Maya Rudolph/Vampire Weekend (05.11.2024)

Okay, here's my review. Maya Rudolph proved once again that she is an absolute dream to work with backstage. You can tell she bought back just enough of the good vibes this season once had to put over some of the weaker, less ambitious writing. Still, I would say this was far from the worst if season 49. It was mostly "middle if the road" which sadly was the best you could hope for with this episode at this point. I mean, my expectations were pretty low already considering how this season has gone and the fact that this is the mother's day show (which in recent seasons always turns out to be a total washout at best) so I was mostly pleasantly surprised tonight. I do appreciate the choice she made to stick to only one recurring character/impression from her old days and just vamp in completely original sketches the rest of the night. It was a but stronger than last week because the highs were higher and the lows were at sbout the same level but just...felt lower sunce they were helmed by someone who basically started their career on this show...so, it was a less consistent show just...not quite at the same level as last week. Cast use was very well spread out tonight. In particular, Ego and Sarah had very strong nights. JAJ got a lot of straight man roles, but still nice to see the show gradually start using him well. Seeing as much Bowen, Heidi, Marcello, Punkie, Mikey, Kenan and Chloe F was to be expected but we saw just enough Chloe T, Longfellow, Kearney, Devon and Dismukes to almost make up for any shutterings they had this year. Anyway, let's get right to it, shall we?

Casts' Moms Cold Open - Huh, this again. Ok, fitting. I mean, it's not like we NEED this with this host (in fact, Maya may not be the ideal host for one of these cold opens) but these are always sweet and endearing so, this season especially, I'll take it. Hell, any season these beat something political (especially what would've been an incredibly forced and unnecessary Kamala sketch anyway). All that really stood out for me were the Kearney bald caps, Longfellows' "stuff that bombs" comment, JAJs impressions routine, Sarah's "jackass/RFK brain worms" joke and seeing what Marcellos' mom actually looks like (and Longfellows for that matter, but...those guys are still in their 20s and thus a decade younger than me, so I shouldn't be THAT surprised). Mikeys' "buttheads mom" joke felt just gratuitous and was really the only demerit against this to me. Anyway, it's nice to see the post-Covid era cast bring out their moms (and even some pre-Covid cast members who I don't think got to bring their moms on the show yet). Even PDD scored with something dumb. B-

Monologue - Well, that cold open certainly beat this campfest of a monologue, too. Mr. James Anderson is certainly in the building tonight, ain't he? I mean, I liked Mayas outfit and I liked how suddenlythey glammed up the lighting on the home base stage on such short notice, so...this came close to winning me over, but instead, they just chose to repeat a bunch of RuPauls' drag race buzzwords to fill time. Did they just touch up an old Deep House Dish script they found lying around in Kenans' dressing room and then just say to themselves, "You know what? Let's add a "Vogue" parody to this while we're at it (even though this may already be a parody of a Meghan Trainor song)!" Again, I just have to keep reminding myself that while I am not the key demographic for this, it certainly works for someone... some GenZer on Twitter out there. The SNN Hot Take Show seemed thoroughly impressed with it. I will admit they had a point about this raising the energy level of the show up top after a lower key cold open and that's something I can never fault the show for wanting to do. Maybe this might grow on me upon a rewatch or two, I dunno. C-

Hotter Ones - Well, I WAS expecting a Queen Bey impression because "Cowboy Carter" came out recently. I guess I was just naive to expect them to do more than just run the "find-and-replace" function on an old script from three years ago. I mean, hey, we all loved Conans' real life "Hot Ones" episode from a month ago, right? I guess no one at SNL even bothered to consider the possibility that Conans' Hot Ones was so over the top silly that it rendered any and all past & future attempts at "Hot Ones" parodies redundant and pointless (however few there may be?) I appreciated the Zuul reference and the blurred face belch, though. I also appreciated how quickly they rushed to that MIB inspired ending. They really are too content to just run out the clock on season 49, huh? - C-

PDD: Uneesa Confidence - SNL, Uneesa PDD shorts again. While the break we from the boys didn't exactly take it's toll on me, this over the top absurd short after not seeing them in pretape form for, like, a month reminded me of what I always LIKED about their output. While I loved all the quick paced zaniness that PDD usually gives us, I thought it did get a little muddied when they tried to tie THAT into a sincere message about a serious' men's mental health issue (the "loneliness epidemic" and lack of male confidence) before hitting us with Ben Marshall's sudden death by iPhone asphyxiation. It didn't ruin the whole thing but I felt like they could've actively made that part clearer so it doesn't need to take you an extra viewing or two to process. C+

