Saturday Night (2024): Mini Review

Well, I just recently got to see Jason Reitman & Gil Kenans' "Saturday Night" at my local theater the weekend it was released, and I enjoyed it very much. 

I'll warn you ahead of time when any potential spoilers are coming up, but I will start by saying it was very well acted. Everyone really nailed who they were portraying (much more so than either trailer let on). 

The thing I appreciated the most about the film from a structural standpoint was that it struck the exact right balance between fan service moments and Hollywood biopic embellishments as far as padding out the overall narrative went.

Obviously, this is not going to be a 100% factual recreation of the backstage antics on night of SNLs' series premiere. If you're a fan of this shows' real history. The few small creative liberties this film takes don't ask you to suspend your disbelief too much. 

It does have a typical "scrappy underdogs win happy Hollywood ending" that seems like a bit of a stretch but you will be having too much fun to care by that point (especially since you'll likely already KNOW the exact ending of this picture before you even go in).

(Warning: potential spoilers ahead)

While the films' main focus is Gabriel Labelle's Lorne Michaels' trying to keep his show (and himself) from completely unraveling, there seem to be some small side quests that are hastily resolved by the end by everyone coming together to do their parts on getting this show on the air. The strange thing is that these are all the mens' side quests that the women are very peripheral to. Rachel Sennots' Rosie Schuster has a strongly visible support role but it was almost like Kim Matulas' Jane Curtin, Emily Fairns' Laraine Newman and Ella's Hunts' Gilda Radner were only there to show more camaraderie than the guys and individually guide the men along the way on their own mini hero's journeys.

Dylan O'Briens' Dan Aykroyd must learn the error of his womanizing ways by rehearsing his part in the girls' construction worker sketch. Cory Michael Smiths' Chevy Chase must learn not to be such a cocky, smart-ass prick by walking in on J.K. Simmons' Milton Berle flashed his "anaconda" to his then fiance (Kaia Gerbers' Jacqueline Carlin) and then put him down as the nobody he really was in that moment. Lamorne Morris' Garrett Morris wanders around asking everyone what his purpose on this show is until he is convinced he should show off his natural singing talent.

Matt Woods' John Belushi is, again, well performed but is perhaps the most muddied characterization of all. The filmmakers seemed to only capture one element of Belushis' personality and that is that he hates the show, hates television and resents having to even be there (and of course having to work with Chevy doesn't help things their either). This might be due to the films' commitment to depicting a young, idealistic, overly principled pre-fame Belushi, but it still feels a bit too boxed in. Belushi is depicted as walking off the show entirely and as Lorne and others are seen frantically looking for him, he is found on the famous 30 Rockefeller Plaza ice skating rink with a loose goosey free spirited Gilda cheering him on to do a triple axel. 

Lorne finds him as he falls flat on his back doing this and gives him an inspirational speech invoking the famous 30 Rock Prometheus statue in an effort to convince Belushi to start following his dreams (which are presumably dramatic leading man film roles) by signing his contract so he can legally go on the air to do the show.

That was one of the few minor problems I had with this movie from a narrative standpoint, but as I said previously, none of that was enough to take me out of the movie or keep me from enjoying it overall.

You'll have a real fun time if you go in expecting just a fun, dizzying ride of a film loosely pulling from several different accounts of the same real showbiz story. Just put the comedy nerd part of your brain in sleep mode for two hours, and it'll be great!

Anyway, That Week In SNL and The Saturday Night Network are two SNL themed podcasts who have promised their own separate reviews of this film soon. If you read and liked any of my writing on this, I would advise you to check those two podcast reviews when they're released because I know their takes are going to be much more in depth and well informed than mine. Still, I hope you enjoyed reading this special bonus format breaking blog entry from me.

Ariana Grande/Stevie Nicks (10.12.2024)

 Family Feud Election Showdown

- Huh, I certainly wasn't expecting them to dig this template out of mothballs. They were always the strongest use of Kenans' Steve Harvey impression. That "Diddy parties" joke made me laugh. I always liked...some of these, but I'm not sure the current cast/visiting cameos can really pull these off. 

- This wouldn't have been my first choice, but it's not completely inappropriate. I wouldn't have made it the cold open, though...but OK.

- All this season's big cameos still work in this format, I guess. It's not the most ambitious thing they've done, but I haven't been expecting much from this season's election material going in.

- I guess it was real slim pickings this week for the cold open. They didn't have much else to choose from besides "wow, Kamala Harris sure did a lot of interviews this week, didn't she?" and yeah, I can see how hard it would be to stretch that alone into a cold open, so they just had Maya acknowledge that quickly and...move on?

- When Carveys' Biden gets more laughs out of me than Gaffigans' Walz, something may be wrong.

