Trump Cabinet Meeting
- Of course...
- Yeah, just get us all caught up on January real quick...
- There's Marcellos' Rubio...
- The "don't read this note out loud thing" was unexpectedly lame.
- Hey, THERE’S Jeremy as J.D. Vance! Calling attention to the new guy, I see.
- I at least like how Jeremy's Vance is much more grounded and less gimmicky than the idea of casting Bowen in that role was.
- Hey, THERE’S the window thing!
- Padilla as Noem. I already like this more than Tina and Heidi's portrayals.
- Hey, THERE’S Josts' Hegseth here to save this! Already loving the big creatine jar and kettlebell.
- This cold open gave me pretty much what I was expecting with a couple of pleasant surprises tossed in so I can't be mad at it. B-
Monologue
- Well, the use of clips, backing music and cameos from Finns' now former costars gave this monologue about 100x more energy that I was expecting.
- Even though I saw the alcohol spit take coming from two towns over and the timing of Gatens' "former child star" joke is a bit...diffie, this was an enjoyable monologue. B-
Snack Homiez II
- Aw, fuck...I had a feeling they'd make this recurring given this host.
- I genuinely was NOT expecting them to actually bring back Sabrina for this (I figured Finn would just be her replacement not the guest they bring on) but hey, January show. They may need all the help they can get.
- Yeah, I was pretty rough on this sketch back in October when it debuted, but I'll admit...it became a guilty pleasure of mine.
- Finn as a guest who's an expert on "facial structure" is an interesting idea they should have explored a bit more but really, this didn't work.
- Going into this with an open mind, it seems to be less a meaningless collection of GenZ buzzwords than the first one. I'll admit, the Mrs. Indcredible/Pirates' Booty jokes got me.
- OK, I guess A$AP Rocky (who's musical performances were high points of this episode if I'm being honest) being a guest in this makes the most sense out if anything here. Having him just shamelessly plug his own brand of "rap snacks" kinda bummed me out. C+
Heated Wizardry
- OK, part of me was wondering how a network show like SNL even COULD parody a show as ribald and steamy as "Heated Rivalry" (heard of it, haven't seen it, don't plan to, it's just not for me) but...replacing hockey with Quidditch? In 2026?
- To quote the actual star of the Harry Potter franchise in his 2012 monologue on this very show "how lazy can you get?"
- I will say that the fake J.K. Rowling "I'm not a part of this" review got me and some of the less obvious casting choices in this worked well for me (JAJ/Snape, Ashley/McGonagall, Tommy/Malfoy, Chloe/Hermione...and as for Dobby, I guess Jeremy has a real knack for picking up Bowens' old roles).
- Boy, this went on WAY too long, am I right? Personally, I could've done without Kenan as Mad Eye Moody or Jason Momoa as Hagrid.
- Seriously, what the hell was Jason Momoa of all people doing in this...and how the hell is he not gonna get canceled for...THAT line?
- Honestly, this felt more it was littered with the exact type of shameless GenZ pandering I was expecting from the "Snack Homiez" sequel.
- Oh, well. I'm sure Ben Marshall has plenty of female fans going crazy over this one, so as it'll be nice to see them happy. D+
Indie/Boy Bands
- I could immediately tell where this was going from the beginning but once JAJ entered the scene in a goofy 98°/NSYNC inspired get up playing it completely straight inbetween dance numbers, I immediately got on board.
- Still, I feel like this sketch had some serious pacing and energy problems that pretty much everyone can share the blame for here.
- Everyone gave it there all and yet still it's like Finns timing was off in a specific enough way to lead to a minor chain reaction that led every other moment play for a beat too long, letting a tiny bit of energy fly out of the scene each time.
- This had a very pleasant ending, but maybe I was a fool to expect more palpable tension and heightened drama out of this. C+
Stranger Spinoffs
- "Strangerous Minds" was delightful and I got a kick out of how Jeremy dragged out Wills' coming out scene
- "The Wheeler Report" just feels like whatever potential to be had there was squandered.
- So...Finn, Gaten and Caleb are just doing...Sex And The City For Dudes?
- "Mike In Manhattan" was a little too long for my liking, but I liked the subsequent scene with them basically just trolling the "conformitygate" conspiracy nuts.
- Mikey as "Mike's Dad" was OK but something I could've done without. JAJ did great voiceover narration here.
- Other than that, I feel this was another pretape that went on too long. C+
Weekend Update w/Jost & Che
- Josts' Best Jokes: Greenland/Puerto Rico, Trump/Retribution, RFK/War On Protein,Zaldana/Scarjo, Staten Island/Public Bathroom
- Che Best Jokes: ICE/invasion, RFK/Trump/slight breeze, Nose picking leads to Alzheimers
- I liked the sassiness Jost injected into his Trump/relationship and Exxon "playing too cute" jokes (but not as much as I liked Che calling him out on it with that "algorithm" comment).
- Kam Patterson as Michael Irvin may be the only thing I legitimately laughed at all night...and sadly, a lot of this episode's material (especially the pretapes) made his recent KillTony comments about the show...so eerily prescient it's like the show set out to troll him directly (ditto JAJ re:his recent Vulture interview, now that i think about it)...and then gave him this Update piece as a prize for winning their little test of endurance.
- Boy, this Update really fell off a cliff joke wise at this point, didn't it?
- OK, who DIDN’T see the punchline to that Autistic Barbie joke coming a mile away?
