Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake (1.27.2024)

Okay, here's my review. Dakota Johnson showed she had the right attitude for hosting SNL and her heart was into doing the show moreso than it was nine years ago (even if tonight that gradually faded away by the shows' end). She and the show figured out how to place their mutual trust in each other. However, if it takes Dakota Johnson of all people to make you feel that SNL is in safe stable hands again after the previous week and they both let you down multiple times by the end of the episode, something is seriously wrong. This episode was only marginally better than Jacob Elordis outing was in the same way that somehow Keegan Michael-Keys' episode was marginally better than Elon Musks episode three seasons ago. Okay, I know I am not the first person to make this comparison but the fact that I felt the need to make it at all is a damning statement on this season. I went into this episode wanting to like it more than I did. Still, the highs were higher than last week but not by a whole (mostly due to certain pretapes and by the time they and Update were through I may have stopped wanting to like this episode altogether). The cast balance was a bit uneven as far as airtime went mainly because Ego & Punkie felt invisible after nearly dominating last week's show (so did Chloe Troast but she didn't exactly "dominate" last week). Michael Longfellow, Heidi Gardner and Sarah Sherman made some minor gains but Marcello, Devon, Mikey and Kenans airtime remains stable. At times, it felt like Dakota was misused as a host the way some of the "hands off" host's of Dick Ebersols' era were used but that may have been the show accomodating/hyping the musical guest and his obligatory sketch cameo with his even more obligatory special guest. We'll get to them in just a moment but first let's kick off this review of the show proper starting with the cold open.

NFL on CBS - Well, I was slightly intrigued as to where this was going until it was mentioned that this was a Kansas City Chiefs game. Then, I was slightly MORE intrigued when Dismukes started rambling about the end of "real football," and Kenan, Day, Longfellow, and Devon took that and ran with it. Thankfully, they didn’t linger too long on Molly as Andy Reid. The meta "live tv" joke was...a little on the nose. I could take it or leave it but the "Blue Bloods/So Help Me Todd Damn Awful" jokes got me. The "predictions" and wildly autotuned closing number really made this for me. It felt like a more dry, existentialist take on the Super Bowl Power Outage we got in Justin Beibers' otherwise dark cloud tinged episode from season 38. I appreciated the subtle look into mens' camaeraderie and seasonal loss of identity here. It's nice to know that every few years, you can look to the show around Super Bowl time for the show to deliver an out-of-the-box, non-political vaguely football themed cold open. B+

Monologue - It's nice to see Dakota with about 100% more life in her eyes than her last hosting stint and riffing in her own unstoppable sassiness from age 7. I appreciate her mentioning her SNL40 cameo. I didn’t appreciate the Trump/Swift mention, but I at least appreciated the misdirect it built up to. Speaking of what this monologue built up to, I  appreciated the gently buttering up the OTHER Justin who last hosted in season 38 the absolute LEAST of all but hopefully my week old prediction of Dakota shutting down another Barry Gibb Talk Show turns out to be true before the night is done! - C+

Mason Family Dinner - Well, it's a mashup of premises that Kevin Nealon did with Rosie O'Donnell on this show, and Tommy Davidson did on In Living Color 30 years ago. Still, getting to watch Sarah, Dakota, and Kenan malaprop their way through it is a fresh twist and a noticable improvement even if I got very few genuine laughs out of it. C+

Home Movies - The premise of discovering the paternity test of a Maury-like daytime trash talk show was a pivotal moment in your moms' pregnancy is a bit shaky. Even though it feels like the type of thing a show like this should've done two decades ago and been done with, I liked seeing exactly how much fun Mikey, Dakota, Sarah, Marcello, Dismukes, JAJ and Mikeys' stunt double got to have with this. They really did throw themselves into the execution of this. I guess it's just assumed that the parents aged so much in...I'm gonna say somewhere between 15 and 20 years because they lived a HARD 15 to 20 years? The one negative thing I will say about this is that it was another pretape that was just long enough to feel like it could've had some cuts made but so many things worked it would be hard to pick out something that absolutely NEEDED to be cut. It doesn’t surprise me to learn that Stephen Castillo wrote this as well because it was really one of only two fun things in tonight's show. B-