- JAJ as Trump has gotten a bit more...visually jarring. Hope he's not wearing out his voice too much doing this. I liked the brief "where's Melania?" fakeout here but other than that, the writing for the republican side if this was just...a whole lotta nothing. At least this ended much quicker than I was expecting and at least this was more watchable than the Game Of Thrones vs Avengers Family Feud Cold Open they did a few years back (but not that much better than the Trump vs Hillary Family Feud from a few years before that). C-

Monologue 

- So, she's basically singing Justin Timberlakes' 2011 monologue to the tune of Jean Smarts' monologue from...last month?

- Oh, I see. It's now a medley including "Baby One More Time" and "Don't Speak". The Miley impression was...fine.

- It's like they suddenly remembered Arianas' Tidal sketch from 2016 was a viral semi-hit and thought on Thursday "oh wait, we forgot to write another one of these for her...ah, screw it, we'll just make that her monologue this time."

- Bowen in drag. Should've expected that.

- Meh. Not a great start so far, but the hardest part may be out if the way. Let's see what else they got. D+

Singing Bridesmaids

- Ok, now she IS singing...again. Now, it's a purposely bad, off key parody of "Espresso".

- The lyrics are just as jumbled as the original but at least I can sense that the point of this song seems to be to humiliate Andrew Dismukes' groom character. He might be the strongest part if this sketch, so...good for him. I liked his "rhyme scheme" line.

- I'm starting to think this may just be just his "island castaway" sketch with Jason Momoa from last year...just set to pop music and set arcade wedding.

- Now, Marcello shows up as the guy they were singing about. Not crazy that the ending was so rushed here, but at least it did end. I was starting to think it never would. D+

SNL Midnight Matinee: My Best Friend's House

- Hmm...new title card? Possible new branding for pretapes?

- Nice use of Pee Wees' Playhouse style puppetry in this. 

- This was obviously more "cute" than "funny" until the insane sudden reveal if Mikeys ' dad being a serial killer.

- Sarah appears as a severed head in a fridge. Honestly, a bit surprised she didn't have a much bigger part in this. Still, this one of the more successful outings of the "sudden explosive, near vomit inducing gore" pretapes she's been involved with in the past couple of years.

- A Dan Bulla Short? Good for him getting to branch out into directing from *just* writing. Since his ending vanity card indicates he also wrote/directed/produced "Tiny Horse", "Shrimp Tower", "Meatballs" and "Pongo", it looks like they might have been grooming him to take the Smigel/PDD/TLI mantle since...season 49 or 46 at the earliest? B-

Charades

- Jane and (especially) Emil are featured prominently in this. Let's see where this goes. (Spoiler alert: no where for Jane and Emil sadly).

- Bowen seems to be playing a more low key grounded role here and his chemistry with Ariana actually works for me here. I like the idea of them sniping at each other. 

- Arianas' Judy Garland-esque 40s actress voice is a strong choice (is that her "big theater kid energy" coming out or...has it really been that long since she acted?) but it works well with the antagonistic energy of this.

- Dummy fight!

- This might have been my favorite live sketch of the episode. Well done. B-

Celine for UFC

- This may not be the first time Ariana has done her Celine Dion impression on SNL, but the sheer strangeness of this was enough to pique my interest. I didn't laugh a whole lot at it but, still...not bad. C+

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

- Josts' "subway series/livestreamed car crash jokes" and Che's "R. Kelly" jokes were the only things from them that rose above the level of "white noise" for me. Che almost had something there with his his "78% of black voters" rant but...he didn't quite put that over for me.

- Hey, another wonderfully deranged, manic one-off Ego Update character! This was the exact type of performance I've always liked seeing from her! I especially liked the "drone/STD/USB" joke. Makes me feel a bit guilty about those new earbuds I ordered from Amazon on Wednesday, but...oh well.

- JAJ/Squirm is a pairing we have yet to have seen. Their Gallagher bros commentary may have been goofy and juvenile but...it certainly felt unique to their voices so it was easy for them to make this fun. C-

Sounds Of The Italian Renaissance 

- More JAJMukes nonsense leading into some Samberg/Rudolph nonsense mixed into a white sauce and drizzled over some pizza pasta to reveal that...Ariana is playing a castrati?

- This may seem quite juvenile but once we got to "opium induced coma" this had a "slightly writerly feel" to it. The thousand yard stare from Ariana added a likable oddness to this. It's at least nice to see Maya and Andy being used in the odd non political sketch deep in the show (like Maya was early on in season 46) as long as they're hanging around. Maybe they could get Gaffigan and Carvey in on this? Wouldn't hurt, imo.

