Okay, here's my review. I was kind of expecting to have to come down from the high of last week's episode with Adam Sandler. Fortunately, they managed to let us down as gently as they thought they could. Emma Thompson was a serviceable host when they actually used her. Seriously, she was more and more invisible throughout the show. After her extensive background in British sketch comedy had been pointed out to me, I expected SNL to take advantage of that with her hosting but it seems they chose instead to just start running out the clock on this season at this point. The whole cast seemed to get a fair amount of airtime but Cecily seemed shoved into the background near the end of the show. Anyway, let's break it down.
Meet The Press II - I wanted to like this cold open more than I did but it just felt too tired and played out. It came across as an exact cross between the Kavanaugh cold open, the previous Meet The Press cold open from Halseys' episode and all the "How's He Doing?" sketches from the Obama administration. Cecily's Susan Collins and Kyles' Chuck Todd were okay, but other than that I wasn't a huge fan of the political impressions they employed here. C-
Monologue - This got the show off to a better start. I definitely liked Emma's controlled Ed Grimley-esque enthusiasm. I could tell she was definitely here to have fun. Her joke about Kenan being her husband was funny. Tina and Amy were welcome additions here and the latter really had the best lines here. Plus, it's always nice to see Poehler again as she definitely seems to cameo more sporadically than Fey does. Boy, we internet users sure are good at predicting when the early 2000s' women SNL cast are going to cameo on the current show to plug their newest movies, aren't we? B+
Royal Etiquette Coach - At first, I was trying to figure out whether this would be a retread of the Royal Baby Etiquette sketch with Martin Short or the frequent Queen Elizabeth/Prince Phillip sketches Hader and Armisen used to do circa 2010/11. Then, it became clear this wasn't going to resemble either of those and I began to wonder whether this was supposed to be a parody of "My Fair Lady", "Get Out", "Mary Poppins", or "Whiplash". Whatever it was, it really didn't seem to go anywhere. Again, I wanted to like this more for the sheer physically violent nature if it but I also wanted it to build to an actual conclusion. Also, is it just me or does it seem that Emma might have actually hit Leslie for real when she was stirring the teacup (or at least caused her to bit her lip or the inside if her cheek or sonething?) C+
The Perfect Mother - I could immediately tell this was going to be at least the fifth on a three season long string of short films consisting entirely of quick back and forth jump cuts. For some reason, this one felt a little longer than the others. I did like how Heidi was made to focal point of this. They really must be grooming her to be one of the next female leads with Cecily rumored to be leaving next week. I also liked the scene where she called the doctor about her baby eating five crayons. C+
Cinema Classics VI - I guess I shouldn't have expected as much as I did from something that established its basic premise as "two actresses both try to get in the last word in the same season". It had its moments and Kenan had some good lines (especially the ones about his wife making "mistakes" for dinner and bursting who wrote his closing dialogue), but stayed a little too close into Garth & Kat territory near the end. Given that this week's promos established how Kate was a huge fan if Emma's, this must be the requisite piece that Kate and whoever usually cowrites these Reese De'What sketches pitched to Emma as just a two-hander between her and Kate. C-
Chopped - This had to have been written by the same person who wrote the House Hunters sketch from Liev Schreibers' episode. It applied the same exsct sense of dry Tim and Eric-ish absurdity (but more watered down and cleaned up) to a parody if a different type of reality show. Anyways, it was the first thing all night I could really get into. My favorite gags were the "five pound horse penis" and the "raw" steak. B+
Judge Court - This was the second piece of the night I could actually get into. They seemed to have replaced the sheer absurdism in the last sketch with over confident incompetence and confusion but it still worked. I'm guessing Che wrote this given his apparent affinity for Judge Judy and possibly just daytime judge/court shows in general. Everyone turned in a funny individual performance here. Emma really disappeared into her role. She had a surprisingly good handle on the Long Island accent that Kate ran into the ground years ago. I did especially like the three ladies naming each thing they did/regularly do for each other. Until this sketch, I may have forgotten that the Jonas Brothers were even in the building tonight. They certainly felt awkwardly jammed into this sketch but they didn't bring it to a screeching halt or anything. B-
