Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake (1.27.2024)

Okay, here's my review. Dakota Johnson showed she had the right attitude for hosting SNL and her heart was into doing the show moreso than it was nine years ago (even if tonight that gradually faded away by the shows' end). She and the show figured out how to place their mutual trust in each other. However, if it takes Dakota Johnson of all people to make you feel that SNL is in safe stable hands again after the previous week and they both let you down multiple times by the end of the episode, something is seriously wrong. This episode was only marginally better than Jacob Elordis outing was in the same way that somehow Keegan Michael-Keys' episode was marginally better than Elon Musks episode three seasons ago. Okay, I know I am not the first person to make this comparison but the fact that I felt the need to make it at all is a damning statement on this season. I went into this episode wanting to like it more than I did. Still, the highs were higher than last week but not by a whole (mostly due to certain pretapes and by the time they and Update were through I may have stopped wanting to like this episode altogether). The cast balance was a bit uneven as far as airtime went mainly because Ego & Punkie felt invisible after nearly dominating last week's show (so did Chloe Troast but she didn't exactly "dominate" last week). Michael Longfellow, Heidi Gardner and Sarah Sherman made some minor gains but Marcello, Devon, Mikey and Kenans airtime remains stable. At times, it felt like Dakota was misused as a host the way some of the "hands off" host's of Dick Ebersols' era were used but that may have been the show accomodating/hyping the musical guest and his obligatory sketch cameo with his even more obligatory special guest. We'll get to them in just a moment but first let's kick off this review of the show proper starting with the cold open.

NFL on CBS - Well, I was slightly intrigued as to where this was going until it was mentioned that this was a Kansas City Chiefs game. Then, I was slightly MORE intrigued when Dismukes started rambling about the end of "real football," and Kenan, Day, Longfellow, and Devon took that and ran with it. Thankfully, they didn’t linger too long on Molly as Andy Reid. The meta "live tv" joke was...a little on the nose. I could take it or leave it but the "Blue Bloods/So Help Me Todd Damn Awful" jokes got me. The "predictions" and wildly autotuned closing number really made this for me. It felt like a more dry, existentialist take on the Super Bowl Power Outage we got in Justin Beibers' otherwise dark cloud tinged episode from season 38. I appreciated the subtle look into mens' camaeraderie and seasonal loss of identity here. It's nice to know that every few years, you can look to the show around Super Bowl time for the show to deliver an out-of-the-box, non-political vaguely football themed cold open. B+

Monologue - It's nice to see Dakota with about 100% more life in her eyes than her last hosting stint and riffing in her own unstoppable sassiness from age 7. I appreciate her mentioning her SNL40 cameo. I didn’t appreciate the Trump/Swift mention, but I at least appreciated the misdirect it built up to. Speaking of what this monologue built up to, I  appreciated the gently buttering up the OTHER Justin who last hosted in season 38 the absolute LEAST of all but hopefully my week old prediction of Dakota shutting down another Barry Gibb Talk Show turns out to be true before the night is done! - C+

Mason Family Dinner - Well, it's a mashup of premises that Kevin Nealon did with Rosie O'Donnell on this show, and Tommy Davidson did on In Living Color 30 years ago. Still, getting to watch Sarah, Dakota, and Kenan malaprop their way through it is a fresh twist and a noticable improvement even if I got very few genuine laughs out of it. C+

Home Movies - The premise of discovering the paternity test of a Maury-like daytime trash talk show was a pivotal moment in your moms' pregnancy is a bit shaky. Even though it feels like the type of thing a show like this should've done two decades ago and been done with, I liked seeing exactly how much fun Mikey, Dakota, Sarah, Marcello, Dismukes, JAJ and Mikeys' stunt double got to have with this. They really did throw themselves into the execution of this. I guess it's just assumed that the parents aged so much in...I'm gonna say somewhere between 15 and 20 years because they lived a HARD 15 to 20 years? The one negative thing I will say about this is that it was another pretape that was just long enough to feel like it could've had some cuts made but so many things worked it would be hard to pick out something that absolutely NEEDED to be cut. It doesn’t surprise me to learn that Stephen Castillo wrote this as well because it was really one of only two fun things in tonight's show. B-

Barry Gibb Ta...AAAAHHH, Fuck Me! Couldn't This Show Just Let Me Have This ONE Thing For The Week? - Jeez, they really ARE that desperate to pander aren't they? (*whew*) Sorry to go off like that. To tell you the truth, I kinda liked the first two of these but after the third one they got harder to not actively tune out of. I'm not THAT staunchly against these but unfortunately, as I grew older my attention span grew with me so I had to convince myself to keep watching to see if there would be some kind of twist that didn't come. When they're making Bowen do an impression he did in his first season that no one remembers four years later, you know they're desperately clutching at straws, hoping for our approval viewed through rose tinted glasses. The last one of these I just remember for a ridiculous and unnecessary Madonna cameo and that's it. I mean, I appreciate that Fallon really decided to give this his all (even as tryhard as he always is) but man, it just didn't work for me. The Saltburn and Bluey references in particular seemed really shameless and desperate. At least this was over with quickly with surprisingly little fanfare. D+

PDD Vs. Dakota: Roast Battle - I wasn’t crazy about the fact that they did something that addresses Dakotas' snarkiness so directly and unsubtly. Fortunately, Please Don't Destroy have shown they have the specific chops and expert timing necessary to heighten this to the point where it works. I particularly liked the Aubrey Plaza/Hamilton/Daddio burns the most. This peaked when John Higgins suddenly weeped then threatened to make Dakota drop an N-bomb off a cue card in her monologue. B+

Big Dumb Cup - So, apparently Allison Gates came back to the writer's table this week to just drop off some light riffs on the Pink Stanley Cup craze and then leave as quickly as she could before someone could bring up what SORELY needed to be cut from this for pacing reasons? I'm sure some of you reading this will be pleased to hear that. Anyway, I honestly thought this was an inferior companion piece to last seasons' "Big Dumb Hat" that didn’t really go anywhere. When you're making me more favorably remember a sketch from an episode hosted by Amy Frigging Schumer of all people and the biggest laugh I actually got from it was a botched cutaway (looking at you, Chloe F.) something may seriously be wrong here. D-