- Once again, this sketch had not even a trace of an ending. They just took the longest way possible to there "how do we even follow THAT?" point of the sketch and just slammed on the brakes there, as if they had to make some abrupt sudden cuts out of nowhere. That was the only thing this had really going against it. C+

3 Jennifer Coolidge(s) 3 For Maybelline 

- I didn't mind either Chloes' or Arianas' Coolidge impressions. I certainly wasn't expecting them to have both of them do their impressions together Fallon/Jagger style. I mean, it's not great that this is mostly making me wonder why the actual Jennifer Coolidge hasn't hosted yet, but it's not taking anything away from this episode at this point.

- Carvey as Coolidge was a nice (if not jarring) addition to this. (Careful what I wish for, huh?) Thankfully, he kept this from getting too monotonous (even if all his impressions sound like they're running together now). 

- I wonder if this was originally a pitch Chloe was saving for the real Jennifer Coolidge if the last writer's strike didn't happen and she got to host the season 48 finale? C+

Hotel Detective

- Wow, helluva quick change for Ariana there. They really slammed into this one. (*someone whispers in Caseys' ear*) What's that? Oh, there WAS no quick change? Oh, this sketch is actually a pretape of a live sketch that was originally cut from dress rehearsal suddenly tossed in because the soundboard froze for a like a full minute before Stevie performed "Edge Of Seventeen" and thus the entire shows' timing was thrown out if whack so a planned Reese De'What sketch about The Blob had to be cut? OK, then. 

- They haven't put any live looking non commercial pretapes into the show since at least 2002 so this felt like an interesting throwback in multiple ways.

- One good thing to come out of this episode was the opportunity for JAJ to do another old timey, fast talking 40s G-man voice. Nice of them to let Dismukes get in on this action. Ariana already did one of these but at least this sketch actually called for it. Plus, this also had a writerly feel to it, so...while I can see why this would've gotten cut (redundancy) it's nice to actually see it because it actually grows on you after multiple viewings. I have a feeling this would've gotten thrown up on YouTube either way.

- Ariana does Judy Garland and Dismukes does...either Charles Bronson or Rod Steiger? Either way, Andrew's enunciation was certainly...a strong choice.

- Wow, sudden Rod Serlongfellow! OK, that may have been the best ending to anything this entire episode could've asked for. I mean, I've seen better Rod Serling impressions on SNL but it was a breath of fresh air in this episode. B+

Ranking The Season (Best To Worst)

1. Nate Bargatze/Coldplay (10.05.2024)
2. Ariana Grande/Stevie Nicks (10.12.2024)
3. Jean Smart/Jelly Roll (09.28.2024)

Overall Thoughts

- This was far from the worst show of the season so far, but not quite the best. It was wildly uneven. 

- It got off to a rough start but it took a lot more chances than either of this season's previous episodes. For the most part, they paid off and the episode grew on me.

- Ariana Grande turned out to be a strong host who worked well with any cast. She really elevated the material and the cast and writers really knew how to play to her strengths. 

- Bowen didn't quite have the big night I was expecting him to have in an Ariana Grande episode. Fortunately, JAJ and Dismukes had surprisingly strong nights. Chloe, Kenan and Longfellow did well, too.

- Jane and Emil continue to barely earn a paycheck while Ashley Padillas' conspicuous absence continues. I heard she had her own Update piece cut, so...progress? Keep at it, Ashley. You'll get some lines on screen at some point.

Closing Thoughts 

- Well, this season continues to show unexpected signs of promise. Next week, Michael Keaton hosts for his fourth time with Billie Eilish as musical guest. SNL has pulled off successfully good episodes with both of these people at the helm before, so I've been looking forward to this episode the most out of any others that have been announced so far. Hope they don't let me down! See you next week!

(Oh, and soon I will be publishing a blog I wrote reviewing the new film Saturday Night. Keep an eye out for that!)

Nate Bargatze/Coldplay (10.05.2024)

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Jean Smart/Jelly Roll (09.28.2024)

 Dueling Rallies, Y'all!

- Well, Andrew Dismukes as David Muir is a nice touch to start off with. At least they're only just referencing the debate instead of recreating it from two weeks ago. 

- Nice to see Maya Rudolph but five years later I'm still left wishing the show could actually focus up its take on Kamala Harris and back off the "rebooting the funt" stuff because this vague mishmash of pop culture world salad isn't setting a great tone so far. What the hell even was that "va-Georgia" line anyway? 