Barry Gibb Ta...AAAAHHH, Fuck Me! Couldn't This Show Just Let Me Have This ONE Thing For The Week? - Jeez, they really ARE that desperate to pander aren't they? (*whew*) Sorry to go off like that. To tell you the truth, I kinda liked the first two of these but after the third one they got harder to not actively tune out of. I'm not THAT staunchly against these but unfortunately, as I grew older my attention span grew with me so I had to convince myself to keep watching to see if there would be some kind of twist that didn't come. When they're making Bowen do an impression he did in his first season that no one remembers four years later, you know they're desperately clutching at straws, hoping for our approval viewed through rose tinted glasses. The last one of these I just remember for a ridiculous and unnecessary Madonna cameo and that's it. I mean, I appreciate that Fallon really decided to give this his all (even as tryhard as he always is) but man, it just didn't work for me. The Saltburn and Bluey references in particular seemed really shameless and desperate. At least this was over with quickly with surprisingly little fanfare. D+

PDD Vs. Dakota: Roast Battle - I wasn’t crazy about the fact that they did something that addresses Dakotas' snarkiness so directly and unsubtly. Fortunately, Please Don't Destroy have shown they have the specific chops and expert timing necessary to heighten this to the point where it works. I particularly liked the Aubrey Plaza/Hamilton/Daddio burns the most. This peaked when John Higgins suddenly weeped then threatened to make Dakota drop an N-bomb off a cue card in her monologue. B+

Big Dumb Cup - So, apparently Allison Gates came back to the writer's table this week to just drop off some light riffs on the Pink Stanley Cup craze and then leave as quickly as she could before someone could bring up what SORELY needed to be cut from this for pacing reasons? I'm sure some of you reading this will be pleased to hear that. Anyway, I honestly thought this was an inferior companion piece to last seasons' "Big Dumb Hat" that didn’t really go anywhere. When you're making me more favorably remember a sketch from an episode hosted by Amy Frigging Schumer of all people and the biggest laugh I actually got from it was a botched cutaway (looking at you, Chloe F.) something may seriously be wrong here. D-

Update was almost completely unnoteworthy. Very few of the jokes worked for me. I did like how Che played off the crowd and used a clip of Ron DeSantis' own words to bite him hard in the ass. I liked his Ghans joke and Josts' Bees On A Plane and Spirit/JetBlue merger and Planet Fitness jokes (glad I haven't signed up with them yet) got a chuckle out of me too. Bowen "Ethan" Yangs' commentary felt like something Kyle Mooney could've done better two years ago, but I will admit I was on board with it overall and his "100% Asian" and "In Memoriam" bits got me. Otherwise, this felt like Bowen just purposely wrote this as a subtle middle finger to anyone who has ever called any of his character pieces "self-indulgent". At least this was more grounded by his standards instead of being another inanimate object or insect or mythical demon or something. Speaking of "self-indulgent", I thought Heidi was mostly over giving us these broad, campy mugfests but as a vehicle for her to elaborately roast Che in a way that almost echoes Bobby Moynihan as "Riblet", I'll let it slide for tonight (even as labored and hacky as the OnlyFans & Jost/Catfish bits felt). I also appreciated the direction choices this made giving us an overhead shot of the desk for once. C-

Women's Book Club Meeting - This was a heavy concept "writerly" sketch that didn't quite land with me. It felt like a direct cross between Chadwick Bosemans' fireman sketch and those two sketches Aidy did where she played a mom opening presents that just turned out to be a series of signs with wine based slogans. I did appreciate that it finally started to go SOMEWHERE when Dakota started to apply her "human condition" theory to Heidi reducing her to tears. Just when you felt like this sketch got in and got out at exactly the right spot, two actual Shark Tank judges show up out of nowhere throwing the whole timing of the sketch off. I realize that this is the exact type of surprise "never in a million years would we have seen this coming" cameo we were pleasantly surprised by in the beginning of last season but this time it just doesn't work. C-