Update was almost completely unnoteworthy. Very few of the jokes worked for me. I did like how Che played off the crowd and used a clip of Ron DeSantis' own words to bite him hard in the ass. I liked his Ghans joke and Josts' Bees On A Plane and Spirit/JetBlue merger and Planet Fitness jokes (glad I haven't signed up with them yet) got a chuckle out of me too. Bowen "Ethan" Yangs' commentary felt like something Kyle Mooney could've done better two years ago, but I will admit I was on board with it overall and his "100% Asian" and "In Memoriam" bits got me. Otherwise, this felt like Bowen just purposely wrote this as a subtle middle finger to anyone who has ever called any of his character pieces "self-indulgent". At least this was more grounded by his standards instead of being another inanimate object or insect or mythical demon or something. Speaking of "self-indulgent", I thought Heidi was mostly over giving us these broad, campy mugfests but as a vehicle for her to elaborately roast Che in a way that almost echoes Bobby Moynihan as "Riblet", I'll let it slide for tonight (even as labored and hacky as the OnlyFans & Jost/Catfish bits felt). I also appreciated the direction choices this made giving us an overhead shot of the desk for once. C-

Women's Book Club Meeting - This was a heavy concept "writerly" sketch that didn't quite land with me. It felt like a direct cross between Chadwick Bosemans' fireman sketch and those two sketches Aidy did where she played a mom opening presents that just turned out to be a series of signs with wine based slogans. I did appreciate that it finally started to go SOMEWHERE when Dakota started to apply her "human condition" theory to Heidi reducing her to tears. Just when you felt like this sketch got in and got out at exactly the right spot, two actual Shark Tank judges show up out of nowhere throwing the whole timing of the sketch off. I realize that this is the exact type of surprise "never in a million years would we have seen this coming" cameo we were pleasantly surprised by in the beginning of last season but this time it just doesn't work. C-

Airport Luggage - It's nice to finally see Devon Walker finally get a character showcase of his own. He really seemed to give it his all, too but he seemed to gradually morph into Debra Wilsons' embarassing pharmacist from MADtvs' fourth season. Kenan was allright but he felt too much like a Key and Peele character just got drag and dropped into this sketch. Sarah was all right but she just left me wondering if she just adlibbed her last line based on its response and what might have been cut from this sketch based on how short on time the show seemed by this point. C-

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

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)
2. Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo (12.9.2023)
3. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)
4. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
5. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)
6. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
7. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)
8. Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake (1.27.2024)
9. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)
10. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

Well, that was certainly something. Next week, Ayo Edeberi makes her hosting debut. Now, I have to admit I can't say I've really seen much that Ayo has been in but looking at her list of credits and hearing all of you guys (yes, you among others reading this right now specifically, you know who you are) talk her up a great deal has me more excited than ever for this show. I immediately got the impression that Ayo is someone who has proved herself to be just as adept at comedy as she is at award winning dramatic performances so it will be so nice to see the show helmed by someone primarily known for their comedic chops again. Besides, the last time we got an Abbot Elementary alum as host, she did absolute wonders for the show (even if they were just for that one fleeting week). Jennifer Lopez is the musical guest, another Xennial pop star who has hosted multiple times in the past. She's also consistently been a solid and relaible presence in sketches. She even hosted in season 35 and as hard as I remember being on that season when it aired I have to say hers was one of the least dire or disappointing episodes of that year. I guess something rubbed off on her during her time as a Fly Girl on In Living Color. So, if J.Lo wanted to appear in a sketch or two next week, I honestly wouldn't mind. See you then!

Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)

Okay, here's my review. This was a bad show, no doubt but it was just a little too inconsistent to be the absolute worst episode of the season compared to one show that was just consistently duller and one episode that I can now say I may have been a bit too hard on. Still, when a show is bad enough that I have seriously rearrange my rankings of the whole season (as you'll see), you know things are bad all around right now. Jacob Elordi manage to confirm me initial trepidations regarding him as a host. He seemed to get along with the cast just fine yet at the same time he seemed to have no real connection with the show until this week and seemed to see it as just a high profile sketch workshop that he could use to plug his new movie. He may be a fine character actor but he didn’t seem to be able to translate that into sketch comedy. His entire comedic range seemed to extend from "just there" to "quietly yet actively bringing down a sketch". At least this episode made decent if not ideal use of the cast (outside of Longfellow and Kenan, who both seemed to blend into the background more than usual and JAJ who barely got to do any character work this week). Anyway, let’s break it down, shall we?

Trump Defamation Trial Press Conference - Hmm, another safe pbvious choice for a cold open theme. At times, this felt a little too unfocused to take in all at once but JAJs' goofy delivery put this over for me as usual (though I guess that's usually the point with these JAJ Trump cold opens by now?) I did like the Ron DeStupid/Vivica A. Ramaswany/cognitive run-on sentence. Yeah, this seems topical enough that they must've felt like they HAD to tackle this month's Trump news in some way (while still having a bit of an unfortunate "been there, done that" vibe to it loke with the "weird stance" jokes) but hey, they're shaking off the cobwebs from another long holiday break and there have been much worse cold opens this season (hell, there have been worse cold opens involving JAJs' Trump than this one) so, hey..I'll take it. C+

Monologue - Just when this monologue starts to give me disappointing Nancy Kerrigan vibes, Rosebud Baker, Alex English and Queen Squirm come in to save this with some assists from Kenan & Bowen (and hopefully not as much of the "Applause" sign as I suspect). Thankfully, this quickly gave me flashbacks to the late 90s Ferrell & McKay era "questions from the audience" monologues when they cared enough to use writers who were then just unfamiliar enough to most of the home audience (your Pells, your Feys, your Higginses, even moving on to your Smooves & you Sudeikises once Fey became more prominent on the show...hell even Downey was in the one with Kelly Ripa, remember that?) to really SELL us on the illusion that ANY audience member could just stand up and interrupt the show willy nilly. As for Jacob himself, the Saltburn/Priscilla/Lilo & Stitch/Kissing Booth references gave off the same empty, autopilot checklist vibes that most of the top half of Pete Davidsons' episode this season gave off as well as every third cold open from seasons 43-46 gave off. The sincere statement at the end of his monologue was really the only part of HIS I liked, even if he gave next to zero indication he had even heard of the show before last month (since, y'know...he is Australian after all). B-

Crown Your Short King - My first impression of this sketch was that the joke must be that this is the absolute LAST sketch you would expect Jacob Elordi to appear in...until he actually DID and you realize that (even as shamelessly wedged in here and underwritten as this whole thing was) this sketch actually DID need him to help visually sell you on this entire premise while playing off some lame, tired dumb guy tropes (and maybe take some of the weight off of Mikey & Marcellos' shoulders and distract you from Molly sticking out like a sore thumb here). Even Ms. Fineman had very convincingly heartfelt dialogue here, which feels like something we haven't seen from her before. C+