- Jim Gaffigan as Tim Walz is...OK. They're both well aged mideastern white dads with glasses, so...whatever makes sense. Geez, I hate to think of Lorne ordering stunt cameos the way J.D. Vance orders donuts. Still, this reeks a bit too much of desperate stunt casting (seeing as he actually was gently suggested by some folks online somewhere. I mean, how far down WAS Gaffigan on Lornes' list of "white haired dudes with glasses" after Steve Martin said "nah brah I'm good?") to me, but good for Jim for finally getting a shot on SNL. Kudos to them for working in a Menards' reference in a national TV program (even if that was literally just an actual quote from the real Walz). I'm sure somewhere Mary Jo Pehl is smiling. Anyway, Gaffigan seems to actually have a hook for Walz, so that's nice. He made me feel slightly better about the inevitable Vance/Walz VP Debate we'll be seeing as next weeks' cold open (as long as a fly doesn't land in Vances' beard in the real debate or something). I giggled a bit more than I should have at "my nuts froze to the park bench," and that accidental cut back to Maya dancing in the live show. 

- Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff is...a sensible choice. It's fun, and at least it's nice to see someone like Samberg make a genuine surprise cameo on the show years after we assumed he was done with it. I liked the goofy sauce Andy was putting on his line delivery. I guess Marty Short was busy, but it's still at least appropriate for an alumni sprinkled cold open, seeing as this is the 50th season premiere. 

- I never thought I'd actually this but I'm actually relieved to see James Austin Johnson back as Trump considering they...y'know, rumors started swirling a couple of days ago that could've dog...er, DONE worse. 

- Bowen Yang as JD Vance was...pretty much exactly what I was expecting from him when i heard the rumor his Vance impression was cut from the cold open of last seasons' finale (but I see both that and this one managed to cram in a surprise reference to Sabrina Carpenters' "Espresso". Ok). I don't have the huge problem with it that some of you guys seem to have. I mean, I can see why they would want to cast Bowen as a guy who wears that much inexplicably makeup and just expects us all to accept it unquestioningly. It's just not exactly the casting choice I would’ve made if I were Lorne.

- Dana Carveys' Joe Biden seemed...OK, if not terribly relevant at this point. Not sure we need to see "doddering old Joe" at this point again, but...hey, an unexpected alum cameo (even one who seems increasingly old and slightly doddering himself) isn't ALWAYS a bad thing necessarily.

- Carvey has shown he can do a strong Biden in the past but his impression seems to have becone less whispery and devolved into a cross between "Church Lady" "Garth" and "Massive Headwound Harry" with the cadence of "G.H.W. Bush." I guess that's just the natural result of changing his Biden to play to a live audience vs. playing to podcast listeners and cohosts in an enclosed studio. I hope it's more of that than it is just focusing more on the perceived senility than the voice.

- I just wished they shortened this and focused less on cramming every reference to "things that happened politically in the summer of 2024" that they could come up with. JAJs' Trump speech in particular felt the most like they were just running down a checklist of this whole thing. 

- I'm not crazy about returning to season 45 length cold opens after they spent the last two seasons steadily moving away from that but hey...election year. Anniversary year, too. They're expecting a lot of eyes on the show. Lotta those eyes are gonna be older and wearier and be in the sockets of older viewers who may not have tuned in in decades and now only pop in for the political takes without caring how broad or character/hook based the sketches are or that they don't make many salient points. Give the people what they want to see, riiiiiiiiight? 

- At least this didn't feel quite as DENSELY PACKED with either cameos or toothless slapdash also ran candidate characterizations as season 45 but when I said I wanted to see what else they could do for election cold open besides just recreating the debates that were too early forcthe show to cover, I was hoping for...not this. C-

Montage

- This may have been the highlight of the entire show...which is actually quite sad when you think about it. I like the return to a season 24/25 style theme (possibly intentionally matching the theme from a previous big anniversary season?) with visuals that seemingly mix the season 48/49 opening with the ones from seasons 3, 10/11 and 29-31 while keeping things 98% confined just to studio 8H (NBC budget cuts, amirite?) Why this leaves the season 44-49 theme stuck in my head, I don't know.

Monologue 

- Normally, I like the host's monologue to keep the energy level up and a season premiere shouldn't feel this borderline sleepy (let alone the 50th), but I can let it slide this time. Jean Smart was charming and I liked the low-key Candace Bergen/Dyan Cannon season one vibes I got from this. This felt like a mashup of three different types of quiet, solo monologues you don't really get on SNL anymore. 

- Overall, I found Jean to be a fine host but I felt she should've had a bigger presence throughout the show. She almost felt underused to the point of a Dick Ebersol host (and part of me wishes her first musical guest intro was not the only time we got to see her "Hacks" costar Hannah Einbinder on the show). Still, I understand Jean was feeling ill the night of the show so I could see them having had to cut down her parts a bit. B+

The $100,000 Pyramid 

- Oh, look at that. A game show sketch post monologue. How novel. At least we get Devons Walkers' Michael Strahan right out the gate as the one stringing this together. 

