Okay, here's my review. This episode was quite far from the all time sheer bottoming out some were expecting, but it wasn't quite the vindication for Shane Gillis others were somehow expecting either. He is not this shows' prodigal son by any means, but he did OK when the sketches played into his whole "vibe" as much as they felt they could get away with. Shane Gillis blended in with the cast well but at the same time, he didn't exactly make a string case that the show seriously lost anything by firing him. I mean, let’s face it...this isn't 2013 anymore and he's not exactly Kerry Washington. As for all the "what ifs?" that may or may not have been answered, he just strikes me as another guy who would've been your typical one-and-fine/one season wonder cast member and this whole episode just felt like everything he would've got on air in season 45 (including cut for time stuff) condensed into one single episode. Let's face it, he probably wouldn't have made it to season 46 because as we've seen when he bought on Jim Carrey, Lorne would've been more than willing to get another big outside "name" to play Trump to Carreys' Biden (even if it just meant replacing Baldwin with Hammond). Honestly, I may have been a little too on edge to really get into this one (from dreading the possible "discourse" this episode COULD have inspired) but somehow this turned out to be the most stable, even keeled SNL episode of 2024 so far (again, not a difficult feat AT ALL but I'll take any sign I can get that the show is stabilizing itself right now). As you'll see, this episode came very close to escaping my bottom five of the whole season (it's near the top of my bottom five though, don't worry). Every member of the cast (even Molly) got on the air but what was more important were the moments of catharsis on stage during the night (especially when Shane and Bowen actually hugged) that showed he did not actively alienate anyone he worked with last night or make their week noticably worse in general. Let’s just break it down, because there's a lot more to get to.
Reluctant Trump Victory Party - Well, a quiet & thoughtful Downey-lite cold open was the absolute last thing I was expecting from the season at this point let alone this particular episode, but hey... even if it felt a little better than this episode deserved, I'll take it. It felt straight outta season 24 anyway. Actually, it felt more like an inverse of those "How's He Doin?" sketches they sjow did during Obamas' second term. Anyway, as I hinted at last week, I kinda like the idea of a Trump themed cold open (even a decently written one by the shows standards in this era) subtly annoying certain viewers who tuned in just for this host. Then again, this did feel like a watered down version of a South Park episode from 2017, so...maybe this could've been palatable even for them, too? After tonight, I don't want to pigeonhole anyone. It was certainly well casted. Marcello as Rubio was a good use of him and I liked seeing JAJs Lindsay Graham and Devons' Tim Scott again (JAJs' choking HAD to be real, right? It just seemed too out of nowhere not to be). Mikey as Senator Rich was a fine anchor to this as well. B-
Monologue - (*gulp*) Well, here we go. First off, I did like that he got the "firing" reference out of the way quickly and moved on. He ripped off that bandaid and then moved onto material directly about his own family with barely any segue. While I'm still not his biggest fan, it's nice to get some glimpse into Shane Gillis as a person rather than just what he's like as a comedian. Say what you will, but it's become obvious that he has a great support system with his friends and family so it naturally makes one curious about how he endears himself to people off-stage outside of his stand-up act. Secondly, I will admit Mr. Gillis had some self effacing charm on display early on. This is especially evident in his seeming hesitance to lean into any "edgelord lite" topics. He always seemed to back away to question why he was here in this moment (I mean, hey, he's not alone there) when he sensed most of the audience was simply afraid to laugh at something knowing full well they could be heard doing so on live television. When he uttered the phrases "remember when you were gay?" and "down syndrome" followed by the "r-slur", I thought we were gonna have a blowout on the highway, but...I have to give him credit for turning into those skids and not losing the audience entirety despite what some might see as his best efforts (can't say I was on his side entirely through this but hey, if you happen to be a Gillis stan reading this after just stumbling onto this blog for the first time...you do you, bud). Yeah, I probably shouldn't have been shocked that down syndrome stuff turned out to be a disquietingly central theme of this monologue. Surprisingly, this didn’t quite turn out to be the lightening rod that divides Twitter between those who take offense at his making light of the Down Syndrome community and those who view this as him speaking from personal experience and immediately rush to his defense. Plus, I do get that he was trying to come off as a champion of that community with the part about his niece and her three adopted black brothers but especially by the time he got to the coffee shop bit, I started to feel like his insecurity about this material muddies whatever was supposed to be heart warming about it. I just felt like he needed to get out of his own way a bit and he would've gotten all of this over with the crowd more easily. He reminded me of Louis C.K. (in not necessarily the best of ways). Kudos to him for reining this in at standard monologue length and not letting potentially the diciest part of the show run on for 16 minutes unlike certain other guys he knows (granted his monologue was literally just half of that length and still could've been two minutes shorter, but still). C+
