Okay, here's my review. Michael B. Jordan is definitely my pick for the best host of this season, no doubt about it. He had a strong presence and showed endless charisma right out of the gate. He also seemed to attract a lot of his own female fans into the audience based on some of their reactions (especially from Update onward). The newer, more underused cast members even got plenty of chances to shine (JAJ, Marcello and Squirm in particular). Molly was the only cast member who was shut out of the show entirely but other than that there was a near perfect balance of newbies vs old veterans (Kenan, Mikey, Heidi, Ego) getting big lead roles tonight. I would say this is the second best episode of the season simply because it felt like there were a lot of retreads (intentional or not) of premises we've seen before. I'll explain what I mean, so let's get to it.
Merrick Garlands' Document Search - Hmm, another "off the beaten path" political open for this season, allright. Those opening graphics and Steve Higgins voice over were way more than this sketch warranted, though. Mikey seemed to just be doing a sharper, harder edged version of his "super centenarian" character from season 44 mixed in with a bit of Dana Carveys' "Grumpy Old Man" character (if Garth Algar aged into him) but it was fun enough for a sketch where he wasn't the sole focus. Kenans' character was all right. At least he gave us a different take on Mike Pence than "lol he gay" but "an unpopular Republican politician who desperately any form craves human contact" is a take I've already seen assigned to Ted Cruz. Ego's part was essentially Ego but very brief and the same could pretty much be said about Bowen what with him essentially playing his role as "culturista/name dropper/star fucker". Also, while it wasn’t completely wrong for SNL to briefly mention the situation going on in Memphis right now, I would’ve rather they done so in a more sincere and focused way in the middle of Weekend Update rather than as just an odd button on the end of this cold open. C+
Monologue - Well, Michael B. Confident. Michael B. Hiding His Aforementioned Nervousness VERY Well. Michael B. Carrying Off This Monologue Expertly. Michael B. Giving Me The Impression He Will Be A Strong Host. However, Michael NOT B. Needing The Female Cast Hitting On Him Mid-Monologue But Hey, I Didn’t Hate Seeing It (but I have to give them SOME credit because I can really only think of one other time they did this with a male host instead of a female host and it was just recent enough that both Chloe and Ego were in it too). B+
Good Morning Today - Wow, Sarah B. Gettin' One Of Her Patented Cronenberg-Lite Concept Sketches On Air Post Fucking Monologue And Michael B. In It Willing To Make Himself Look As Equally Ridiculous As Her (and Andrew B. Sticking The Landing)! Way To Go! This may have dragged a little but I'll very glad to see this make it to air. B-
Southwest Airlines - Well, I am vaguely familiar with what has been going on lately with Southwest Airlines but I feel like you didn't need to be to get the basic jokes in this since they didn’t feel too specific. This reminded me too much of the airline ad from season seven and the "we learn something from every crash" sketch from Roseannes' season 20 episode for me to say anything else about it except that I can relate a little too well to working at a job where you just get yelled at all day and they only give you a 2002 IBM Thinkpad Laptop with the little red nipple on the keyboard. C+
Towell Guys - Wow, Marcello B. Getting His Sketch On, Too (allright, allriiiiiiight, I'll stop this now and start putting some damn effort into writing this thing already). Yeah, so good for Marcello for getting a sketch on with some funny lines and being able to hold his own next to Kenan, JAJ and Michael B but this felt too much like Kenan just threw all of his David Ortiz commentaries in a blender with Key and Peeles' valet sketches and Beck and Kyles' waterslide lifeguard sketch with Reese Witherspoon from season 40 (and maybe a dash of "fresh pepper" from season 20 but Kenan definitely knew when to say when). I mean, it was still fun to watch but it could’ve used a bit more structure to it. The Tony Soprano jokes got the biggest laughs from this our of me. JAJ and Sarah was definitely my favorite of all the side characters asking for towels (or an umbrella in the case of the latter). B-
Jake From State Farm - I felt like I immediately knew where this was going as soon as I saw Mikey, Heidi and Mr. Jordan all on screen together at once and I was expecting a retread of the Roach-Ex pretape from Don Cheadles' episode. Thankfully, this took a slow left turn once Heidi mentioned the kids went to church. I immediately thought "ok, this is going to be just wholesome enough to subvert my expectations." Then, it gradually went into M3GAN-like, dark, psychological thriller territory into a grittier version of Its' A Wonderful Life when Andrew and the Limu Emu showed up (I liked how that was literally the only time a "surprise twist" ending where it is revealed that there is a different sponsor you weren't expecting actually worked and I liked how they stuck with using that cheap looking Emu puppet in such a glossy detailed pretape). A-
Street Fighter Sessions - I was expecting a retread of the J.J. Watt/Owen Wilson voice over sketches and ended up getting something that felt more like a retread of a Eli Manning EA Sports sketch. I figured this would go a different way once Mikey showed up WAY later than I expected. I will say Andrew was really the glue that held this together and Michael B. Delivering His Lines In A Way That Didn't Let The Jokes In His And Bowens Back-And-Forth Breathe (GOD. DAMMIT!!! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just...yeah, I saw what I was setting myself up for there and just...couldn't stop myself. Trust me, it WON'T happen again. I promise you that). C+