Club Shay-Shay: Extended Katt Williams Interview - Ego didn’t disappoint here even if she didn't exactly disappear into the role of Katt Williams either. The idea of her as Katt Williams alone piqued my interest, but the sheer energy that an Ego/Devon pairing radiates alone was more than enough to engage me in this. Thankfully, Ego bought some CBB levels of absurdity here and lived up to my instant expectations. Still, I could've used a bit more here to keep me from wondering why this was as long as it was and whether or not this was considered "old news" by now. While I don't want to see Ego fall into the Kate/Aidy/Cecily trap of being forced to play too many male drag roles, this falls more in line of how I would like to see Ego used om the show when compared to Lisa From Temecula or that Jenna Ortega Excorcist sketch. B-

ET Interviews Lip Readers - It's odd but not surprising that they put both vaguely of the moment pop culture referencing sketches up top back to back like this because this was drastically weaker than what just aired before it. Seriously, this was a translucently paper thin premise that felt so drearily stretched thin that I swear it could've been a season 11 sketch. Yes, that's the actual vibe I got from this. I'm honestly shocked they couldn't come up with a better sketch to drag-and-drop the obligatory Renée "Mom: We Have Billie Eillish At Hone" Rapp into but hey...this felt right at home being aimed at the audience who tuned in just to see her, Jacob and Bowen! Good on the two guys for pulling their weight here but not even Jake pulling a "duh duh dumb guy" voice out of his pocket for Travis Kelce or Bowen suddenly singing a Streisand verse out of nowhere could get me. D+

Bowling Date Animations - I guess part of the reason the last two sketches at least felt so long was that could tell exactly where this was they needed the extra time to make sure half the cast could get into their bowling pin costumes in time (and half of THAT half of the cast were in the previous two sketches?) Anyway, although I knew exactly where this was going before the first ball was even rolled, I loved how labored and increasingly dramatic the punny reveals were here. The "gutter/9" ones really got me, and I liked the "foot on the line/have sex" twists, too. The "WGA" signs being in the background of the "strike" one felt a little too on the nose for me. Also, I feel kinda bad for him that this was Longfellows' first and seemingly only appearance all night. I'm glad to hear that this was one of the sketches that Stephen Castillo came back to (guest?) write. No wonder it was the only thing I genuinely laughed at all night. (Was this cut from a previous dress rehearsal? It felt oddly familiar to me? Seriously, was this a cut sketch from season 46 he resubmitted?) B+

Alaska Airlines - At first, this felt like it was going to be in the same vein as the Adidas/Kanye ad from last season (which I honestly had mixed feelings about) but this included just enough odd details to keep me from completely checking out, like the thicc safety brochure, inflatable slide and pilot on mushrooms. JAJ as Sully was a nice touch. The bolts joke reminded me of Norms "Disneyland/Extra-Terror-estrial" joke from one of his season 20 (IIRC?) Updates. B-

Update was almost entirely worth watching for the way they went as hard in the paint on Tim Scott, the Catholic Church and Nikki Haley for her "America was never a racist country" as they did. I did like Josts opening Trump Vs. Biden joke. I mean, I didn’t exactly LAUGH but I sadly identified with it (and with political election humor in 2024...hell, even going back as far as October 2016 if I'm bring real with y'all...that's as much as I can muster). I felt the same about his "50 y.o. net worth vs. 30 y.o. net worth" joke but for totally different reasons which I won't go into here. Anyway, as much as I appreciate seeing Punkie get airtime, her "flying defendant" commentary didn’t quite...land with me (pun unintended, but I'll stick with it just because it works). It's mostly that I didn't care much for the material (as much as she sold it) and partly because BOTH black women in the cast playing male drag roles felt like overkill. C+

Women Supporting Women - Well, at first I felt like I could've fully get on board with THIS being the obligatory "all the women in the cast get to drool over the conventionally attractive male host (and I do mean "all", Ms. Fineman...you already had your chance, please let your castmates have their moments)" sketch but thankfully this was saved for me by Ego, Molly, Squirm and Punkie (again, if I'm bein' real with y'all). Too bad Mikey almost ruined the whole sketch for me. C+

Acting Class - This truly felt like the least focused sketch of the night. The Day/Fineman "pimp vs ho" scene was funny enough but sadly that was the absolute peak here. Sorry, Bowen but Bobby Coultsman you are not. I'm glad that Rachel MacAdams was used in an actual sketch instead of just a musical guest introduction (even if her late entry into the scene, seemingly reading cue cards she just saw for the first time on air Stefon-style and delayed applause break once the notebook was mentioned kinda threw off the whole sketch), but sadly, this dragged to the exact point where she killed any momentum this sketch COULD’VE built up. Once Jacob showed up and stiffed his way through his lines, things didn’t exactly improve. Not even that "beat your illness/make-a-wish" joke at the end could save this sketch. It's funny that this sketch chose to name drop Selena Gomez a couple of times because this sketch reminded me of the high school modeling sketch from her episode a couple of seasons ago only this was more stretched out, dilluted and cut with bits of the Women Supporting Women sketch that preceded it...and also that Aubrey Plaza director sketch from a year ago...and, do I detect a hint of that Lin Manuel Miranda high school substitute sketch from, Jesus, seven and a half years ago? Really? C-

Garrett From Hinge II: Hinge Garretter - Oh boy, well... I know a lot of you didn’t like the first one of these, so I imagine this didn’t go over well. I'll admit the first one of these somehow became a guilty pleasure of mine, but despite being a fine use of Ms Troasts' performing talents, this was a bit of a letdown. Still, I liked the visual of an elderly church organist also wearing an open lavender button up over a Stewie shirt. I actually did chuckle a bit at Jacob and JAJs' Lois & Cleveland impressions as well as the absurdity of Garrett disappearing into a Christ portrait (even if the technical reveal was blown a bit). C+

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

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)
2. Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo (12.9.2023)
3. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)
4. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
5. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)
6. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
7. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)
8. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)
9. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

Well, that was certainly one way for SNL to ring in the new year. Next week, Dakota Johnson returns for her second time hosting with Justin Timberlake for his sixth time as musical guest. I'm glad I'm not alone in saying I don't have a lot of confidence in this one, but I see some hope. Dakota may have basically sleep walked through her season 40 episode but the cast and writers did just put all their effort into the highly successful 40th anniversary special two weeks earlier so they can all at least share the blame there. Plus, we're getting post Vanity Fair lime/Ellen interview era Dakota hosting so if nothing else I have no doubt that she can singlehandedly stop another Barry Gibb talk show from happening (or any Fallon/Timberlake sketch we didn't need to see again in 2013 let alone 2024). I know only being billed as a musical guest has not necessarily stopped Justin Timberlake (or anyone really) from appearing in sketches on this show but hopefully he can be kept in check by some combination of his own current pop cultural irrelevance and lack of goodwill and Dakota Johnsons' increasingly endearing bluntness and sheer compulsion to shut down other peoples bullshit (including her own). See you then.

Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)

Okay, here's my review. While this show was more than a little uneven, it was uneven in a way that thankfully challenged me as a lifelong SNL fan. They took perhaps the some of the biggest conceptual risks I have seen them take in recent years so that while some of the highs weren't quite as high as last week, the lows weren't as low but they were at least more interesting to see play out in real time. The weaker sketches actually mildly confused me into submission a bit rather than just disappointed me with what they were doing. I was more intrigued to watch certain sketches progress in order to figure out just what the hell they were actually going for rather than just tune them out to try to take notes and get caught up on this review. Kate McKinnon did in fact deliver a show that was respectably mostly devoid of her recurring characters (aside from one) that reminded us why she was such a welcome presence at the show as I was hoping she would last week. They actually took some chances creatively and while not all of them were hit out of the park, enough of them hit just right for me to get some enjoyment out of it from some unexpected places. Aside from maybe Devon and Molly, everyone got a fair amount of screen time tonight. JAJ saw a major leap. Anyway, let’s get on with it.

95th Annual Christmas Awards - Boy, am I glad to see this up top after this week! I mean, it's still not the most ideal length or pacing for a cold open but it still defies any expectations I could've had so hey, I'll take it. The various "reenactments" from Mikey, Troast & Dismukes and the off-air awards presented by Marcello really made this for me along with the acceptance speeches from Kenan, Sarah & Devon. B-

Monologue - I can't tell you how refreshing it is to just see Kate be Kate and give us as much of a genuine glimpse into "real life Kate" as we'll ever get to see (especially after wrapping that real part of herself in a couple of layers of dadaist absurdity). I was actually starting to get Phil Hartman season 21 vibes until the sappy but pleasantly low key musical number started. Not even the genuine (given who else we were expecting) surprise cameos from Maya & Kristen (does she have the same eyebrow groomer as the Levys now?) could detract from this. I especially like Kates "prosthetics" and "required to sing" jokes. B+

North Pole Breaking News - It was a strange (but at least semi understandable) choice to open up the show with the template of a sketch that closed Eddie Murphys' 2019 episode but it mostly worked for me. I can understand the thinking that Kate would be one of the few performers who could really do this justice (hell, wasn’t she also in the last one? If so, did she have enough of a good time to want to bring this back for herself?). I liked the intense scottish character she bought to this. It reminded me of one of those town hall sketches from (I think?) season 41 where she played a nursing home resident apologizing for various acts of violence she committed while under the influence of Rockstar Energy Drinks. Weirdly, I was just thinking about that specific performance and how much I'd like to see her play that type of character once again. I even got a kick out of the sight gag of her vomiting Skittles but still, I have to say I liked Eddie's iteration of this sketch better because this one lacked the sheer raw chaotic energy of that one. C+

Pongo - Nice to see that with Sarah's help (and some assists from Mikey, Fineman and Dismukes) Kate can triple, nay, quadruple down on the dadaist absurdism vibes Kate bought in her monologue and bring some [adult swim] flavor with a dash of "That's Not Yogurt" & "Almost Pizza" to them. The benign nihilism that got mixed in there doesn't hurt either. B+

ABBA Christmas - Hmm...I didn’t love this or hate it. It was a fine sketch I couldn't muster much enthusiasm for. Weirdly, I did chuckle at the "Waterloo/Babadook" number. JAJ did a fine job anchoring this as the pitchman (that may be the first time he ever visibly broke on camera?)but I always pictured modern SNL placing Mikey in Mayas' role if they ever did an ABBA parody (I mean, she WAS playing the other male member of the grouo who incidentally does resemble Mikey Day quite a bit in real life but her one line of spoken dialogue got me). Other than that , this was well cast. All I can say about it is it gave me heavy "we just dusted off and resubmitted an old script from 2005 that Maya & Kristen couldn't get on until now" vibes. C+

Mom & Dads' Christmas Gifts - Honestly, this is the first sketch of the night that I felt was off putting in a bad way. It didn't really go anywhere and felt like a lower energy version of a MAD TV sketch I saw with Stephanie Weir & Andy Daly. I never thought I'd be saying this but JAJs' part genuinely could've been cut for going to far against the grain of this sketch. Nice of them to include Molly, though. D+

Tampon Farm (She Sings) - This mostly felt like one big inside joke that Kate, Billie and the other women on the show were in on and I wasn't. I did like the ending reveal of the farm being condemned for too much singing. Paula Pell was the only odd cameo that really worked for me though. Her presence suddenly made this make sense. C+

Update was kind of all over the place. Only a few of the actual jokes worked for me and they were Josts' Rudy/$9.11, bird killing and Claudine Gay jokes (the latter if which was better than last week's entire cold open) along with Che's Haley/Sununu, Albert Einswine and inheritance jokes. Ego's Rich Auntie With No Kids worked for me just because I appreciated getting to see her doing this type of focused character driven piece rather than "generic 'no-nonsene' woman #427". It did remind me of Aidys' "worst woman on a plane" commentary from 10(!) seasons ago (which I guess was the closest the show could get to an actual Aidy cameo this week). I especially liked the threats of Veronda coming for Che's job (which if it wasn’t foreshadowing when Bobby played Riblet sure isn't gonna be foreshadowing now). I was glad to see them go all out for the two year long awaited return of the Christmas joke swap with Che finally getting his fair share of humiliation for once. I would genuinely love to know the story of how Dr. Hattie Davis got involved here (or on SNL even back in season 3 because I found nothing on SNL archives on her). At this point, Che & Jost may have more than made up for how gassed out they seemed this season. They seemingly did nothing concrete to confirm or deny those "last show" rumors but they did leave us with a number of different reasons to question why this WASN'T their last episode. B+

Office Yankee Swap - Wow...this sketch really was something else. I mean, it took some big swings and I can't say they didn’t work for me. They knew exactly how to play maudlin against frivolous here and I didn't mind how they escalated this exactly as far as it needed to go before ending it. Punkies' part felt a little telegraphed but I did like Dismukes "my family's white" line. B+

Cinema Classics: Meet Me In St. Louis - I feel like I've seen enough of Reese De'What for a lifetime but I do appreciate them bringing it back just to fold Troast & JAJ into this format. Kate was just fine here turning in the type of semi-contained insanity we've seen before in her early years. I liked her "Wizard of Oz was mid" line and her chainsaw gag. C+

Whiskers R Billie - Well, this was definitely my favorite of Billies' two sketch cameos tonight. Her acting suited this well. Honestly, I'm glad this was the only recurring character of Kate's we got to see tonight. It's a semi-deep cut I've always enjoyed just fine. Maybe Billie is a bigger fan of this than I am? Even though it seemed more watered down than the previous ones, I liked that the big telegraphed reveal this time was "long lost daughter" rather than "let's play off Billies' recent coming out as bisexual." C+

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

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)
2. Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo (12.9.2023)
3. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)
4. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
5. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)
6. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)
7. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
8. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

Well, that was certainly a fitting way to end 2023 for SNL. After the holiday, the show comes back on 2024 with Jacob Elordi as host. Since he's someone who I only know as "that psycho asshole from Euphoria" and "the second kid to play Elvis in a biopic this decade" (maybe THAT was the real reason they reran the Butler/Lizzo episode before this?) I'd be intrigued to see if he has any comedic range.