Jamacian Vacation Church - Already I'm getting "dilluted Gilly & Keeves vibes" from this. They obviously knew he had an affinity for questionable accents he shouldn't be attempting and leaning into that right out the gate was a gamble that paid off. Aside from that, the other main comedic premise to this seems to be the sheer incongruity of "Christian Reggaeton" as a musical genre? Thankfully, this ended at a good spot. Weirdly, it felt like a ten-to-one that got cleaved in half when the show ran long...but placed in the lead off spot? Well, since it prominently features nearly the entire black cast of the show as well as their one non-binary cast member I can see the logic in placing up top in this episode. Again, not crazy about Ego in drag roles but I dug the way she, Kenan and Devon performed their parts. C+
Rock Bottom Kings - A fake ad that punches down on the predatory angle of sports betting apps (you know, your DraftKings and your FantasyDuels and your SportsBooks of the world) from a real third person outside perspective feels unusually pointed for this season of SNL. I did like how evergreen this felt in that Shane's part could've been played by literally any host even if it also felt like Shane maybe could've been the only host to pitch this idea to the show (notice I said "host" so, thst doesn't exclude Che from possibly pitching this either). B-
Workplace Relationships - Ok, now I started to feel like we were getting into real questionable territory here. Thankfully, this meandered a bit too much to really go anywhere really unsavory. I'd still take this over the HR meeting we saw with Cecily and Oscar Issac. I did like Kenans' "that's where I know you from" line. Marcello in "booty khakis" was something I was not expecting to see but not everything in this show is gonna be for me (but if it is and you happen to be a Marcello groupie...hey, you do you, bud). C+
White Men Can Trump - This is actually the first piece of the night I genuinely enjoyed. I mean, I may not have laughed but I admired the execution of it (which once again proves my theory that Baldwin was still in tense negotiations with Lorne right before season 45 and Gillis was hired in haste as merely their "plan B" until the whole thing blew up in their faces). Even though Shane's Trump felt like a real mid-2015 take on Trump (as just a media figure in general pulling a ridiculous publicity stunt rather than as a serious presidential contender let alone an actual former president whose first and only term thus far ended with an attempted insurrection) I was into this. It was smart of them to let Shanes' Trump face off against JAJs Trump in a well written and paced pretape. The slo-mo handshake reminded me quite a bit of Anthony Atamanuiks' Trump from Comedy Centrals' "The President Show." Boy, I can't wait to see what James Adomian will have to say about this on Threads! Could've done without Mikeys' bit at the end though even if it was just there for "balance". B+
The Floor - Hey, a sketch set where my expectations for this episode (and really the whole show during this season) have been all year! What a coincidence! (Hiyooooo!) Seriously, this felt like the middle third of one sketch stitched into another sketch entirely. It wasn’t executed the best for my tastes (and it seemed to me like just a TikTok clip of a speedrun of another game show sketch that Jimmy, Horatio and Bernie Mac did 21 years ago) but Ego was really the saving grace of it. I especially liked her "J.K. Simmons/Cynthia Nixon/ American Gothic/Mr. Penis" jokes. Mikey would've been my first choice to play Rob Lowe over Longfellow but I can see Longfellow is a better fit vocally for this role whereas Mikey would only be a good fit facially. Also, kudos to Bowen for showing he was willing to let bygones be bygones in to consecutive sketches (even if his whole part in the second one could've been cut entirely). C+