Update was pretty uneven, but there was fun to be had. I don't know if all of Jost and Ches' material was funny enough to warrant them giggling right out of the gate but I liked Josts' jabs at FOX News, the Florida panhandle rally, New Jersey, ("murderin' snake freaks") and Mitch McConnell for "looking like he's watching a man slowly drown". I also liked Ches' Jeff Bezos, baby name, China trade and Trump airline and "I Eat Ass" jokes (just for how he dumped the transition into Josts' lap like that which seems to be a recurring tradition for them now). Somehow, from the moment I heard Che utter the title "Avengers: Endgame" I could tell we were in store for another appearance from Heidi's teen YouTube movie critic. She and Che did seem to hit all the same beats as her previous appearances, but at least their breathing some life into this character by slowly revealing more absurd details about her life and inner thought process. I also liked her insinuation that "the Jonas Brothers wrote most of the show". Pete's commentary seems like it could've been cut from dress at any point during the last four seasons. Hell, it gave me flashbacks to the "living with my mom" jokes I saw Pete do live at the Comedy Works in Denver in October 2015. This had such an abrupt ending that I have to wonder if there was a good chunk of this cut at dress. C+
Teapot and the Beast - This felt like the show's first attempt at an at least semi-original "outside of the box" premise of the entire night. Still, this also seemed to end quite abruptly after it lost it's initial focus. Beck and Cecily don't seem quite right for the roles of Beast and Belle for some reason but I did like the fight they got into once Emma revealed the beasts' real name was Wilbur. Speaking of Cecily, it feels odd that this was her second to last sketch appearance of the whole night. Maybe she really is leaving and is thus being phased out gradually? I'm guessing someone felt they had to write this just because Emma Thompson was actually in the real life Beauty and the Beast remake two years ago? C-
Tracy - Oddly, this turned out to be my favorite sketch of the whole night. It was the only sketch the entire night that actually built to and actual conclusion. I also liked how they gave Ego a real part in something again. I also liked the slightly conceptual character focused writing behind this. It makes me think either Julio Torres/Bowen Yang wrote this or (since it was live and not taped) maybe Anna Drezen/Alison Gates collaborated on it. B+
Wait A Second, That Shouldn't Be There - This was another thing I wanted to like more than I did. It was executed well live, but something felt lacking in the writing. Plus the Harvey Weinstein joke felt too forced in. Emma was the real stand out in this for some reason. C+
Now, for my updated rankings of this entire season so far...
1. Adam Sandler/Shawn Mendes
2. John Mulaney/Thomas Rhett
3. Seth Meyers/Paul Simon
4. Matt Damon/Mark Ronson & Miley Cyrus
5. Rachel Brosnahan/Greta Van Fleet
6. James McAvoy/Meek Mill
7. Adam Driver/Kanye West
8. Emma Stone/BTS
9. Idris Elba/Khalid
10. Halsey
11. Kit Harrington/Sara Bareilles
12. Sandra Oh/Tame Impala
13. Don Cheadle/Gary Clark Jr.
14. Emma Thompson/Jonas Brothers
15. Steve Carrell/Ella Mai
16. Jason Momoa/Mumford & Sons
17. Claire Foy/Anderson .Paak
18. Liev Schreiber/Lil Wayne
19. Jonah Hill/Maggie Rogers
20. Awkwafina/Travis Scott
Well, that was a bit of a strange show that I still don't quite know what to make of. Next week, Paul Rudd returns with DJ Khaled to close out the season. Rudd has repeatedly had to prove himself to be a solid dependable host so (and I know many people, myself included, have been making this exact joke on social media for almost a month now) I have to give SNL kudos for finally pairing up Rudd with a musical guest that can't possibly upstage him. Then again, people like Timberlake and even Rudds' own Anchorman cast mates were unannounced special guest cameos when he previously hosted and they each did steal focus from him in their own way. DJ Khaled is one of those guys who is obviously more of a producer than a performer so he might just hang in the background while his own possibly unannounced special guest performers (probably people along the lines of Drake, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B etc) purposely "overshadow" him. As long as anyone Khaled brings with him doesn't decide they want to be in sketches that week I think Rudd should be fine. I even entertained the possibility of Rhianna AND Samberg both returning for "Shy Ronnie 3" and Rudd joining them both but that's definitely a bit of a long shot in 2019. See you then!
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