Happy Holidays and to those of you who actively contributed to the outpouring of support this blog has received recently, thank you for making my tenth consecutive year doing this so special!

Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo (12.9.2023)

Okay, here's my review. It was great to see SNL back on stable ground this week after taking so many broad swings and misses lsst week. This show definitely felt more grounded and only slightly uneven compared to last week. While both of these last two weeks had solid dependable hosts, this week had a host who knew his own strengths better and how to play into them. As expected, Adam Driver elevated everything he was in and thankfully knew when to not play it too big. No one felt more shut out than anyone else in terms of cast airtime (but maybe Michael Longfellow took a minor hit this week and Punkie took a major one). Airtine felt pretty evenly distributed among the cast. I would definitely say this is Adam Driver's second best SNL episode ever just behind his one from season 45. Wanna know why? Well, let's break it down, shall we?

C-SPAN Campus Antisemitism Testimomy - Wow...ok. This is...certainly an out of left field choice for a political cold open. It definitely took me a few rewatches to fully parse what was going on with this one. Full disclosure: my only real exposure to this actual news story were headlines I saw earlier that day about the real life UPenn lady having to resign due to how badly this hearing went for her and even I feel they may have painted with broad brushstrokes here. Nice to see Chloe Troast and Molly Kearney in such prominent roles right up top. Molly teeing up Ego to deliver that "Dr. Gay/fire island" joke doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence thst they'll handle this subject matter as delicately as they should, but somehow Heidi's whole performance is putting me at ease. Troast is certainly making some strong choices with her accent, but I can't say they're NOT working for me. (Did whoever say Cecily was going to make a cameo in this cold open simply confuse these two women again?) Kudos to her for getting to take the lead on another group LFNY (again, I thought we were past these?) Kenans' whole character seems like he was pulled straight out of an unused cold open from 2011 but at least he got to deliver the only genuine laugh lines in this. Hope Twitter treads lightly with this one...aaaaaand I'm already starting to see that they didn’t. Still, I'd like to thank my friend Monette Moradi for actually raising the level of discourse surrouding this cold open (at least in the social media circle I'm the most immersed in) by pointing out ways this COULD have worked if they focused it up writing-wise instead of just taking the "both sides are dumb & crazy" route because, well...let's just say I know her perspective is going to be the one that matters the most here. C+

Monologue - I'm really relieved to see that this solo piano monologue matches the offbeat goofiness of his season 45 episode and is more reminiscent of that than any of his other previous episodes so far. Also, it's nice to see Adam Driver had this hidden talent for actually playing piano this whole time. Yep, you're gonna have a pretty damn hard time convincing me Zach Galifianakis DIDN'T come in this week to guest write this monologue (but I am willing to bet that if whoever helped write Harry Styles' and Timothee Chalamets' monologues in seasons 45 and 46 respectively is still on staff that they helped with this, too). The Kattan mention didn’t totally work for me, but hey, I'll take it. His "couples' pranks TikTok" and "gingerbread house" jokes got the biggest laughs out of me. Thank God this turned out to be more than just a mish mash of random one-liners. Does anyone else get big Tom Hanks vibes from this? B+

Adults Only Ski Trip - On paper, this seemed too idiotic to work but in execution, Adam Driver and Bowen Yang as two gay men who barely know how sex let alone conception or pregnancy works played out10 times better than it had any right to once it simply turned into a list of absurd details such as ham & cocaine, geriatric pregnancies, three out of seven holes, phones & Andy Milonakis (were Dan Licata and Stephen Castillo guest writers this week, too?). See, this is the more down to earth, grounded stupidity I'd like to see more of from Bowen rather than the listless, gimmicky vanity pieces he's been giving us lately that haven't landed. My only real complaint about this was that it was a bit too long, and maybe everything after Ego's entrance could've been cut. C+

Old Friends - This seemed to be going for the same thing that the Christmas Dinner pretape from Billie Eillishs' episode two years ago was going for. I honestly prefer this even though I thought everything after Devon "Big Filthy" Walkers' appearance should’ve been cut. The "big ones/big titties" bit in particular felt telegraphed as hell, and the facebook ad tag at the end (while expertly cut and well timed) felt unnecessary. C-

Beep Beep - This may have been my favorite live sketch of the night. It had a very Key & Peele setup followed by typical modern SNL overexposition, but it was still such a Dismukes sketch, and he and Driver just owned it. The ending with Kenan worked perfectly for me, and it didn't overstay its welcome. A-

Shop TV Christmas - Hmm...I think Rosebud Baker (or just Michael Che, let's face it) simply just went for broke at 4am on Tuesday and just set out to write the single most derivative, most telegraphed, most pointlessly censor baiting, LEAST creative SNL sketch in the entire shows' history. That's the only way I can process this making air. Oh well, at least Adam gave me a couple of laughs in his obligatory "meek, milquetoast, playing against type" role of the night as did the brief phone calls. Also, did whoever say Cecily was gonna cameo tonight get confused here too and think they were doing "Right Side Of The Bed" again? Did this person also confuse Mikey with Taran? I could legit see that happening? D+

Update was quite an improvement from last week (which, I know, isn't saying much, but still...). The jokes overall were fine. None of them stood out that much (well, that RFK Jr/Epstein and "conservative women = flat asses ones" did) but both Jost & (especially) Che made up for how out of it they seemed last week. Marcellos' standup seemed a little unfocused for me in the middle there, but overall, that worked for me, too. His "barbershop/salon" and "delayed plane/breakup" bits made me laugh the most. Chloe Finemans' commentary was at least a nice format break for modern Update (as much as it reminded me of Jon Rudnitskys' Dirty Dancing commentary from season 41 and one of Melissa Villaseñors standup bits about how NSYNCs' dance moves are so violently herky-jerky and all in the shoulders they'd be better suited for a bar fight than a date) and it was at least a little different from what she usually gives us in her calculated vanity pieces. I had heard rumors of a "surprise cameo" during a potential second update commentary, and while I could definitely tell who it was gonna be once Chloe mentioned "Save The Last Dance." Still, I do have to say that Julia Stiles was one of the absolute last people I would expect to cameo on SNL in 2023, so...yep, you got me there, bud! Nice use of Devon, though. B-