Update was surprisingly stable. I liked just about every joke Jost & Che delivered. In particular, the big stand outs for me were Josts' Frozen Embryo/leap day jokes & Ches' Nikki Haley/Trump Sneakers/zombie deer disease jokes. Josts Biden Air Force one joke ended with a punchline that the show has literally done twice in two different cold opens. I dunno if that Paramount+ joke Jost told worked. Wasn’t Yellowstone on Paramount+? Enough people figured out how to navigate through that to make it a hit. Marcellos' frozen embryo commentary felt like he was dragged and dropped into something that was either intended for Longfellow or Squirm that they dropped out of. It felt a little too flitting and aimless in its attempts to be meta for my tastes but Marcello made it work. Whenever an SNL cast member does a fiercely pro-life character piece on Update, you can always count on it to be one of the most focused and direct thing in the show...that's for sure. Marcello may have been the first male cast member to pull this off so...well done. Bowen as Truman Caopte felt like a vast improvement on the type of gay camp Update character pieces he has given us in recent years (even if it still could've been cut). It was the most grounded and least self indulgent thing he has done in at least three years. This is what he should've aimed for with his George Santos. Maybe they let him do this as a little treat for... y'know (*gestures vaguely at SNL in general knowing how much Bowen has hinted at the show eroding his mental health right from jump street*). B-
Greenbow High Reunion - Odd that this turned out to be a 25 years too late Forrest Gump parody not even a full 15 minutes after the show just told us it knew exactly what this weeks' biggest news story coming out of Alabama was but still...I thought it was just fine. I mean, this felt too out of date not just in terms of pop culture references but in the tone regarding how the premise was executed. The only thing that didn’t feel too out of place here was the long, drawn out pacing and dialogue from it. Those kept if feeling like it could only have been executed on SNL rather than Gilly & Keeves. This was a little bit more than just a glorified Family Guy cuaway. Still, it felt like Shane would've been the only possible host who could put this over no matter what time period it was done in so in a way, they really lucked out here. Mikey did a great job as Gump and I genuinely chuckled at the "chocolate bar" and "Lieutenant Dan" line. C+
Fugliana - Right off the bat, I thought it was gonna be hard for me to get into what I thought was gonna be another piece that was going mine all its humor from putting down Sarah (or any of the female cast members for that matter) just for their looks at first. However, as this went on I could see it was more about both the male and female performers being equally in on the joke and having fun playing off each others' self roasting. Shane and Sarah honestly displayed great chemistry here. Shane probably had his best lines of the whole show in this and Sarah damn near stole this whole sketch for me but Mikey/Punkie, Heidi/JAJ and Dismukes/Chloe came in with some strong assists. Honestly, by the end the biggest problem I had with this was just its sheer length and pacing. That live SNL staging and acting was the main thing that made this feel like it couldn't have just been a Gilly & Keeves sketch. B-
Green Bay Packers Butt Plug - This felt less "lol gay panic" and more like a sketch "a sketch Armisen & Hader could’ve done 15 years ago" or "sketch Bobby Moynihan could've done 8 years ago". Hell, I've seen Gillys' "OnlyFans Dad" sketch so it mainly felt like "sketch Shane Gillis aleady did two and a half years ago". Coming down from the sketch that proceeded this must have thrown everyone's timing off. Either way, I wasn't in to it (pun not intended because I just want to wrap this up, okay?). D+
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. Ayo Edeberi/Jennifer Lopez (02.03.2024)
4. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)
5. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
6. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)
7. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
8. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)
9. Shane Gillis/21 Savage (02.24.2024)
10.. Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake (1.27.2024)
11. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)
12. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)
Well, we all survived that one and came out in one piece. Next week, Sydney Sweeney makes her SNL hosting debut. This makes her the second Euphoria cast member to host the show this season alone...and the desperate, naked (pun suddenly intended) shameless pop culture pandering of 2024 SNL continues. Between this and the episode that just aired, it appears SNL has firmly decided that it now wants its audience to be the worst 12 to 13 year old boys you've ever met in your life? Oh well, I am still a guy myself so at least Sydney should be a host I'll have an easier time with than Shane (even on just a very base level). From what I know about her, she had exactly as much comedic experience as her cast mate Jacob (just one romcom each, no live sketch acting experience). While this isn't exactly an episode I am dreading, I hope she at least brings some much needed energy to the show and I hope they avoid making this episode resemble Jacobs as much as possible. Seriously, I don't think they can get away with doing a string of sketches where she is hit on by the male cast right now. Hope to see you then!