- I'd be less annoyed at SNLs' obligatory Hawk Tuah reference if it were Sarah playing Haley Welch instead of Chloe. C'mon, Sarah actually resembles Hawk Tuah Hailey more than Chloe and has proven she can do a convincing southern accent. 

- Kenans' Mark Robinson was...pretty much what I expected. Can't complain much there. Marcello as Bad Bunny works but it shouldn't really be the main focal point of a sketch. 

- I somehow missed the "Chimp Crazy" documentary so I had no idea who the hell that monkey wife lady Jean was playing was but it was nice to see a semi realistic monkey puppet on SNL. Somewhere, Tim Kazurinsky must be seething. 

- Kudos to Emil Wakim for making his onscreen debut. Thank God this was shorter than it felt like it was about to be. 

- After this I enjoyed the small, merciful break the show gave us from "catching up on all the most obvious low hanging fruit pop culture references from the beginning of summer up until last week" the show gave us. D+

Spirit Halloween 

- This was fine for one of those "evergreen" sketches that probably should've been done 12 years ago. I guess they just thought "boy, Spirit Halloweens are to autumn what Starbucks was to...everywhere in America in 1998?" and decided to drag and dropped some new spooky stuff into last seasons "Penne Ala Vodka" script template. 

- Nice use of all three new featured players here, even if this seemed to sadly be Jane Wicklines' only appearance all night. Good for her though for getting a role in a live sketch that was cut for time and put up on YouTube (and really ended up being funnier than most of what made it to air). C+

Scholastic Textbook Meeting 

- Speaking of old sketch templates being recycled, "inappropriately horny textbook that one or two cast members get slightly too into" feels like it's been done before. I did like what Jean Smart added to this though. Just when I thought she was being underused as a host, she makes this sketch...watchable.

- Kudos to Ashley Padilla for getting some live airtime. I liked the goofily unserious ending with Jean and Kenan but if I suddenly start to think "hmm, Mikey does remind me a bit of one of my real life coworkers" something may be missing. C+

Weekend Update w/Colin Jost & Michael Che

- Update is...still at the same level it has been for the past eight years, which...isn't great. Not much stood out joke wise. Ches' still just baiting the crowd like it's all he has. That's great. 

- Colin did a decent job of working in jokes about secret service emails the Trump rally hours earlier...that made me very, very sad that this is the depths that American political discourse has sunk to in 2024.

- Ches' Eric Adams jokes were fun but I feel like that Cuomo joke only got on because it was only deemed airable after Che had been sitting on it for three years. 

- As for that Hitler joke...well, who didn't see that punchline coming from two towns over? 

- Those Kamala/migrant, Chinese "software" and Meryl Streep at the U.N. jokes felt like they could've been written by A.I. (or whoever actually "wrote" that pilot for that "New Norm" show that had been circulating on Twitter...yeah, I refuse to call it X. Suck it, Elon). Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah....

- Thankfully, Devon Walker as Eric Adams was the true highlight. He didn't exactly make me forget about Chris Redd but it's nice to see Devon pop up every once in a while that actually suits him (even if it's a political one). 

- Bowens' baby hippo seems to tick off every box on the "tired ass Bowen Update Vanity" piece checklist, so...yep, this show is officially back on it's bullshit just in time for its 50th season. I have to say though, the premise of "what if the internets' current favorite wet baby hippo was suddenly...Chappel Roan?" would've been more tolerable if they hadn't spelled out that they were doing that exact thing by the end. Maybe this was the shows way of showing Ms. Roan that they're on her side while Desparately begging her not to cancel her planned appearance on their show this November? 

- Boy, it's really not great when the funniest part of a Weekend Update commentary is a hose operator purposely trying to squirt Colin Jost after he shouted at someone offscreen louder than I've ever heard him vocalize anything in his public life. I know how he feels because this entire episode sure made me feel like I just got hosed. C-

History Of The Sitcom 

- Ah, a dramatic "Virginia Woolfe/Far From Heaven" like take on I Love Lucy had some promise. This may have been Jean's strongest sketch performance of the night.

- This was a nice use of Marcello (even if he played Desi Arnaz more as "himself" than Desi or Ricky) and JAJ (even if Chloe felt a little miscast as Ethel Mertz).

- Bowen didn't add a whole lot as host but I did like his 1992 communism. Still, I'd be lying if I said something didn't feel missing from this. B-

The Talk Talk Show w/Charli XCX

 - Well, breaks' over. Ok, I would be far FAR less disappointed by the idea of a Charli XCX Talk Show if anyone else but BOWEN were in the lead role. Seriously, why couldn't he have switched roles with Chole? This would've worked better as a Chloe vanity piece than a Bowen one. 