Babys' First Flight - Okay, I guess Marc Weiner was a guest writer too this week? Or maybe whoever wrote those Adam Grossman Benihana sketches for Jonah Hill came back this week? Either way, this was something that only Adam Driver could’ve put over for me because it absolutely went nowhere on the page. Thankfully, Adam didn't go too over the top. Honestly, the only way thing that should've been cut was the "baby plane" ad tag at the end. C+

Septugenarian TikTok Prank Victims - This was definitely my favorite pretape of the night just for the sheer spontaneous silliness of it played against the sincere, pleading PSA tone. Kenan, Adam, JAJ and Marcello sold the hell out of this for me. Even Heidi turned in a strong performance here. B+

Tiny Ass Baggage - An Ego/Marcello pairing was something I didn't know I needed in my life until I saw it. Adams' purposely stiff lone readings were the icing on the cake for me. Olivia's cameo worked well for me too (although I can't help but think she's gonna get some shit on the TikToks and the YouFaceTwitters for using that accent that I'm sure Ego could get away with better). I already have seen that I may be alone on this but this was definitely my second favorite live sketch of the night. I probably would’ve liked this much less if it were in any other episode with any other host but this was already preceeded by such stronger material that I choose to associate it with in my memory. B+

Now, just for fun (and because I know you may not feel like scrolling all the way back up to my intro after having read all that), I'd like to updare my ranking of each of Driver's episodes from best to worst...

1. Adam Driver/Halsey (1.25.2020)

2. Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo (12.9.2023)

3. Adam Driver/Chris Stapleton (1.16.2016)

3. Adam Driver/Kanye West (9.29.2018)

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

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)

2. Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo (12.9.2023)

3. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)

4. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)

5. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

6. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)

7. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

Well, that was a breeze. Next week, Kate McKinnon returns to the show, a mere year and a half after leaving, to make her hosting debut. You know, much like Pete hosting this seasons premiere (after the first of this year's two Hollywood strikes prevented him from hosting in the homestretch of the previous season) I would probably be looking forward to this more if Kate had given us more time away from the show to miss her before she came back. With Kate hot off the heels of here mere supporting role as "Weird Barbie" in...well, "Barbie", it just feels either too soon or not at the right moment in her career to just...host. She should host to promote something she is the lead star in but I can see this booking as SNL wanting to provide a solid ending to a difficult calendar year for everyone. The Christmas shows (when done right) tend to be comfort food for the audience and a big Christmas party for the cast and crew so I get them wanting to book a familiar face as host who can be counted on to carry the show into the holidays if not the new year. Don't get me wrong, I am certainly not denying that Kate's a truly talented and committed performer. It's just that the best examples of her being the shows most valuable asset are from her first four seasons on the show. After that, they just kept pounding the square peg that is Kate McKinnon into the round hole that was SNLs desperate and feeble attempts to keep up with the exhausting and demoralizing political scene of the time. Hopefully, she can do what fellow alums Pete, Marty, Adam and Seth did in recent years and just deliver a strong show carried by solid original performances and or character work (by which I don't mean recurring characters obviously since with Kate most of those were two handers between her and either Cecily or Aidy who as far as we know aren't guaranteed to make cameos) making us remember why we originally liked her as a cast member (hey say what you will about Pete's episode being weak, he was by far the least weak part of it). I know Kate had some chemistry with Billie when she first hosted two years ago. I'd be fine seeing them paired up in sketches again just as long as they can keep the breaking to a minimum. See you then!

Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)

DISCLAIMER: Due to a long first week of training at a new job and some minor personal concerns, some of my ability to discern amd watch Saturday Night Live extremely critically and as more than just as an escape from substantial life changes may have been corrupted. 

Unfortunately, I did not have access to any deepfake or A.I. technology and neither John Higgins, Bill Brasky, Soaps and Scifi, or Blood Meridian were available to yassify this review on such short notice. 

Luckily, I had the idea to open with this lame attempt at a meta in-joke parodying one of tonights pretapes just to fully cover my own self consciousness at my latest batch of polished hot takes not exactly lining up fully with the groupthink of the small cult following of people I regularly interact with on Discord who I know are the only ones actually reading any of this and yo therapeutically acknowledge the nagging fear of losing considerable clout within said group.

Now, at the risk of possibly losing some of your respect for me as a writer, please enjoy.

Okay, whew. Sorry for making that disclalaimer, like, four times longer than what it was parodying (I swear, I'm gonna start learning to actually edit these better), but here's my review. As you can tell, this turned out to be a shockingly divisive episode amongst fans online. On paper, this isn't that far off from some of the weaker episodes of the season (so pretty much the ones not hosted by Bargatze or Chalamet but on a different level just slightly above Bad Bunny as that one was beset by its own unique issues). On the surface, what actually put this episode over (at least for me personally) was mostly Emma's performance and the fact that the show made use of some much beloved and underused new cast members who might not have seen as much screentime lately. Now, I don't know if the kids today still say things like "the Longfellow stans and the Troast tribe have been FED" on the TikkityToks and the YouFaceBlueThreadTwitters, but yeah, I would say that exact thing happened. Back to Emma, though, she proved she is still the solid reliable host she always was. As I've said before, Emma has a special way of working within the show to make sure none of her episodes feel exactly the same (well, aside from one recent recurring sketch) so even if the show itself was pretty cookie cutter in its basic outline, Emmas such a unique performer that she can bring her own special flair to sketch premises and templates that you feel like you've seen the show attempt multiple times before. Emma, Longfellow, Punkie and Troast in particular really helper push the highs of this show that much higher to take the sting out of how low the lows actually were. She just makes the show that much more fun to watch but smoke and mirrors aside, this reminded me more of her season 42 episode than anything else with it starting off fairly strong and falling off quite a bit by the bottom third (and her also hosting the first of three consecutive episodes taking place in December). As far as screentime, only Molly Kearney suffered a steep drop (don't worry, Molly... you'll get 'em next week), but everyone else really scored. Anyway, let's not waste any more time and just get right to it.