- While it's nice to see Jane get to play a character that isn't herself, this felt like too much of an abstract inside joke for me to fully get on board with since I have NOT seen whatever TikTok clip this was based on. C+
Space Emporer
- OK, this was pretty much the roman emperor sketch from Ashton Kutchers' notorious season 35 episode where he kept feeding Will Forte grapes...but also, Dune?
- I do like the "I'm going to go past making my cast mates break and just see how badly I am going to derail this sketch" vibe that Mikey is giving off. Hell, that's literally the only redeeming quality this had.
- Hell, even the intro to this acknowledges they needed to update how they frame their TV parody sketches in the streaming age. They haven't quite realized how they should do away with the "you're watching (blank) on (blank)" intros but hey...baby steps. C+
Guy's Girl
- While I am pleased to see Veronika get her own showcase sketch where she plays off Ben and Jeremy in a semi-dramatic moment, I was disappointed to see this gradually turn into a cross the Kyle Mooney "killed the bit" pretape from season 46 and the "random" Sam Crap museum sketch from ScarJos' season 40 episode.
- Also, is it just me or does this seem to be another sketch where whatever ending it may have had was heavily trimmed down for time between dress and air?
- Anyway, Veronika Slowikowska seems like a promising talent who I believe has the potential to be one of the new leads of the female cast along with Ashley. I just hope they don't misuse her. C-
Free Solo
- Normally, I'd say it's very odd for this to be Kenan's only live appearance all night...but given Chris Redds' recent revelation and given Kenans' rather muted appearance on Kelly Clarksons' show recently...and given how he apparently didn't do this week's warmup between dress and air, I think I can guess what his mental state might be.
- Other than that, he and Finn were actually pretty funny in this. I don't have much else to say about this except that it definitely felt like the type of sketch we might have gotten in 2015.
- Hey Finn, taking an Uber to a bus stop might just make sure you don't MISS a bus. Did you ever think if THAT, buddy? B-
Ranking The 51st Season From Best To Worst
- Nikki Glaser/Sombr (11.08.2025)
- Glenn Powell/Olivia Dean (11.15.2025)
- Melissa McCarthy/Dijon (12.06.2025)
- Ariana Grande/Cher (12.20.2025)
- Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.2025)
- Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile (11.01.2025)
- Finn Wolfhard/A$AP Rocky (01.17.2026)
- Josh O'Connor/Lily Allen (12.13.2025)
- Sabrina Carpenter (10.18.2025)
- Bad Bunny/Doja Cat (10.04.2025)
Overall Thoughts
- Well, it's the first show of the new year...which means it's a January show so all bets were off to begin with.
- The whole show felt awkward what with Finn pretty much a disappearing non-enitity as host.
- Outside of one or two things, I didn't have much of a problem with the writing or performances but the show still felt wildly uneven...and a bit divisive.
- Maybe this is the result of having a young host and the show feeling the need to play to his...rabid young fan base in such a tryhard way (and it mostly backfiring on them if the reaction on Twitter is to be believed).
- Still, this was far from the worst of the season. One thing I do like in this episode is that the show seems to genuinely be trying to give airtime to previously underused cast members.
- I have to admit, I am actually seeing one thing I said I was hoping for on my last SNN appearance in that they are giving JAJ a lot more airtime to play more non-Trump role and unique characters so, it's nice to see they actually DID continue that trend and I hope to see more of it.
- They're even giving Kam, Veronika and Jane more chances to showcase their own original character pieces and find their voice on the show...which I also find encouraging.
- While I wasn't too crazy about most of this episode, one thing I did like seeing was the noticeable seismic shift in how SNL is using the rest of its cast now that Bowen is out of the picture.
- Of course, we didn't see too much of Tommy, Kenan, Sarah or Andrew and Marcello felt scaled back a bit, but it's good to see their time being given to newer, less established cast members to develop their presence.
Closing Thoughts
- Next week, Teyana Taylor makes her hosting debut. She seems like she would be a good host, but not having seen as much of her acting I don't have any expectations going into this episode so it will be interesting going into another new SNL with that mindset.
- One thing I could see happening after next week is Teyana does such a great job on the show and gets such rave reviews in the press that the discourse surrounding the show becomes "see, THIS is why SNL needs another black female cast member now that Egos' gone"...because I have seen this exact scenario play out already more than a decade ago when Kerry Washington hosted.
- Oh well, either way I'm sure that episode will be miles better than this one and you'll be able to read my review of that episode on this blog around this time a week from now.
- One other review I am working on right now is a review of the Seth Rogen/Spoon episode from season 33. As you may have heard me mention before, Deej and I are reviewing both that whole season of SNL (since it's so short, we figured...why the hell not?) as well as the entire* first two seasons of Documentary Now for our podcast We Heart Hader.
- In fact, we just released our first Documentary Now review the other day. Feel free to listen to it!
- I gotta go finish my Seth Rogen/Spoon review before Tuesday night because I THINK that's when Deej and I are going to record that one.
- Obviously, I'm working under a slightly less strict self imposed deadline than I am on this one but I think the demands of another new job have been draining my energy and focus for that one a bit...which may be affecting both that review and this one, but anyway you should hopefully see that review posted on this blog by the end of the month (hopefully right before my review of SNL Season 51s' upcoming Aleksander Skarsgard/Cardi B episode is posted).
- See you soon!
*Yeah, something tells me we might be skipping over "A Town, A Gangster, A Festival"
No comments:
Post a Comment