- Sarah as Troye Sivan was the highlight of this and might have gotten my first genuine laugh from the show so far with her first "naur"...which isn't saying much. 

- I had no idea who the hell Jean was playing here but...she did an accent? 

- I did like the idea of Ego as Jasmine Crockett but at that point it became clear that this sketch was not for me. That bit probably should've been cut and pasted into Update in place of Bowens' hippo commentary where it MIGHT have worked better. 

- I understand Bowen, Charli, Sarah and Troye are all good friends with each other so I can buy the idea of this sketch existing as a mere inside joke that all four of them are in on (even if a large swath of the audience wasn't...and hell, that's really the only way I can even COMPREHEND this sketch existing) but all else I can say is that this sketch is "nat"...and the thought of Bowen and Sarah being at the point that Kate/Aidy, Farley/Sandler and Fallon/Sanz were in their runs where they almost exclusively did nothing but self indulgent ill advised vanity two handers together is quite depressing.

- Then again, I can't really call Bowen "self indulgent" with how exceedingly long I am making this review (not QUITE as long as my Gosling review from April, I don't think...but at this point it just FEELS pretty damn close) so I'll just close out wity this; Did I enjoy this sketch? NAUR! D-

Real Housewives Of Santa Fe 

- Yeah, I wanted to like the awkward physical comedy that Dismukes (and Jean in a way) bought to this but this sketch was too busy shouting over itself to figure our what it wanted to be. Hey, at least Sarah and Ashley got some airtime.

- I did like Chloes "for profit prisons" line and Jeans' line to Heidi "that's because he thought you were a horse, bitch!"

- Speaking of Heidi, I was surprised at how this felt like her first major sketch appearance of the night. Could this be her last season? Is she secretly planning an "Irish goodbye" like Cecily? Could she end up having a final season like Chris Kattan where she is barely used?

- I guess this sketch didn't land with me because...I am not a business woman. Hell, I'm not even a woman (obviously) and "Reviews by Casey" is not a business as you're clearly not reading this behind a paywall. Don't worry, guys. I haven't seriously considered changing THAT part. C-

Overall Thoughts

- I honestly haven't felt this let down by a season premiere since season 43. I knew I should've tampered my expectations a bit more for this episode considering it's a season premiere and we're entering a big election season and all but considering the fact that this was the premiere of season 50...that was much more easier said than done. 

- Yes, there was the inevitable "shaking off the rust and the cobwebs" feeling to this one as well as the less acceptable but still inevitable feeling of "we have to play catch up and sneak in a reference to everything from politics and pop culture we missed out of over the summer" but that plagued this episode even worse than usual. The highlights were there but they were small and few and far in-between.

- You would think that since the show had more things on it's big summer hit checklist this year than just "Tayvis Kelswift" and "Barbenheimer" they'd have an advantage but no...this just made the show feel to unfocused and overcrowded with scattered references for seemingly no one.

- Speaking of scattered and unfocused, cast airtime was heavily unbalanced tonight. It saddens me to see what should be an ensemble show return to its "star system" and just have Bowen Yang dominate the show with slight assists from Kenan Thompson, Chloe Troast and Marcello Hernandez leaving crumbs for everyone else. Still, Andrew Dismukes, James Austin Johnson and Devon Walker made the most of what they got. 

- The three newest hires were practically invisible, but hey, I guess that's to be expected. It's rare that a featured player makes their first big splash in their very first episode on the show. Give them time.

Closing Thoughts

- Well, for better or for worse, we have officially entered season 50 of Saturday Night Live. Still, the premiere of any television shows' 50th season should not feel like this much of a stark non-event. 

- Next week, Nate Bargatze hosts for his second time. This is one I am cautiously optimistic for because Nate hosted perhaps last season's most successful episode. He has also proven that he is the type of stand up host the show could who would foster a writing environment where more unique sketch ideas could be thrown out there. See you next week!

Jake Gyllenhaal/Sabrina Carpenter (05.18.2024)

Okay, here's my review. Jake Gyllenhaal helped stabilize an uneven and otherwise unremarkable episode. Truly, this was the finale that season 49 of Saturday Night Live deserved. It's a good thing the writing showed faint signs of improvement because we all know that season fucking 50 is going to deserve better. Yes, my expectations for this episode were already at the floor but putting my own personal feelings regarding this current season of SNL and Mr. Gyllenhaal himself aside, I will admit this. I did like that Jake struck a better balance between "intensely committing to every sketch from the strange to the banal" and "blending in well with the cast". Jake didn't stand out TOO much but unfortunately no one else in the cast seemed to either. Thankfully, no one was shut out entirely (although Punkie almost came close). Anyway, let's break it down, shall we?