Y'all Won - I was partly hoping to see that cut Vitamin C parody from last week's dress rehearsal I had heard about, but once this was going, I was like, "Hey, I'll take it." Ego pretty much walked away with this...well, AFTER she pretty much said "hold my thermos...and TSIDDAHN". JAJs "sweet southern guy" character also was a stand out here. Also, it was nice to see at least one of Mayas actual children in this. Nice to see she's supportive of her kids getting into the business. The only negative thing I can say about this is that OnlyFans tag at the end needed to be cut, like, yesterday. B+

British Cavemen - I guess what the show really needed at this point in the home stretch of the season was something just abstract and near-dadaist enough to feel radically different from most of 2020s SNL to keep me interested. JAJ did a great job stringing this along. I mean, if SOMEONE had to be the straight man necessary to keep this palatable to the normies, it was nice that they chose him. Maya and the rest of the cast did a great job keeping the wild mugging and nonsense vocalizations just funny enough to not feel absolutely necessary and not too over the top. It felt like this really was written for those of us who regularly keep up with the That Week In SNL Twitch streams. It truly gave me "early Sunday evening on Andy's stream" vibes. B+

Sleepovers - It was good to see the low key absurd vibes continue with Maya and Kenan giving us some sleepy, groggy silliness here mixed in with a heartwarming relatability. It was pretty straightforward, so not much to really break down here. Still, it was pretty fun and somehow managed to appeal to a wide ranging audience. B+

Update seemed to suck most of the energy out of the room. The only jokes of Jost & Ches' I liked were Ches' Stormy Daniel's line and Josts "jury hush money" ones. I mean, I didn't laugh necessarily but they were delivered just well enough to work. It doesn't quite make up for Che completely bottoming out tonight, but still. Hey, it's not my fault that Che took all the wrong lessons from Norm & Quinn. An anthropomorphized RFK Jr brain worm was something that the show had all the opportunities in the world to completely biff but it warmed my heart to see then just throw Sarah out there just to have her own brand of Milhousian fun with it (and keep the Jost roasts light and to a relative minimum by comparison). I know this didn't work for a lot of you guys as a whole, but I mean...I'd rather see Sarah play some kind of non-human costumed creature than see them try to shove Marcello into this type of niche role again. I also thought that the musical number at the end should've been cut along with the cold opens' foreshadowing of this exact thing. Heidi's "woman who's not mad" character was grounded and restrained enough (by Heidi standards anyway) that I was fleetingly curious to see where it would go. Really, it just seemed like a dumbed down version of her Instagram girlfriend minus Mikey. It slid out if my brain almost instantly. C+

Dawns' Ad - This started out just subtle enough to keep my interest but didn't take long to become flatulent enough that I wished it would end unceremoniously. I know it would be incredibly hacky of me to make another "was this a lost season 30 script?" but I literally never have nothing else I actually WANT to say about this. The most interesting thing about this was trying to figure out what was suddenly muted on the west coast (or was that just a glitch with my own affiliate)? D+

National Nurses Week - This seemed like it was gonna be more low hanging fruit but Ego, Maya and even Mikey made an absolute MEAL out of this. JAJ, Molly and Chloe F did fine support work. B+

Lanzettis' Lawn Care - What seemed like a premise they should've done two decades ago (y'know, when "Desparate Housewives" was a hit show and Maya was actually still in the cast?) was saved by just letting Kenan, JAJ, Devon and Dismukes just run wild. Mikey and Maya comitted to this well. Dismukes' "hell yeah dude" may have been my second strongest laugh of the night. B+

Now, for my updated ranking of season 49...

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)

2. Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo (12.09.2023)

3. Kristen Wiig/Raye (04.06.2024)

4. Ryan Gosling/Chris Stapleton (04.13.2024)

5. Ayo Edeberi/Jennifer Lopez (02.03.2024)

6. Maya Rudolph/Vampire Weekend (05.11.2024)

7. Dua Lipa (05.04.2024)

8. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)

9. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)

10. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.02.2023)

11. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)

12. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

13. Ramy Youssef/Travis Scott (03.30.2024)

14. Josh Brolin/Ariana Grande (03.09.2024)

15. Sydney Sweeney/Kacey Musgraves (03.02.2024)

16. Shane Gillis/21 Savage (02.24.2024)

17. Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake (01.27.2024)

18. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)

19. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

Now, for my rankings of all of Mayas' host outings...

