Okay, here's my review. All things considered, my expectations for this episode were at the floor. It was a season premiere coming back from a WGA strike that ended a mere three weeks earlier so I knew they'd have a few more weeks of cobwebs to shake off than they normally would around this time. Plus, there was some dire geopolitical news for the show to have to navigate. Oddly enough, Pete as a host was the strongest part of the show. He really gave it his all performance wise and didn’t do all the things we expected him to based on his previous eight year stint in the cast. Maybe we all just underestimated Pete or maybe we all just forgot about tye possibility that Pete could be a great guy to actually work with behind the scenes. We all know Pete has a deep heartfelt connection to this show and the people he worked with here and it really did come through on his part. It's clear that Pete actually did want to come back and host this season and from this episode one can see how he has a comittment and a strong enough presence to put the show over when it needs a little extra help this week of all weeks. Thankfully, this season's premiere only seemed to be dealing with external baggage rather than the internal baggage they were all too willing to put on full display around this time last year. I know I joked just before the strike started that this episode should have the words "TOO SOON" stamped all over it in big red letters but instead it seemed to have the words "COMFORT FOOD" and "SWEATILY ASSEMBLED DESPERATE ESCAPISM" stamped all over it in big red letters. Thankfully, none of the cast got completely shut out of the show and nobody new got Luke Null'ed off screen. Also, goid to see PDD get the Robert Smigel TV Funhouse treatment in the opening credits. I suppose if they were never going to be added to the cast, this would be the next best thing. Anyway, let's break this down, shall we?
Cold Open - Well, up until this week, this was not the cold open I expected this episode to have (especially for a season premiere coming back from a WGA strike no less) but this was a very important, urgent issue weighing on everyone's minds and at least it was done in an appropriate and respectful manner. Also, Pete's known for making comedic hay out of his personal life but this may be the first time he's made a truly meaningful personal connection to the audience using the event that impacted his young life the most at a time that truly called for it. We all know they like to open with the hard news these days and when the hard news is dominated by tragedy, they gotta do what they gotta do. I appreciated that they weren't too concerned with taking a side or a hard stance on the Israel/Palestine conflict and that this was done in the same vein as what Cecily did mid-season 41 and what Lorne (and only Lorne) did to open season 27.
Monologue - After all the tabloid drama Pete has been through in nearly a damn decade, it's nice to see Pete can deliver a classic hand mic standup monologue in such a way that he could almost make you forget he was ever even on this show before (or even if you're just tuning into SNL tonight after somehow having been made aware of the shows' existence for tte first time in your life last week you could be watching this monologue and think to yourself "Wowa Who's THIS kid? He's really gonna go places someday!") All he needed to do to bring up the energy level after that cold open was to emphatically scream the word "incest" at us during a bit about Game Of Thrones. I also liked the football coach jokes and even the obligatory Staten Island self-flaggelation took an unexpectedly dark and personal turn that worked for me, too. It was a great upending of the shows' expected format to do this as a monologue instead of having him do it as an Update piece straight into the camera. The last thing the show would want to do right now is call attention to the fact that this is one of only two rare times I can think of when a cast member is hosting the show with the same Weekend Update anchors as they had when they left. A-
NFL on FOX - Uh oh, just from the on set bumper I accurately smelled a Swift sketch! I guess since we didn't get one of those "political checklist" cold opens tonight that leaves them room to apply that approach to pop culture try and spread that exact same energy through at least the middle third of the show (either that or this WAS originally this week's cold open before they decided on Thursday or Friday that a different approach was necessary). Well, at least this one was actually well written and should convince the Swifties out there that at least some of SNLs writers are on their side. Having seen Mikey show off his friendship bracelet (confirming his Swiftie status) I'm guessing he had a hand in writing this? Anyone else get any flashbacks to the Jeremy Lin cold open from Maya Rudolphs' season 37 episode? Petes' role as the sideline reporter was the comedic high point of this for me. He definitely gave me the most laughs. The Travis Kelce cameo seemed a little gratuitous and tacked on but I will hand it to them that it tracks with his numerous public statements on not wanting his new love life to be the focus over his performance on the field. In fact, Travis (whom I had absolutely zero expectations of seeing on thr show at all during the regular football season) seemed so rushed and tacked on to the end of this that I have zero trouble believing that neither he nor Taylor were present at dress rehearsal. What I am having some trouble believing is that neither of them had anything better to do together tonight (heyooooooo!). B-
Seriously though, while I do genuinely LIKE seeing Taylor on the show (or anywhere for that matter) and I know she lives in New York and all but having her come on JUST to introduce the SECOND Ice Spice performance (and I know they're supposedly great friends and all and Ms. Swift is nothing if not extremely supportive of her friends) may have been the most baffling way they used a "big get" cameo in recent memory. At first, I thought she may have backed out of a planned sketch cameo between dress and air but now I'm starting to think the show wanted to have her on but were afraid of a massive applause break throwing off the whole shows timing causing sketches to be cut or drastically edited.