Situation Room - Well, opening the show with Squirm Blitzer was certainly a choic... Oh, THIS is what they scrambled to write for Bowen on Friday. Huh, I was kinda wondering how they would handle the Santos news? I gotta say, though, as cold as I've always run on Bowens' Santos, his actual performance here made this feel about a hundred times less "scrambled" than it had any right to feel. He actually imbued this with some dramatic theatrical energy that a Santos piece may have actually warranted by now instead of just cheekily droning his way through another Update desk piece (probably because he knew as well as we did or just flat out hoped this would be his last time ever playing him). I'm glad to see he had fun with it. I could even look past the boilerplate gay camp that came with this. The Princess Diaries and Beyonce references stood out to me the most. Even ending it with a slightly clumsy clunky "Candle In The Wind" parody was a nice touch (even if I thought replacing "candle" with "scandal" was far beneath even SNL but hey, it was probably 4:00am on a Friday night). His singing was decent, if not a little bit pitchy. I did genuinely laugh at the "evil Forrest Gump" line. I mean, I wouldn't go as far as to say that should've been cut or anything, but it did need some serious work. Eat shit, Randy Rainbow! Bowens got your number! B-

Monologue - Here it is, the obligatory jacket ceremony. We were all expecting this since we all know what a huge SNL nerd Emma is and what a deep and emotional connection she has to the show (not one deep enough that she felt she could do a solo monologue, apparently). I guess they're all gonna be as stripped down and bare bones as what Paul Rudd ended up having to get? Nice to see Tina and Candy again. If only I could forget that the last time they introduced the concept of a "ladies only" five timers club, Drew Barrymore and (somehow, inexplicably Jonah Hill) were involved. I genuinely did laugh at the Mulaney/Woody/Marty jabs and Tinas' "youngest members" and Candys' "places to cry" joke. Also, was anybody else actually hoping to get to see Dave McCary and maybe a brief overview of his history and involvement with the show rather than just visual confirmation that Lorne has...well, seen better days? B+

Question Quest - Thank God this show held off on opening the show with a game show sketch until they could put together a very absurd, writerly, detail/premise heavy one anchored by Michael Longfellow with a BIG assist from Punkie Johnson and Emma and JAJ (who really has a realistic game show announcer cadence down) there to pick up the slack. Oh hai, Molly & Chloe Troast. I laughed consistently throughout this (especially at Punkies' "same color penis" line and her string of fake reindeer names). I mean, it was very reminiscent of one of my all-time favorite State sketches (just replace the tortoise with orphaned children) but this was different enough conceptually that I cannot count that against it. A-

Fully Naked In New York - Wow, two absurd detail heavy sketches in a row. This one really just hits you out of nowhere, doesn’t it? There is just so damn much going on in this sketch that it's impossible to fullly process in one single viewing. I'll say that my first official thought upon the reveal was that SNL has fully escaped the November sweeps trap of getting big names and pandering to a wide audience for ratings and ad money and have allowed themselves to return to letting previously well established friends of the show take over and do unique things. This really started to pick up for me once we heard the Troast/Hernandez duet. The brief cameos from Fineman, Dismukes Punkie and Sarah helped this, too. The last SNL cast member I saw jump on the back of a garbage truck before this was Dennis Miller in season 11 second intro. Thank God he wore a big plaid coat there. B-

Treece Returns - Hmm, I never thought we needed to see this again. Bowen filling in for Kyle Mooney and Emma going all Fargo on us didn’t do anything to change my mind. I mean, I remember the one with Seth Meyers from 2018 being just fine mostly due to Seth but this couldn't make it past dress when Eddie Murphy last hosted. I will admit to chuckling at the "sewage" and "human dumbass" lines. D+

PDD: Please Don't Deepfake - Were Please Don't Destroy a little self conscious about the light criticism they may have received for some lightly A.I. assisted crowd scenes from "Foggy Mountain"? Anyway, while I liked how they used Punkie here (besides just reusing the old framework of "Punkie doesn’t know white celebrities or pop culture very well") this is something I couldn't fully get on board with until I saw how they used Marcello and how they showed a self-Yassified John Higgins in this. Honestly, the constant disclaimers kinda hurt this for me. It led to an unhealthy "tell don't show" feel for this and kinda hurt the pacing of an already slightly inconsistent pretape that started to feel like four separate sketch ideas smashed together. It reminded me a lot of the cold open to Scarjos' season 40 episode in a not so good way. C+

What's In The Kiln? - Hmm, I'm not too crazy about the pairing of Chloe & Heidi right from jumpstreet. Still, this is far less over the top than their demonic posession commentary from a year ago. It's much more than just a watered down version of Delicious Dish or the baking competition sketches that Cheadle, Murphy, Chalamet and Simu Liu gave us. It's much more prop and visual based in a similar vein to the grey pigtails sketch with Natasha Lyonne or the big dumb hat sketch with Amy Schumer so...this definitely has the feel of a female writer who recently left the show coming back. Either way, it's something I have a surprising amount of appreciation for considering I'm not exactly the target audience for it. C+

Update was possibly the strongest it's been all year (and in terms of THIS season, that's really saying something). Jost & Che had a string of great pre-commentary jokes but they really started to taper off post-commentary. Ironic that Che told an A.I. joke since he seemed so stumbly bumbly tonight it was almost like he was replaced with an A.I. deepfake of himself. Mikey Longs absolutely killed it as the old fashioned cigarette. Good to see he can still absolutely crush Bowen at playing inanimate objects. B-

Mama Cass Sessions - While this wasn't QUITE the Troast showcase I was hoping for since she was deceptively snuck into more of a supporting role, her voice alone put this over for me. Anyone else get slightly more Aidy vibes than Cecily vibes from her here? While I wasn’t too crazy about the idea of Emma in drag being the main focus, I loved how committed she was to it. Once she started acting out violent montages with Bowen, Mikey and Dismukes I could fully get on board with it. I especially liked the ending, too. B-

Return Of The Posters - With Pete being in the first two and him already having come and gone this season, I seriously wasn't expecting them to bring this back at all (and I was kinda hoping they wouldn't but Chrissy Knox seems to be Emma's only recurring character on the show, but Emma must like playing her and Mikey must like writing them). Still, this had a level of variation to it the others didn’t have (and I'm not just talking about Marcello being used in a pinch). Even Chrissy herself seemed to have four or five brain cells instead of the usual two. Did they let other do a major punch up on this one? C+

Diet Coke By Olay - Thank god this got in and got out quickly. There seemed to be absolutely nothing to this besides "lol (mostly white) women be mainlining Diet Coke amirite?" Was this written by whoever wrote the vagina sketch from Pete's episode? Would Diet Coke have been replaced by Starbucks if they did this a decade ago? It's a shame we may never hear or see what cut for time live sketch this replaced at the last second. D-

Now, looking back at my review of Emma's 2019 episode, it seems I DID actually try to rank her previous ones, so let me try and update those rankings right now.