Airport Luggage - It's nice to finally see Devon Walker finally get a character showcase of his own. He really seemed to give it his all, too but he seemed to gradually morph into Debra Wilsons' embarassing pharmacist from MADtvs' fourth season. Kenan was allright but he felt too much like a Key and Peele character just got drag and dropped into this sketch. Sarah was all right but she just left me wondering if she just adlibbed her last line based on its response and what might have been cut from this sketch based on how short on time the show seemed by this point. C-

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. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)
4. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
5. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)
6. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
7. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)
8. Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake (1.27.2024)
9. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)
10. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

Well, that was certainly something. Next week, Ayo Edeberi makes her hosting debut. Now, I have to admit I can't say I've really seen much that Ayo has been in but looking at her list of credits and hearing all of you guys (yes, you among others reading this right now specifically, you know who you are) talk her up a great deal has me more excited than ever for this show. I immediately got the impression that Ayo is someone who has proved herself to be just as adept at comedy as she is at award winning dramatic performances so it will be so nice to see the show helmed by someone primarily known for their comedic chops again. Besides, the last time we got an Abbot Elementary alum as host, she did absolute wonders for the show (even if they were just for that one fleeting week). Jennifer Lopez is the musical guest, another Xennial pop star who has hosted multiple times in the past. She's also consistently been a solid and relaible presence in sketches. She even hosted in season 35 and as hard as I remember being on that season when it aired I have to say hers was one of the least dire or disappointing episodes of that year. I guess something rubbed off on her during her time as a Fly Girl on In Living Color. So, if J.Lo wanted to appear in a sketch or two next week, I honestly wouldn't mind. See you then!

Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)

Okay, here's my review. This was a bad show, no doubt but it was just a little too inconsistent to be the absolute worst episode of the season compared to one show that was just consistently duller and one episode that I can now say I may have been a bit too hard on. Still, when a show is bad enough that I have seriously rearrange my rankings of the whole season (as you'll see), you know things are bad all around right now. Jacob Elordi manage to confirm me initial trepidations regarding him as a host. He seemed to get along with the cast just fine yet at the same time he seemed to have no real connection with the show until this week and seemed to see it as just a high profile sketch workshop that he could use to plug his new movie. He may be a fine character actor but he didn’t seem to be able to translate that into sketch comedy. His entire comedic range seemed to extend from "just there" to "quietly yet actively bringing down a sketch". At least this episode made decent if not ideal use of the cast (outside of Longfellow and Kenan, who both seemed to blend into the background more than usual and JAJ who barely got to do any character work this week). Anyway, let’s break it down, shall we?

Trump Defamation Trial Press Conference - Hmm, another safe pbvious choice for a cold open theme. At times, this felt a little too unfocused to take in all at once but JAJs' goofy delivery put this over for me as usual (though I guess that's usually the point with these JAJ Trump cold opens by now?) I did like the Ron DeStupid/Vivica A. Ramaswany/cognitive run-on sentence. Yeah, this seems topical enough that they must've felt like they HAD to tackle this month's Trump news in some way (while still having a bit of an unfortunate "been there, done that" vibe to it loke with the "weird stance" jokes) but hey, they're shaking off the cobwebs from another long holiday break and there have been much worse cold opens this season (hell, there have been worse cold opens involving JAJs' Trump than this one) so, hey..I'll take it. C+

Monologue - Just when this monologue starts to give me disappointing Nancy Kerrigan vibes, Rosebud Baker, Alex English and Queen Squirm come in to save this with some assists from Kenan & Bowen (and hopefully not as much of the "Applause" sign as I suspect). Thankfully, this quickly gave me flashbacks to the late 90s Ferrell & McKay era "questions from the audience" monologues when they cared enough to use writers who were then just unfamiliar enough to most of the home audience (your Pells, your Feys, your Higginses, even moving on to your Smooves & you Sudeikises once Fey became more prominent on the show...hell even Downey was in the one with Kelly Ripa, remember that?) to really SELL us on the illusion that ANY audience member could just stand up and interrupt the show willy nilly. As for Jacob himself, the Saltburn/Priscilla/Lilo & Stitch/Kissing Booth references gave off the same empty, autopilot checklist vibes that most of the top half of Pete Davidsons' episode this season gave off as well as every third cold open from seasons 43-46 gave off. The sincere statement at the end of his monologue was really the only part of HIS I liked, even if he gave next to zero indication he had even heard of the show before last month (since, y'know...he is Australian after all). B-

