack Harlow (10.29.2022)
3. Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar (10.01.2022)
4. Amy Schumer/Steve Lacy (11.05.2022)
5. Megan Thee Stallion (10.15.2022)
Well, this episode pretty much gave me exactly what I expected. Next week, Dave Chappelle returns for his third time hosting and...honestly, all I can say at this point is I'd like to think that at least Dave has his own head farther up his own ass than Lorne and the show do at this point. It wouldn't be too fair to say otherwise because the show must be getting DESPERATE to book literally ANY host at this point and whoever has replaced Lindsay Shookus is obviously having a rough first few months on the job right now. It's become pretty apparent that Lorne is the least adept at reading the room out of anyone working at this show (Chappelle is definitely giving him a run for his money as far as anyone working in comedy in general) but most other people working there must be pretty self conscious going into next week (ESPECIALLY whoever is in charge of SNLs' social media presence right now given how they waited to abnounce this). Honestly, at this point, if Molly turns out to be a "one season wonder" by this time next year, I certainly wouldn't blame them as it's hard for me to picture them NOT just leaving voluntarily depending on how this week alone turns out for them (and possibly Bowen, too now that I think about it). At least if this week turns out to be like the last time he hosted, his monologue will likely be the worst part of the show (however long they let him make it) and that will be one of only three segments he'll actually be in. I mean, you really have to think about what's at stake with these midterms if they think this is an important enough election to have Chappelle come back and host..Oh well, see you then.
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