Okay, here's my review. It was great to see SNL back on stable ground this week after taking so many broad swings and misses lsst week. This show definitely felt more grounded and only slightly uneven compared to last week. While both of these last two weeks had solid dependable hosts, this week had a host who knew his own strengths better and how to play into them. As expected, Adam Driver elevated everything he was in and thankfully knew when to not play it too big. No one felt more shut out than anyone else in terms of cast airtime (but maybe Michael Longfellow took a minor hit this week and Punkie took a major one). Airtine felt pretty evenly distributed among the cast. I would definitely say this is Adam Driver's second best SNL episode ever just behind his one from season 45. Wanna know why? Well, let's break it down, shall we?
C-SPAN Campus Antisemitism Testimomy - Wow...ok. This is...certainly an out of left field choice for a political cold open. It definitely took me a few rewatches to fully parse what was going on with this one. Full disclosure: my only real exposure to this actual news story were headlines I saw earlier that day about the real life UPenn lady having to resign due to how badly this hearing went for her and even I feel they may have painted with broad brushstrokes here. Nice to see Chloe Troast and Molly Kearney in such prominent roles right up top. Molly teeing up Ego to deliver that "Dr. Gay/fire island" joke doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence thst they'll handle this subject matter as delicately as they should, but somehow Heidi's whole performance is putting me at ease. Troast is certainly making some strong choices with her accent, but I can't say they're NOT working for me. (Did whoever say Cecily was going to make a cameo in this cold open simply confuse these two women again?) Kudos to her for getting to take the lead on another group LFNY (again, I thought we were past these?) Kenans' whole character seems like he was pulled straight out of an unused cold open from 2011 but at least he got to deliver the only genuine laugh lines in this. Hope Twitter treads lightly with this one...aaaaaand I'm already starting to see that they didn’t. Still, I'd like to thank my friend Monette Moradi for actually raising the level of discourse surrouding this cold open (at least in the social media circle I'm the most immersed in) by pointing out ways this COULD have worked if they focused it up writing-wise instead of just taking the "both sides are dumb & crazy" route because, well...let's just say I know her perspective is going to be the one that matters the most here. C+
Monologue - I'm really relieved to see that this solo piano monologue matches the offbeat goofiness of his season 45 episode and is more reminiscent of that than any of his other previous episodes so far. Also, it's nice to see Adam Driver had this hidden talent for actually playing piano this whole time. Yep, you're gonna have a pretty damn hard time convincing me Zach Galifianakis DIDN'T come in this week to guest write this monologue (but I am willing to bet that if whoever helped write Harry Styles' and Timothee Chalamets' monologues in seasons 45 and 46 respectively is still on staff that they helped with this, too). The Kattan mention didn’t totally work for me, but hey, I'll take it. His "couples' pranks TikTok" and "gingerbread house" jokes got the biggest laughs out of me. Thank God this turned out to be more than just a mish mash of random one-liners. Does anyone else get big Tom Hanks vibes from this? B+
Adults Only Ski Trip - On paper, this seemed too idiotic to work but in execution, Adam Driver and Bowen Yang as two gay men who barely know how sex let alone conception or pregnancy works played out10 times better than it had any right to once it simply turned into a list of absurd details such as ham & cocaine, geriatric pregnancies, three out of seven holes, phones & Andy Milonakis (were Dan Licata and Stephen Castillo guest writers this week, too?). See, this is the more down to earth, grounded stupidity I'd like to see more of from Bowen rather than the listless, gimmicky vanity pieces he's been giving us lately that haven't landed. My only real complaint about this was that it was a bit too long, and maybe everything after Ego's entrance could've been cut. C+
Old Friends - This seemed to be going for the same thing that the Christmas Dinner pretape from Billie Eillishs' episode two years ago was going for. I honestly prefer this even though I thought everything after Devon "Big Filthy" Walkers' appearance should’ve been cut. The "big ones/big titties" bit in particular felt telegraphed as hell, and the facebook ad tag at the end (while expertly cut and well timed) felt unnecessary. C-
Beep Beep - This may have been my favorite live sketch of the night. It had a very Key & Peele setup followed by typical modern SNL overexposition, but it was still such a Dismukes sketch, and he and Driver just owned it. The ending with Kenan worked perfectly for me, and it didn't overstay its welcome. A-
Shop TV Christmas - Hmm...I think Rosebud Baker (or just Michael Che, let's face it) simply just went for broke at 4am on Tuesday and just set out to write the single most derivative, most telegraphed, most pointlessly censor baiting, LEAST creative SNL sketch in the entire shows' history. That's the only way I can process this making air. Oh well, at least Adam gave me a couple of laughs in his obligatory "meek, milquetoast, playing against type" role of the night as did the brief phone calls. Also, did whoever say Cecily was gonna cameo tonight get confused here too and think they were doing "Right Side Of The Bed" again? Did this person also confuse Mikey with Taran? I could legit see that happening? D+