He's Just Pete - You know, I honestly still haven seen Barbie but thankfully I've read enough about Ryan Gosling having done songs for the movie that this monologue didn’t quite go over my head. Still, I would say this was preferable to another Yo! Pete Raps ditty or a sequel to Three Sad Virgins with Ice Spice. My only real complaint us that I thought the black hoodie/BDE dance number could've been edited out (along with maybe the crash at the end and the brief Ye memlntion but screw it they way they pulled that off made me giggle). I did like the acknowledgement up top from Punkie and Dismukes of the questionable nature of Pete hosting...really at all as well as the magazine shot of Pete dating Lois Griffin and Devon as "Black Pete". It was a great change up from people's pre-concieved notions of what this particular show was gonna be that we got this instead of another "Chad" pretape, that's for damn sure. B+
Wired Autocomplete Interview - Um, did someone resubmit a sketch that got cut from the table read for Jonah Hills' 2018 episode? No? Wait, what's that? This sketch was based on a recent real life incident? Well, Ok, then. I've never seen a sketch before that I could describe as "SNL parodies a type of viral YouTube video that Casey has never seen beyond the thumbnail" but they pulled it off expertly! I did like how this quickly escalated to light absurdity and then ended it at the exact right moment. C+
Trudy - Well, I felt like this didn't really go anywhere but I liked it a bit more than I liked a lot of Heidi-centric sketches from previous seasons even if it didn't seem to go anywhere interesting besides just having a random burst of Farleyesque physical shtick out of nowhere. C-
PDD: Princes Of Comedy - This might have been my favorite piece of the night. I loved how the child actors playing Ben "Smoke Dawg" Marshall, J.D. Higgins and Big Mart-Mart Herlihy really sold the hell out of 90s/00s Def Jam comedy that (even by its own admission) does NOT hold up. I even appreciated Pete referring to Ben as "Ice Spice" and the self deprecating cameo from a shockingly but like not THAT shockingly aged looking these days John Mulaney (possibly included here as a nod to his Home Alone 2 bit from "New In Town?"). I also loved Big Mart-Mart roasting that white preppy dude in the audience who was the only one laughing at Mulaneys' quicksand bit. I especially loved that frank and lively Lunchables joke that almost sounded like it could've only aired once before bring replaced in all reruns by a grim, seeious Jim Downey voicover telling us how this nearly cost them all their jobs. My only complaint is that the but where Ches' grandma wanted to meet Ben "Smoke Dawg" Marshall felt super telegraphed to me. A-
Update started out a bit rough but picked up some stream quickly enough. The only joke from the first run I liked was the Bob Menendez one just for its sheer strangeness. Sorry, Colin, but "peoole be postin' some weird ass takes on Israel/Palestine" is not a particularly fresh or unique observation. Bowens' Christopher Columbus commentary may have been the most bland and uninspired thing I've seen from him in a long time. It's like he just put his George Santos and Jafar from Aladdin commentaries in a blender. It's something I might have preferred to see delivered by Michael Longfellow, but even that might not have put it over for me. Thankfully, there was just enough to this to keep me from tuning out completely like I did with Jafar. Ches' subtle reaction to being forced to read that line about Boygenius off the cue card was pretty funny too. Fortunately, they saved this Update after that with that run of Russel Brand/Ebony Alert/New Jersey/Spirit Airlines jokes even if those were followed by some noble (and maybe one less than noble) failures. Thankfully, they ended on a high note with Kenans' Neon Deon commentary. It may have been a little repetitive, but it I appreciated it as a Coloradan who went to CU Boulder nearly a decade ago and as enough of an SNL nerd to appreciate a deep cut shout out to perhaps the most harmlessly ridiculous moment from Deons disastrous season 20 episode. C+