Update kept up the energy from last week but it was still kinda all over the place. Weirdly, Jost had the better jokes tonight (I especially liked his Disney/Dopey/new coat jokes as it gave me my biggest chuckle) but Che seemed to take some wild swings that mostly missed (that Taylor Swift joke in particular felt like a HUGE misfire...not that the joke was bad or anything but it just seemed like the type of joke that would’ve played better had it been told five years ago in some alternate universe where the show DIDN'T manage to get Tay-Tay on to plug "reputation"...man, they must've completely given up on ever getting her on again...and also, I think Che mentioning the "cat turd" Twitter account was a mistake too but he's not on Twitter so he won't see it...Che did kinda win me back with that Kanye joke though). I expected the first commentary to be Sarah for a second when wealth inequality was mentioned but then when I heard the word "doorman" I correctly expected Kenan and I gotta say his character felt a little aimless but he won me over with that "barking dog" joke. I like that he added some absurdity to the typical "Che is a degenerate deadbeat dad" fare. I was probably a little more surprised than I shouldn't been seeing Heidi bring Angel out of mothballs. I thought the "every boxers girlfriend" trilogy concluded with Damons' appearance as...well, THE boxer in question but then Michael B. Reprising His "Creed" Role...MOTHERFUCKER!!! SHIT!!! Ok, THAT was the last one. No really, I'm DONE with it! Shows you what a promise from me is worth, huh? C+
Male Confidence Seminar - This was definiteley Andrew Dismukes best role of the night (and possibly his best role of his entire tenure in the cast tonight). JAJ had his second best role of the night but it's good to see him branch out a little and give us a new voice. Devon did some good character work but I'd like to see him rely on giving himself lisps at random a little less. Longfellow and Marcello has good one-liners. This would not be the last time Dismukes and MBJ would play off each other tonight but to me it was the best for how pointed and focused within its own premise it felt. B+
Palm Springs Bachelorette Weekend - This just felt like it was written to be female eye candy even more blatantly than the monologue (but with Sarah included in a capacity where her presence would make sense) until Heidi showed up and I immediately flashed back to that Woody Harrelson season 45 sketch where he was a high school football coach and she played his inappropriately young girlfriend. It immediately became clear that this was gonna be another "Heidi plays an obnoxiously dim woman accidentally dragged by her man into an inappropriate situation she does not belong in" sketch an from there everything felt too telegraphed for me. Also, this feels like something Heidi cowrote too just to see what it would take to get Ego, Chloe and Sarah to break on air. Still, no one really broke and everyone was so professional here that they all just blew past MBJ casually dropping a caught-just-in-time-to-be-muted F-bomb on air like it was nothing (I knew I could've be the only one that caught that one since catching the same night rerun in my area they obviously replaced this with the dress version and that is the second time this exact thing happened this season...and now that I think about it, the blatant "other camera barging into frame" shot was probably the other reason for this). C+
King Bros. Toyota Vs. The Coward Hugo Gallegos & Raising Canes - This might have been my favorite live sketch of the night and not just because it was JAJ biggest non-impression lead role in a sketch to date and how the continued chances Dismukes got to play to his strengths continued. I loved how increasingly detailed this got as they doubled down on the threats of vengeance and petty specificity of it all. I also loved the frequent references to Marcellos' character only seen in still photo form. They even found a way to make MBJs' presence make sense in this. Hell, I know there's an actual Raising Canes restaurant that opened up near me recently that I'm now curious to try out sometime. A-
Michael B. Falling Down (grrrrr) - Wow, I never knew Michael B. Jordan was such a gifted physical conedian. Maybe he's been playing the long game this whole time and has only been taking all these acting roles just to get to host SNL someday and show off his ability to take a fall. Somewhere Chevy Chase is quietly seething about twice as much as he normally does on any given day. Anyway, I liked how well MBJ and Dismukes played worthy adversaries (with some assists from Bowen and Squirm) and...HOLY SHIT I HAVE to meet whoever at SNL has an actual vintage issue of MAD magazine just hanging on the corkboard in their office. Anyway, yeah I liked this. The only thing negative I can say about this is that it reminded me of the much inferior "Drake's Beef" short from season 41 where he just raps about how much he likes Josh Gad more than that cast and crew after petty slights (maybe I just noticed a slight physical resemblance between Drake and MBJ? I dunno). I'd be especially curious to know who wrote this because if it's NOT PDD, it is DEFINITELY someone aping their style. B-
Now, my latest ranking of the season so far...