Update was quite an improvement from last week (which, I know, isn't saying much, but still...). The jokes overall were fine. None of them stood out that much (well, that RFK Jr/Epstein and "conservative women = flat asses ones" did) but both Jost & (especially) Che made up for how out of it they seemed last week. Marcellos' standup seemed a little unfocused for me in the middle there, but overall, that worked for me, too. His "barbershop/salon" and "delayed plane/breakup" bits made me laugh the most. Chloe Finemans' commentary was at least a nice format break for modern Update (as much as it reminded me of Jon Rudnitskys' Dirty Dancing commentary from season 41 and one of Melissa Villaseñors standup bits about how NSYNCs' dance moves are so violently herky-jerky and all in the shoulders they'd be better suited for a bar fight than a date) and it was at least a little different from what she usually gives us in her calculated vanity pieces. I had heard rumors of a "surprise cameo" during a potential second update commentary, and while I could definitely tell who it was gonna be once Chloe mentioned "Save The Last Dance." Still, I do have to say that Julia Stiles was one of the absolute last people I would expect to cameo on SNL in 2023, so...yep, you got me there, bud! Nice use of Devon, though. B-
Babys' First Flight - Okay, I guess Marc Weiner was a guest writer too this week? Or maybe whoever wrote those Adam Grossman Benihana sketches for Jonah Hill came back this week? Either way, this was something that only Adam Driver could’ve put over for me because it absolutely went nowhere on the page. Thankfully, Adam didn't go too over the top. Honestly, the only way thing that should've been cut was the "baby plane" ad tag at the end. C+
Septugenarian TikTok Prank Victims - This was definitely my favorite pretape of the night just for the sheer spontaneous silliness of it played against the sincere, pleading PSA tone. Kenan, Adam, JAJ and Marcello sold the hell out of this for me. Even Heidi turned in a strong performance here. B+
Tiny Ass Baggage - An Ego/Marcello pairing was something I didn't know I needed in my life until I saw it. Adams' purposely stiff lone readings were the icing on the cake for me. Olivia's cameo worked well for me too (although I can't help but think she's gonna get some shit on the TikToks and the YouFaceTwitters for using that accent that I'm sure Ego could get away with better). I already have seen that I may be alone on this but this was definitely my second favorite live sketch of the night. I probably would’ve liked this much less if it were in any other episode with any other host but this was already preceeded by such stronger material that I choose to associate it with in my memory. B+
Now, just for fun (and because I know you may not feel like scrolling all the way back up to my intro after having read all that), I'd like to updare my ranking of each of Driver's episodes from best to worst...
1. Adam Driver/Halsey (1.25.2020)
2. Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo (12.9.2023)
3. Adam Driver/Chris Stapleton (1.16.2016)
3. Adam Driver/Kanye West (9.29.2018)
Now, for my updated ranking of season 49...
1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)
2. Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo (12.9.2023)
3. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
4. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)
5. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)
6. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
7. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)
Well, that was a breeze. Next week, Kate McKinnon returns to the show, a mere year and a half after leaving, to make her hosting debut. You know, much like Pete hosting this seasons premiere (after the first of this year's two Hollywood strikes prevented him from hosting in the homestretch of the previous season) I would probably be looking forward to this more if Kate had given us more time away from the show to miss her before she came back. With Kate hot off the heels of here mere supporting role as "Weird Barbie" in...well, "Barbie", it just feels either too soon or not at the right moment in her career to just...host. She should host to promote something she is the lead star in but I can see this booking as SNL wanting to provide a solid ending to a difficult calendar year for everyone. The Christmas shows (when done right) tend to be comfort food for the audience and a big Christmas party for the cast and crew so I get them wanting to book a familiar face as host who can be counted on to carry the show into the holidays if not the new year. Don't get me wrong, I am certainly not denying that Kate's a truly talented and committed performer. It's just that the best examples of her being the shows most valuable asset are from her first four seasons on the show. After that, they just kept pounding the square peg that is Kate McKinnon into the round hole that was SNLs desperate and feeble attempts to keep up with the exhausting and demoralizing political scene of the time. Hopefully, she can do what fellow alums Pete, Marty, Adam and Seth did in recent years and just deliver a strong show carried by solid original performances and or character work (by which I don't mean recurring characters obviously since with Kate most of those were two handers between her and either Cecily or Aidy who as far as we know aren't guaranteed to make cameos) making us remember why we originally liked her as a cast member (hey say what you will about Pete's episode being weak, he was by far the least weak part of it). I know Kate had some chemistry with Billie when she first hosted two years ago. I'd be fine seeing them paired up in sketches again just as long as they can keep the breaking to a minimum. See you then!
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