Space 2044 - Immediately, I got bad flashbacks to that other spaceship sketch from the season 33 Bon Jovi episode where Kristen Wiig couldn't find her purse Thankfully, I was able to convince myself to give this a fair chance and I ended up only disliking this slightly less than some other recent Bowen-centric sketches in recent memory. I do like how glammed up Heidi was even if it seemed like a season 20 level near waste of money and resources on something that barely worked for a cast member who had minimal lines and wasn't even the main focus of the sketch. C+
Grandmas' Bean Farm - Even if it's this late in the episode, it's nice of them to give us a low-key "more 'funny strange' than 'funny ha-ha'" sketch centered around an Andrew Dismukes character. I liked how this seemed to more successfully go for what Amy Schumer went for in that Matzo Ball soup sketch from her episode last season. Also, it was nice to finally see Squirm amd Troast pop up on screen. I was starting to get concerned for Ms. Troast as I realized mid-Update that we haven't seen her. B-
Glamgina - Good to see a sketch Squirm got to lead near the end of the show. I liked this just fine for it's scattershot nature (how they managed to shove every female cast member and Kenan in there so haphazardly was silly enough for me). Still, it felt a little unambitious by Squirm standards (especially with previous scatalogical/vaginal material I've seen her do on and off this show). C+
Roadhouse Bar - This started out promising enough, but it got a little too repetitive once Pete showed up and they started doubling down on the talk of selling feet/genitalia pics online. I'm still glad to see they're giving Dismukes two sketches per show. D+
Well, the 49th season of SNL has officially begun. Next week, one time musical guest Bad Bunny makes his double duty hosting debut. Now, this guy may be a more intriguing host than Pete because he's not a cast member who's coming back not so long after ending their eight year stint on the show. Granted, he has appeared on the show as a musical guest before and cameoed in a sea shanty sketch I barely remember but I do remember his cameo in Kenans' Big Papi Covid Cooking Show sketch from one of the season 45 At Home shows. He held his own pretty well there. I may have to rewatch those along with the Simpsons short he did for Disney+ before Saturday but my point is, Bad Bunny is a host I can go into the show with little to no expectations for. He'll likely be a decent host as long as they don't have to cater the whole show to him and his image or brand like they did with Megan Thee Stallion last year (and even her I've come around on since my main take away from that show was that she seemed to be more heavily promoting her own mental health foundation than just her music and she turned in a strong performance in that substitute teacher sketch). See you then!
Oh, and before I forget...my friend Jon Schneider of The Saturday Night Network has been doing a new Patron Podcast where he counts down their fan voted list of the 50 greatest cast members of all time. Be sure to catch the next installment of it because I will be on it. In fact, I was also a part of their countdown of the 20 greatest SNL impressions of all time earlier this summer but apparently I just plum forgot to promote that on any of my socials. In case you missed it, here it is.
Also, my friend and fellow reviewer Blood Meridian has just been upgraded his own site. I'd advise all of you reading this to check out his reviews here simply because I admire his dedication to his craft and vice versa.
See you next week!
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