Courthouse Trump - Well, at least it will be nice to get a break from these...for four months. Not the best follow up to a very sweet mother's day cold open but then again SNL has always had some trouble timing these Trump cold opens. The "don't wanna go back to the White House" and "Trump Torah" spiel got a chuckle out of me (real November 2016 throwback) and Sarah's brief walk on/off, the Jake Paul/Tyson, short bus/list felt like biffed jokes that could've worked concievably? It still baffles me how the "juror 6" and "Trump Espresso" lined got the reactions they did, though.  Thankfully, Devon and Longfellow were there to help break up the monotony of this. Could've done without Heidi walking on just to recreate the most famous National Lampoon cover ever. C+

Monologue - Well, the Conor McGregor and Ed Koch jokes got chuckles out of me and I liked the Paul Rudd throwback vibes I got from this. I know Jake Gyllenhaal likes to sing at the top of this show but I wasn’t crazy about the idea of Jake Gyllenhaal up on stage alone singing a parody of Boyz II Mens' "End Of The Road". Thank God the shows' actual black cast backed him up on this one. Lord knows this show hasn't had great luck with white dudes singing Boyz II Men covers out of nowhere. Just ask Bob Sag...oh wait, nevermind. Anyway, while I appreciated the meta fan service behind this, I hope their hyper awareness of their own anniversary translates into Lorne an company actually sitting down to seriously take stock of where the show is, where it should be and making some serious substantial changes to the show ahead of season 50. B-

Meeting The Folks/Cookie - I guess this was the requisite "Jake Gyllenhaals' intense commitment to acting is played for goofy laughs" sketch of the night. Thank God Dismukes natural, unforced intensity was there to balance this out. Thankfully, this had an actual ending and was written in a restrained way that didn’t make it feel too long. C+

Scooby-Doo - I appreciated the visual elements of this and this was a nice way to sneak in Sabrina Carpenter. (SIDE NOTE: I do like how they made her second performance a technical "medley" and tacked on the last two lines of "nonsene" in there JUST so we could get one of her famous "nonsense" outtros dedicated to SNL.) Still, it's a sad, state of affairs when a Sarah Sherman sketch that involves decapitation and dismemberment gets a real "meh, been there, done that" reaction from me. I felt like George Harrison seeing the Be Sharp's song "Baby On Board" on Moe's rooftop. I mean, the gag (pun NOT intended) of CGI Scooby eating JAJs face (possibly followed by some vomiting?) was probably the level of gross out gag this should've aspired to instead of just faithfully hitting the exact same beats that Sarah and Mikey did in "Battle Of The Sexes" and "Christmas Carol" (and Pete in "Farewell Mr Bunting"). Granted, what I just suggested sounds like it would still hit the same beats as "Massive Headwound Harry", "Rookie Cop" and "Kuatos" but still, it might feel fresher than things we just saw within the past year and a half. Still, I'll settle for Scooby shooting Fred/Jake after he shoots all the "witnesses". That at least KINDA makes up for them cutting that quietly solid (and thematically similar) Limu Emu pretape from Shane Gillis' episode (which would've drastically improved that whole episode overall). At least the gratuitous violence and shootings we ended up getting this time escalated well but it truly escapes me how I stopped myself from groaning LOUDLY at that Apple Face ID tag at the end. C+

OK, I told myself I wasn't gonna bring THIS up, but...fuck it. I remember seeing the exact same face-tearing-off gag in an old MAD magazine comic strip from.mid 2005 called "Scooby Don't". No, I don't really care to dig that issue out or post it here or anything. I just decided to mention it because if you're reading this, I inherently trust you to not contribute to any "Oops! SNL did a plagarism again" discourse on social media. There, thanks for indulging me as I got that off my chest.

Beautiful Girls And (especially?) Boys - Well, at least this was some nice eye candy for the shows' female viewers. Lord knows Longfellow, JAJ and Dismukes still have plenty of stans on Twitter/X. I liked the "biggest heart/fattest wallet" joke and the dialogue from/outfits on Ego, Chloe and Sarah. Other than that, I have literally nothing else to say about this except that it also gave me Paul Rudd vibes in that it reminded meca lot of how his fitst episode featured a gorefest pretape with a hint of vomit as a lead in for a musical sketch that just straight bored the hell out of me by comparison (except obviously the highs were higher and the lows were lower here). Yes, the overhead shot was technically impressive. We don't truly get a lot of those on SNL nowadays. Other than that, this decidedly was...not for me. C-

Rider Inbound - This felt like a sketch that not really any host could save. Maybe the tonal shifts felt too unbalanced. Maybe two Apple mentions only separated by one sketch kinda bugged me. I appreciated how this was staged differently from most live SNL sketches and I did like seeing Jake roll backwards down the hill. For God's sake, I even liked what Bowen bought to this one. Otherwise, I barely have anything to say about it. C+