1. Maya Rudolph/Sleigh Bells (02.18.2012)

2. Maya Rudolph/Vampire Weekend (05.11.2024)

3. Maya Rudolph/Jack Harlow (03.27.2021)

Well, SNL had some gas left in the tank this week after all. Next week, Jake Gyllenhaal hosts for his third time and Sabrina Carpenter performs for her debut as a musical guest. Geez, what is it with this show and booking Jake as hosts with musical guests who opened on tour for the chick who sang a ten minute song about him on this show once? Anyway, if you read my blog from the last time he hosted, you'll know why I've soured a bit on Gyllenhaal in general (and it's not just his last episode just flat out sucking) so I won't go into that here. I'm just as complacent to ride out season 49 of SNL as the show itself seems to be at this point, so...see you next week!

Dua Lipa (05.04.2024)

Okay, here's my review. This was an episode that showed slow but steady signs of promise early on but as soon as Update stared, it just as slowly and steadily began to roll down a hill. Thankfully, there was less "desperate naked pandering" in the air than their was last month with Ryan Gosling but it would appear that all the residual "good vibes" from both his and Wiigs episodes have long since evaporated. Dua Lipa proved herself to be a capable and charming host. She sure knew how to use her stage and screen presence when the show wasn't afraid to use her. This episode felt different, just not different in terms of this season. They seemed to have been trying something different with the writing but there were still some things there that kind of annoyed me near the end. I think we can agree that this was far from the worst of the season so far but some might call me generous for even calling it "middle of the road" for this season. The cast wasn't too imbalanced tonight. There was far less Bowen than I expected but far more Kenan, Mikey & Ego. Strangely, Chloe Fineman appeared exactly as much as I thought she would while Chloe Troast seemed to be shut out nearly entirely (I'm sure that was one of the things that annoyed me). Michelle Longfellow, Sarah Sherman, Devon Walker, Marcello Hernandez, JAJ and Andrew Dismukes all had quietly strong nights. They almost flew under the radar there like Punkie and Heidi actually did. Anyway, let's just get right to it, shall we?

NYC Community Affairs - Hmm...normally a cold open with no recurring impressions built around a fictional local news program is a promising sign. The fact that it was also based around the current college protests makes me extremely nervous. Kenan as the cautiously proud "your kids can protest but mine better have her butt in those African American studies classes (zoom or otherwise) I paid for instead of at the protests" dad is a safe enough take. I just hope that for the shows' sake that certain pockets of Twitter/X can at least see the forest for the trees on this one. Maybe this isn't the take the show (or it's audience) necessarily NEEDS right now but it's a take they deserve (and a take I personally can put up with for now at least, mercifully abrupt sketch ending and all). C-

Monologue - Thankfully, Dua Lipa seems able to exude some quiet confidence early on. I wasn’t crazy that she had to pull in Dismukes, Yang and Gardner to make up for what (also thankfully) little energy she had to make the show pop right out the gate. Still, I'm glad Dua was able to shut down a jammed in political joke from Heidi as quickly as I was hoping she would. Yep, she sure got in, got her laughs and got out of there without letting anything linger to long (or giving us anything that personal for that matter). C+

Young Spicy Sessions - I actually remember liking this when they did it during last years' Ana De Armas episode so this was a smart choice for a recurring sketch. I wasn’t crazy about the implied domestic abuse or subtle homophobia but everything that came after that made up for it. I guess if they were gonna comment on the Drake/Kendrick beef this would be the best way to subtly go about it. Overall, not the worst way to open the show but not the best version of this particular sketch I've seen. C+

The Anomalous Man - It's nice to see the show let Sarah gradually get more and more "squirmy". Sure, there was no gore but they're finally letting Sarah be Sarah as diluted as this still feels by her standards. I'm not complaining about this by any means at all. This was brilliantly executed. I also liked how slowly the main "gag" of this was revealed. It may have felt a little anticlimactic (the use of 2010s era cellphones in 1890s Lomdon felt a bit cheap, they could've executed that differently...I mean, what is this, Holmes & Watson?) but it was certainly well scripted and well acted on Dua, Sarah and Ms. Finemans' parts. JAJ turned in a compelling performance early on, too. A-

Good Morning Greenville - Oh, I guess we're not discussing the Drake/Kendrick beef that "subtly" after all. Still, this was a quietly strong sketch in the same vein as Chappelles' "potato hole" sketch from last season. This is a nice companion piece to that one. I like the way Devon played off the clueless twangy silliness of Mikey, Heidi & Dua (who actually might have turned in her best performance here). Devons extended "naaaaaahhhh" was my first genuine laugh of the show so far and I liked the "technical difficulties/Black or not black" line. It's nice to see something that's clearly based on a real pop culture thing that does more than just explain said thing to you without any real "take" or joke. B+