Crown Your Short King - My first impression of this sketch was that the joke must be that this is the absolute LAST sketch you would expect Jacob Elordi to appear in...until he actually DID and you realize that (even as shamelessly wedged in here and underwritten as this whole thing was) this sketch actually DID need him to help visually sell you on this entire premise while playing off some lame, tired dumb guy tropes (and maybe take some of the weight off of Mikey & Marcellos' shoulders and distract you from Molly sticking out like a sore thumb here). Even Ms. Fineman had very convincingly heartfelt dialogue here, which feels like something we haven't seen from her before. C+

Club Shay-Shay: Extended Katt Williams Interview - Ego didn’t disappoint here even if she didn't exactly disappear into the role of Katt Williams either. The idea of her as Katt Williams alone piqued my interest, but the sheer energy that an Ego/Devon pairing radiates alone was more than enough to engage me in this. Thankfully, Ego bought some CBB levels of absurdity here and lived up to my instant expectations. Still, I could've used a bit more here to keep me from wondering why this was as long as it was and whether or not this was considered "old news" by now. While I don't want to see Ego fall into the Kate/Aidy/Cecily trap of being forced to play too many male drag roles, this falls more in line of how I would like to see Ego used om the show when compared to Lisa From Temecula or that Jenna Ortega Excorcist sketch. B-

ET Interviews Lip Readers - It's odd but not surprising that they put both vaguely of the moment pop culture referencing sketches up top back to back like this because this was drastically weaker than what just aired before it. Seriously, this was a translucently paper thin premise that felt so drearily stretched thin that I swear it could've been a season 11 sketch. Yes, that's the actual vibe I got from this. I'm honestly shocked they couldn't come up with a better sketch to drag-and-drop the obligatory Renée "Mom: We Have Billie Eillish At Hone" Rapp into but hey...this felt right at home being aimed at the audience who tuned in just to see her, Jacob and Bowen! Good on the two guys for pulling their weight here but not even Jake pulling a "duh duh dumb guy" voice out of his pocket for Travis Kelce or Bowen suddenly singing a Streisand verse out of nowhere could get me. D+

Bowling Date Animations - I guess part of the reason the last two sketches at least felt so long was that could tell exactly where this was they needed the extra time to make sure half the cast could get into their bowling pin costumes in time (and half of THAT half of the cast were in the previous two sketches?) Anyway, although I knew exactly where this was going before the first ball was even rolled, I loved how labored and increasingly dramatic the punny reveals were here. The "gutter/9" ones really got me, and I liked the "foot on the line/have sex" twists, too. The "WGA" signs being in the background of the "strike" one felt a little too on the nose for me. Also, I feel kinda bad for him that this was Longfellows' first and seemingly only appearance all night. I'm glad to hear that this was one of the sketches that Stephen Castillo came back to (guest?) write. No wonder it was the only thing I genuinely laughed at all night. (Was this cut from a previous dress rehearsal? It felt oddly familiar to me? Seriously, was this a cut sketch from season 46 he resubmitted?) B+

Alaska Airlines - At first, this felt like it was going to be in the same vein as the Adidas/Kanye ad from last season (which I honestly had mixed feelings about) but this included just enough odd details to keep me from completely checking out, like the thicc safety brochure, inflatable slide and pilot on mushrooms. JAJ as Sully was a nice touch. The bolts joke reminded me of Norms "Disneyland/Extra-Terror-estrial" joke from one of his season 20 (IIRC?) Updates. B-