2. Michael B. Jordan/Lil Baby (01.28.2023)
3. Dave Chappelle/Black Star (11.12.2022)
4. Steve Martin & Martin Short/Brandi Carlile (12.10.2022)
5. Keke Palmer/SZA (12.03.2022)
6. Austin Butler/Lizzo (12.17.2022)
7. Jack Harlow (10.29.2022)
8. Brendon Gleeson/Willow (10.08.2022)
9. Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar (10.01.2022)
10. Amy Schumer/Steve Lacy (11.05.2022)
11. Megan Thee Stallion (10.15.2022)
Now, it's time to introduce a new 10 year anniversary feature to my blog that I like to simply call "Fan Mailbag". This is where I invite you, my loyal long-time readers to submit actual fan questions to me and I answer them here on the blog.
Like I mentioned here last week, the fans of mine who read this blog and regulary give me valuable feedback mean the world to me and you are what drives me to keep this going so...please forgive me if the regular review portion of this weekends' blog post seemed a little rushed or thrown together at the last second. I wanted to make sure I had enough time and energy to get this new feature in here because I know for sure that i would especially a lot to one of you in particular. Plus, it kinda helped that this show didn’t give me a whole lot to unpack and over analyze so I wanted to move through it quickly to get to this point right here.
Anyway, this week's inaugural question was submitted by a dear friend of mine who goes by the name of Ken George Jones (among other names) who writes...
"What made you become a fan of SNL, and what keeps you watching SNL?"
Well, I'd say I became a fan literally from birth. My parents were fans of the show from its inception and the were really the ones who introduced me to it. They actually invited my sister and I to stay up late with them and watch the show live Saturday nights on NBC. Sometimes they would do the sanme thing with early MAD TV, All That and Kids In The Hall. They wanted it to be a formative part of our senses of humor and by gum, it worked. What keeps my watching it is mainly that it's always been such an integral part of my life from having been ingrained into my personality from an almost irresponsibly young age (hell, I'd say about 96% of my earliest childhood memories are centered around the show in some way) but going beyond that I'd say I've just always been drawn to anything having to do with comedy, parody and satire in my life (and especially people, places and things that have been considered long running "institutions" in that field like MAD/CRACKED, MST3K, Weird Al, The Simpsons and other "adult" animated shows, etc) and since I watched it from a young age and the show did a lot of topical/political humor I'd say it had a way of helping me process the world around me to the point where it didn’t because it would be pretty ignorant and un-hip to say that about how the show does what it does now. I've always been intrigued by the "live" aspect of it as well (that NBC has been playing up more and more in recent years, because let's face it...they, and really all of broadcast television in general now really have nothing else going on) that makes you feel like you're watching along with the whole rest of the country in real time even when you're alone. There's not much else besides sports and internet livestreams that do this now but SNL is so fine tuned and carefully crafted to be what it is that it's still really the only thing of it's kind nearly five decades later. The last thing I want to mention here is just the fact that it's something I grew up loving as a part of my life for a long time so naturally I was drawn to online communities of similar minded fans who wanted to discuss the show and similarly analyze it and find out all there is to know about all it's previous eras that may have been before our time, which, of course, led me...here of all places. When somethings' been around that long and stuck around and has absolutely refused to give into the battle against its' own looming irrelevancy, you naturally want to learn more and more abour its history and how it evolved to stick around in wildly changing times.
Thank you, Ken! Here's hoping at lesst part of that answered your question they way you hoped it would!
Remember, if YOU out there would also like your own fan mailbag questions answered by me (or if you would like to write your own guest post on the blog like Blood Meridian) please either leave them in the comments or privately reach out to me elsewhere.
Well, SNL certainly continues on it's upward trend into the new year! Next week, Pedro Pascal makes his hosting debut. I thought I was the only one who knew that guys' name from somewhere but couldn't think of anything I'd seen him in or known him from (or even what he looks like, to be honest). Thank God some of you are in the same boat as me. Oh, well. He seems to have a devoted fanbase from the stuff he's been in so he must leave a great impression on people as an actor. I'm sure he'll make it a fun show. See you then!
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