Sunny Angels - Ok, I see we've moved on to very clumsily referencing/parodying "Challengers" with a whole mess of details that don't serve the sketch well in any way. I see Bowen recycled the script for that Bratz sketch with Selena Gomez (or maybe Dismukes let him borrow and touch up his script from that Beanie Babies sketch he did with Lizzo?) and...turned it into something...slightly different this time. Fantastic. Dua and Marcello gave it their all but I don't think anyone could've saved this one. C-

Penne Ala Vodka - Thankfully, this taped which helped its pacing greatly and was almost blackout short. I say this because if it went on any longer it might have turned away from "Christmas Church" and "Graduation Commencement" into "Big Dumb Hat" or "Big Dumb Cups" which I did not need to see again. C+

Update was all over the place. Che may have been right about this episode being real rough for him. I did like his Stallone memoir joke as well as Colins "Trump/can't pay you" and MTG/Mike Johnson jokes. I also liked how he bought real.joke swap energy to that "Trump/anti-white racism" joke. Marcello really sold the Kristi Noems' other dog commentary in only the way he could have. Too bad it felt like something originally written for Dismukes. I appreciate how much Chloe F threw herself into her Kyle Mooney as Jojo Siwa impression (that I'm just now remembering she got an early version of it on the air during one of the Covid era SNL At Home specials that unceremoniously ended her first season) but the actual content if this was largely lost on me (as I imagine it was for a lot of you old enough to watch SNL like it's actually still relevant anymore). I was at first intrigued to see Jerry Seinfeld himself actually admit to having done "too much press" but the fact that that was literally all he "admitted" to was borderline infuriating. Oh well, I guess I'm the idiot for expecting Seinfeld to even WANT to be self reflective at all. C+

OBGYN/Fat Daddy - I admire that SNL tried to sneak in a rather ambitious, low key scatalogical almost Forte-esque premise on us (see Amy Adams/Vampire Weekend circa 2008) but this didn't quite land with me. I dunno, I just feel something was missing in the execution though. Weirdly, this felt like something JAJ/Dismukes could improved had they been in it. This almost seemed tailor made for them and yet they were nowhere to be seen here. I did appreciate seeing Punkie break immediately upon entering the scene. I wanted to appreciate the spinning newspaper ending just for the "SNL In Hot Water For Finger Lickin' Bad Sketch" subheadline. I mean, I WANTED to but SNL has a bad history with acknowledging it's own weaknesses and not doing a damn thing to strengthen them. Also, did anyone else notice that this was the second sketch tonight where Ego played a pregnant woman? She hasn't been...hiding something from everyone up until this point, has she? C-

Teeny Tiny Statement Pin - I actually did chuckle at the "vague statement pins" and the sight gag of Marcello wearing special goggles to read Bowens' pin super close up. Otherwise, this was a real nothing filler sketch to me. It almost felt like they threw this together just to use that Met Gala set they had or to show off that they had access to one of those 360 red carpet cameras. I dunno, maybe I was just so damn burnt out on this episode by this point that I missed the poignancy that others saw in this but I really don't have much else to say about it at all. C-

Family Flooring Jingle - So, it's a reprise of these JAJ/Dismukes jingle singers from last season's Jenna Ortega episode. Okay, nice to see they're still the best part of this sketch but unfortunately Bowen still seems like he is actively fighting against them to sabotage this for some reason. Also, if Dua Lipa is gonna keep trying American accents she should stick to Southern ones and stay away from Eastern ones. The fact that they made this a bit tighter than the first sketch and ended is with Dua singing (just to put her back in her comfort zone a little) benefitted this sketch. C+

Now, for my updated ranking of season 49...

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)

2. Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo (12.09.2023)

3. Kristen Wiig/Raye (04.06.2024)

4. Ryan Gosling/Chris Stapleton (04.13.2024)

5. Ayo Edeberi/Jennifer Lopez (02.03.2024)

6. Dua Lipa (05.04.2024)

7. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)

8. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)

9. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.02.2023)

10. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)

11. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

12. Ramy Youssef/Travis Scott (03.30.2024)

13. Josh Brolin/Ariana Grande (03.09.2024)

14. Sydney Sweeney/Kacey Musgraves (03.02.2024)

15. Shane Gillis/21 Savage (02.24.2024)

16. Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake (01.27.2024)

17. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)

18. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

Well, that certainly was the most recent episode of SNL of there ever was one. Next week, Maya Rudolph hosts for her third time. Her last episode was one I don't think anyone was crazy about either but she has proven herself as somewhat of a stabilizing presence on the show recently and she's certainly not the host I am least excited about of the three closing out the season this month. See you then!