Update was almost entirely worth watching for the way they went as hard in the paint on Tim Scott, the Catholic Church and Nikki Haley for her "America was never a racist country" as they did. I did like Josts opening Trump Vs. Biden joke. I mean, I didn’t exactly LAUGH but I sadly identified with it (and with political election humor in 2024...hell, even going back as far as October 2016 if I'm bring real with y'all...that's as much as I can muster). I felt the same about his "50 y.o. net worth vs. 30 y.o. net worth" joke but for totally different reasons which I won't go into here. Anyway, as much as I appreciate seeing Punkie get airtime, her "flying defendant" commentary didn’t quite...land with me (pun unintended, but I'll stick with it just because it works). It's mostly that I didn't care much for the material (as much as she sold it) and partly because BOTH black women in the cast playing male drag roles felt like overkill. C+

Women Supporting Women - Well, at first I felt like I could've fully get on board with THIS being the obligatory "all the women in the cast get to drool over the conventionally attractive male host (and I do mean "all", Ms. Fineman...you already had your chance, please let your castmates have their moments)" sketch but thankfully this was saved for me by Ego, Molly, Squirm and Punkie (again, if I'm bein' real with y'all). Too bad Mikey almost ruined the whole sketch for me. C+

Acting Class - This truly felt like the least focused sketch of the night. The Day/Fineman "pimp vs ho" scene was funny enough but sadly that was the absolute peak here. Sorry, Bowen but Bobby Coultsman you are not. I'm glad that Rachel MacAdams was used in an actual sketch instead of just a musical guest introduction (even if her late entry into the scene, seemingly reading cue cards she just saw for the first time on air Stefon-style and delayed applause break once the notebook was mentioned kinda threw off the whole sketch), but sadly, this dragged to the exact point where she killed any momentum this sketch COULD’VE built up. Once Jacob showed up and stiffed his way through his lines, things didn’t exactly improve. Not even that "beat your illness/make-a-wish" joke at the end could save this sketch. It's funny that this sketch chose to name drop Selena Gomez a couple of times because this sketch reminded me of the high school modeling sketch from her episode a couple of seasons ago only this was more stretched out, dilluted and cut with bits of the Women Supporting Women sketch that preceded it...and also that Aubrey Plaza director sketch from a year ago...and, do I detect a hint of that Lin Manuel Miranda high school substitute sketch from, Jesus, seven and a half years ago? Really? C-

Garrett From Hinge II: Hinge Garretter - Oh boy, well... I know a lot of you didn’t like the first one of these, so I imagine this didn’t go over well. I'll admit the first one of these somehow became a guilty pleasure of mine, but despite being a fine use of Ms Troasts' performing talents, this was a bit of a letdown. Still, I liked the visual of an elderly church organist also wearing an open lavender button up over a Stewie shirt. I actually did chuckle a bit at Jacob and JAJs' Lois & Cleveland impressions as well as the absurdity of Garrett disappearing into a Christ portrait (even if the technical reveal was blown a bit). C+

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. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)
4. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
5. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)
6. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
7. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)
8. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)
9. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

Well, that was certainly one way for SNL to ring in the new year. Next week, Dakota Johnson returns for her second time hosting with Justin Timberlake for his sixth time as musical guest. I'm glad I'm not alone in saying I don't have a lot of confidence in this one, but I see some hope. Dakota may have basically sleep walked through her season 40 episode but the cast and writers did just put all their effort into the highly successful 40th anniversary special two weeks earlier so they can all at least share the blame there. Plus, we're getting post Vanity Fair lime/Ellen interview era Dakota hosting so if nothing else I have no doubt that she can singlehandedly stop another Barry Gibb talk show from happening (or any Fallon/Timberlake sketch we didn't need to see again in 2013 let alone 2024). I know only being billed as a musical guest has not necessarily stopped Justin Timberlake (or anyone really) from appearing in sketches on this show but hopefully he can be kept in check by some combination of his own current pop cultural irrelevance and lack of goodwill and Dakota Johnsons' increasingly endearing bluntness and sheer compulsion to shut down other peoples bullshit (including her own). See you then.