Xiemu - Finally, something that felt focused and had a point. I liked the sharp takedown of unethical Chinese labor practices in online retail. I even like how the clothes and outfits fell apart on camera and how they called out our own complacent hypocrisy on this as American consumers. I feel like Che had to have written this since it's definitely in his wheelhouse and is too short to be muddled in typical Che fashion (again, no pun intended...it just came to me in the moment). B-

Update was...mostly pretty typical of this season. I liked Josts Matt Gaetz joke and Che's "black vote/Trump Boeing" jokes. Hell, I took note of his Prince Charles/Meghan Markle joke JUST for it being the longest he went without any of his usual self conscious asides to Jost & the audience (hell, possibly of the entire season rather than just this episode...yeah, and I say this while unintentionaly setting a new record for parentheticals and italics in my own review). Kenan and Marcello as two d-bag cicadas from 2007 and 2011 respectively turned out to be more tolerable than I thought it could be. Somehow, Marcello got more laughs out of me with his sheer commitment to the bit. Granted, about half of this sketches gags were mined from 2011 nostalgia (a Kreayshawn reference for one which somehow got my biggest laugh out of this segment) so...low bar to clear here but I was still desperate for any laughs at this point in Weekend Update. Thankfully, this ended right when it felt too long. I was glad they ended with another joke swap but compared to previous ones, something about this felt a little...off. The rabbi felt somehow more out of place than Daphne "Hattie Daniels" Skeeter did last Christmas. I did like how Che finally got to tell some jokes that cut deep for him with that Kendrick Lamar line but parts of me thinks the "You + Me = 69" may have been a step too far? Jost ending the whole thing with a rabbit puppet that looked like a prop from a Crank Yankers episode that Comedy Central still refuses to let anyone see culminating in one of the most awkward jokes ever...felt like too weird of a moment to go out on. I heard they switched that one with the Weinstein joke in dress which...yeah, they should've made sure the Weinstein joke could work as a closer instead of doing that. Boy, this sure ended up being the everyone's least favorite of the Jost/Che joke swaps, didn't it? What a fittingly dull this to end what is evidently not Jost & Ches' final season at this point. C-

SouthWest Airlines Customer Service - While I should be glad that the PDD boys decided rewrite the old script to their Spectrum Cable sketch from Keiran Culkins' episode, I still feel this is an inferior sequel. It felt too static and confined compared to the original. Plus, it didn't take me long to realize that my previous history of working in call center/customer service jobs kinda ruin these sketches as a whole for me, so...I shall recuse myself from reviewing this sketch due to my established bias. C+

Message From NYPD - I agree with the basic message of "Stop Punching Character Actors" and I liked some of the references and details planted in here (Stephen Roots' name got a chuckle out of me, for one) and kudos to them for getting Jon Hamm for the cameo this was all obviously building up to. My only real complaint about this was the pacing. It felt like it took a minute to figure out its own approach as it went along and it felt like it was heavily edited down on air but overall not bad. It was a nice spiritual sequel to the Law & Order acting class sketch from Jake's first episode. B-

Snake Eyes - This might have been the best sketch of the night for me. They finally put JAJs' "sweet southern guy" voice to good character use. I also did like the near blackout length of this. Most of all, I liked how Jake quickly bought into the cartoon logic of this sketch where looks can literally kill (but not without some cartoony ricochet sound effects). Plus, of all the "normal" looks they've given to Sarah this was definitely my personal favorite. B+

Now, for my final and ultimately most up to date 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. Jake Gyllenhaal/Sabrina Carpenter (05.18.2024)

7. Maya Rudolph/Vampire Weekend (05.11.2024)

8. Dua Lipa (05.04.2024)

9. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)

10. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)

11. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.02.2023)

12. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)

13. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

14. Ramy Youssef/Travis Scott (03.30.2024)

15. Josh Brolin/Ariana Grande (03.09.2024)

16. Sydney Sweeney/Kacey Musgraves (03.02.2024)

17. Shane Gillis/21 Savage (02.24.2024)

18. Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake (01.27.2024)

19. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)

20. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

Now, I'm going to rank all of Jake's episodes...

1. Jake Gyllenhaal/The Shins (01.13.2007)

2. Jake Gyllenhaal/Sabrina Carpenter (05.18.2024)

3. Jake Gyllenhaal/Camilla Cabello (04.09.2022)

Well, we made it to the finish line. Let's just hope the show can do more than just limp to the barn... where the 50th anniversary...square dance is being held? Boy, that phrasing got away from me, but yeah...let's hope they can pull it together enough to make their biggest anniversary season this fall one to remember. See you in September! Have a truly great summer everyone!

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!