Sydney Sweeney/Kacey Musgraves (03.02.2024)

Okay, here's my review. After last week, I was glad to see the show at least return to being benign and undivisive in its mediocrity. Unfortunately, this episode felt like it stressed the "mediocrity" part a little too heavily. Yeah, Sydney Sweeney was a fine host who effortlessly carried this episode with the material she was given with her sweet, bubbly personality. Unfortunately, said material felt really bland and uninspired. At times, it even seemed like the show played into its own worst instincts, almost on purpose. The material I did enjoy out of this rundown, I couldn't much bring myself to laugh at. In fact, I'm quite surprised to see certain parts of this episode rated so highly but, hey...to each their own.

To be honest, this episode especially gave me pause and me wonder if I am actually just writing these reviews more out if sheer compulsion and force of habit than an actual love of the game. I'm not saying this episode made me want to retire from writing these reviews but I admit that I am starting to understand how Stooge felt when he stopped reviewing the show live a full decade ago. Don't worry, I know I still have some dedicated fans who will continue to read these as long as I keep writing them. I know full well how much my regular readers rely on me to put the show in perspective against all the immediate kneejerk live reactions we see each week (even when I disagree with popular opinion which you'll probably find a lot of in this review). Last week especially, I could tell that perspective was badly needed in times of heavy uncertainty so with you guys driving me, I think I'll be OK. Anyway, let’s get on with it.

Inside Politics - Even with Ego, Longfellow (who maybe should've had Dismukes take over his role?) Marcello, Mikey, and Devon putting in work and Heidi rushing us through it, none of this cold open really landed for me. They pretty much all just dragged out in sketch form something Jon Stewart glossed over pretty well about three weeks ago. It is nice that we are gradually getting away from Trump/GOP themed cold opens for a bit. Other than that, all I can say about it is, "next time, young blood". D+

Monologue - Again, Sydney Sweeney certainly had the confidence and lack of first time host jitters to carry this monologue with ease...which is sadly the only notable thing about it. I guess this showed she'll be a more competent host than one of her first costars was two months ago. I just wish this monologue didn’t give off the same vibe of "I'm just using this show to plug a movie that I'm confident isn't a HUGE bomb and this monologue is more to address some rumors about me than it is for me to show I have any shred of awareness of let alone connection to this show." C-

Police Interns - Hmm, I wonder how many other table reads this got cut from besides Aubrey Plazas? Anyway, good to see Sydney and Chloe F really stretch as actresses and play so starkly against type in the lead off sketch. Seriously though, it's not a good sign when they just say "fuck it" and just decide to devote the exact same amount of effort and energy they would normally put into writing a Thursday promo into an actual frigging sketch within the show. Hell, the word "writing" seems incredibly generous when applied to this sketch when it's obvious that Chloe Fineman just slammed together a list of all the social media apps she could think of and all the dialogue was pieced together backwards from there. At least I can say I got a chuckle from JAJs "fellow kids" moment. I hated how telegraphed Mikeys' Snapchat and Kenans OnlyFans jokes felt. C-

PDD In Mourning - Well, it wasn’t quite the best I've seen from Please Don't Destroy but at least it was nice to see something that quietly goes for over the top absurdity after such an empty buzzword laden sketch. The montage of comments and tweets over the audio from the YouTube clip made this for me. I also appreciated that they didn't just reference Flaco the Owl dying this early in the show as you would expect the first pretape of the night in this season to. B+

More Like "Air Dud", amirite? - Geez, we all thought they were gonna rehash old sketches they did with Dolly Parton and Raquel Welch...not Louise Lasser, Chris Hemsworth or Sam Rockwell! Anyway, kudos to Sydney for playing into the silly goofiness well and Marcello, Dismukes and Mikey Longs at her table playing their disbelief off her expertly. C-

Big Bench - I did like the real slapdash, feverishly thrown together nature of this. However, I feel like they could've done more than just cut back & forth between the same six or seven characters continuously with the second live dog of the episode thrown in for good measure. Hell, Bowen had a character in the montage of this that seemed to be cut entirely (like Chloe F should've, honestly). At least JAJ & Sweeney were actually the funniest part of this. Still, I'm genuinely torn between whether JAJs' naturally occurring over goofy southern accent was funnier or Sydneys' wild swing-and-a-miss attempt at one. C-

Bowens' Straight - I did like seeing Bowen play so starkly against type (and I mean that non-sarcastically this time given the how much all of Bowens pieces all seem the same). I also liked seeing what appeared to be a piece Bowen wrote to satirize heterosexuality in the same vein as "Straight Male Friend" with Travis Kelce. Unfortunately, this seemed like it couldn't succeed at either of those things so much that I had mo idea what it was genuinely aiming for at all other than just flash & glitz. Maybe this was largely intended as a "Euphoria" parody that subvers the "camp" of that show? Speaking of, is it just me or does the idea of Bowen only playing gay for easy laughs sound a little...reductive? Marcellos walk on at the end and Mikeys cameos were funny enough. The Gina Gershon cameo was a nice unexpected twist. C-

Shoooooooooooot - I wanted to like this more but it felt way too dry fir a Sarah Sherman sketch. Plus, I also feel Sarah deserves a little more out of a sketch where she is the comedic focal point than just the newly emerging trope of "one or two people fail to read the room properly as others (probably including Heidi Gardner) recieve a continuous string of bad news". Also, I was a little too distracted trying to figure out which previous female host Sydney reminded me of in that wig besides Billie Eilish. Yep, that's what this episode has done to me. At least it is still nice to be reminded that Chloe Troast is still in the cast. It's also nice to see Sydney attempt another accent (even if there's no chance in hell you'll be able to tell what it is). C+

Update felt like it was in a real nosedive for the first time this season. I did like the first four jokes after Heidi's A.I. generated gibberish (yeah, I know it's incredibly hack to compare things to A.I. content now but that genuinely felt like the most A.I. created shit I have seen on this show with how it felt like all of Heidi's one shot Update characters blended together...and sonehow a lesser known Simpsons meme got in there). Ego's commentary was a nice concentrated blast of WTF but it's not a good sign when something that would seem so mild in any other episode feels like it's slapping you upside the head out of nowhere. C-

Hooters Tips - Woooooow, you know something? I think I was a little too hard on Heidi's Update piece. Despite Mikey, Longfellow, JAJ and Dismukes trying to have a little fun with their gleeful misogyny, this was the type of sketch where literally any screenshot needs to be the photo you see when you look up the word "hack" in the dictionary. D-

Interior Design For Airbnb - This was certainly a better use of Chloe Troast. Still, it came across like a much tighter version of the hotel sketch with Billie and Kate. That ended up working against it because it lacked that other sketches live breaking energy and it was written in a way that tells me I just barely fell outside of the target audience for it. I see the obligatory jammed in Willy Wonka Experience reference of the night got the reaction they hoped for. You know that's always something that bodes well for sketch comedy. C+

Date Night - This pointed examination of both male and female bonding was the best written sketch of the night. Too bad the ending was rushed, and it was weighed down by being the ten-to-one of such a soul draingingly dull episode. Also, it looks like JAJ jumped his cue. B-

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. Sydney Sweeney/Kacey Musgraves (03.02.2024)
10. Shane Gillis/21 Savage (02.24.2024)
11. Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake (1.27.2024)
12. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)
13. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

Well, that was the episode that just was. Next week, Josh Brolin returns for his third time hosting. He's usually a solid reliable host (even if something always feels a little off about each of his episodes) so, I'm definitely looking forward to that one. See you then!