1. Emma Stone/Coldplay (11.12.2011)
2. Emma Stone/BTS (4.13.2019)
3. Emma Stone/Kings Of Leon (10.23.2010)
4. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2016)
5. Emma Stone/Shawn Mendes (12.3.2016)

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

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)
2. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
3. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)
4. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)
5. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
6. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

Well, THAT was certainly a journey. Next week, Adam Driver returns for his fourth time hosting. Now, he's anothrr solid, reliable host I always enjoyed seeing on the show. For as much of a sharp dynamic performer as he is, even he could still use some help from strong writing to put things over. Let's just hope this episode turns out more like his 2020 one than his 2018 one. See you soon!

Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

Okay, here's my review. This show may have been more underwhelming compared to last week's episode, and it would be hard for me to say Jason Momoa actually redeemed himself from his 2018 episode, but at least he turned in a more mature and grounded performance here. It was still an uneven episode, but it felt more "safe" somehow. The lows were more middling than outright shocking and the highs were pleasant, but not as high aside from one Update piece and one choice pretape near the end of the show. Overall, it was another Thanksgiving episode that felt like it easily fell into SNLs' usual November/early February/mid May trap of losing focus on what the overall guiding vision of the season will be and what the new hires can bring to the show in favor of getting big name stars and personalities for "sweeps week/month" and having to appeal to a wider mass audience for ratings and ad dollars. Thankfully, airtime seemed to be evenly distributed this week. Longfellow, Walker, Dismukes and Hernandez each got a well needed bump but Kearney and Troast seemed to take hits (although in Troasts case, that might just be because she didn't get her own center showcase sketch like last week...and come to think of it I'm not sure she appeared in any live sketches, either). Anyway, let’s get right down to it.

Biden Press Conference - Ok, I guess they're really sticking with Mikey Biden then. Good for them. I genuinely liked the "Roman Numeral 11" and "panda" and "fake elevator" jokes. They seem to actually have some more pointed takes on Bidens' actual polices. Oh, no. Bowen just walked in wearing a panda suit...playing a panda who's quite full of himself. At least he made an actual pointed statement on Trump (even if it was the kind of thing the show SHOULD have been saying eight years ago). It's such a shame. This cold open had some real potential. At least we got to see Longfellow, Punkie, Marcello, Ego, Heidi, and Molly as reporters. That's something. Good for them. Mikey Longs is already starting to make up for his absence. C-

Monologue - It's truly nice to see a more focused and settled monologue from Jason than the one he gave us in 2018. We got a more personal glimpse into Jason, and the show let him explain more about a cause he cares about and has started his own environmental organization to pursue. I have to admit though, I considered the far off possibility that he MIGHT have been using this monologue to explain that he hasn't been in many memorable acting roles inbetween Aquaman movies because he took some time off to focus on this project. Ironically, this was reminiscent of the type of monologue that your Halseys, your Schreibers, your Damons, and your Elbas gave us the last time Jason hosted. It now seems like Momoa was the only season 44 host to NOT give us one of those monologues then. At least this monologue gives me a bit more confidence about the rest of this show than the cold open did. B-

Masters Of The Pen - Hey, a premise heavy period piece. Maybe one of the writers got some inspiration from that lost Charlie Chaplin sketch Dana Carvey (R.I.P. Dex) posted on Twitter a while ago (or maybe those Jim Carrey "Background Guy" sketches from In Living Color)? I mean that sincerely and affectionately and not as an accusation of plagarism. Maybe Day & Seidell wrote this? I wonder because it also reminded me of his sniper sketch with Chris Pine from 2017. I liked this as a decent glue role for Longfellow and as a fun old timey take on modern technology obsession and its symbiotic relationship with good old-fashioned timeless human narcicissm. Interesting choice though to end this on a zoom out from home base where the old timey footage was being staged from. B-

Ancient Rome Rap - Hmm, I have two theories about this sketch. Either the some of the writers saw the flak the show got for that Britneys' Audiobook Audition sketch last week (particularly Molly's role as Kevin James' meme) and decided to write this sketch as a giant middle finger to them or someone was just saving this for the exact right host because I'm having a hard time imagining any other male host besides Jason Momoa anchoring this piece. Ego, Punkie and Troast (who for a quick second there I thought might have been Tate McRae, Camilla Cabellos' non-union Canadian equivalent) did great jobs in this, but the main thing this will probably be remembered for is a child actor (who seems like they want us to recognize from somewhere based on how prominently he was featured...is he one of Momoa and Lisa Bonets' actual kids?) saying "goddamn Tyrannosaurus". C-

Nightclub - Hmm, it seemed at first like they were trying to bring back that towel boy sketch from Michael B. Jordans' episode (except they made the questionable decision to give Jason Momoa an accent he probably shouldn't have attempted). Then it seemed like they were trying to bring back that restaurant sketch from Pedro Pascals' episode last season (except they let Mikey Longs share some of the burns with Sarah Squirm). Either way, this came very close to working for me but didn't quite get there, but it's still good to see Marcello (and Kenan) try their damndest to put it over. C-

Hudson News Thanksgiving Week Airport Parade - Well, this is an interesting rearrangement of those "regular crazy person red carpet" sketches we got twice last year. Ego as a cohost instead of an interviewee is a nice change. Even if they gave us the obligatory "flirtation" between her and Captain Jason they just gave us a few small concentrated doses of it. Somehow, they managed to give Chloe Fineman actual funny dialogue that she could deliver in a way that landed with me. Usually, Kenan spouting gibberish and Mikey and Heidi as a bickering couple work better for me than they did here. Marcello in a stereotypical gay role is something I'm not sure I needed (hell, the direction and timing of his part kinda blew the eventual reveal that Ego and Jason snuck off to hook up), but Longfellow and Dismukes cameo was a highlight. I liked Molly and JAJs' parts (when in doubt, have a child swear, huh? Let's just be careful and not make that too much of a crutch). Punkie had some funny lines. I will say I feel like Sarah's viral woman felt a little much and could've been cut (if my first theory about the Rome rap is true) but hey, Devon had a good line to tag that with. C+

PDD: Ramen Fever - For some reason, I was expecting this week's PDD short to be something where the joke turns out to be the boys letting their Peacock streaming movie fame go straight to their heads. Instead, what they gave us this week was a short where they built on the formula of the matzoh ball soup sketch from Amy Schumers' episode from last year. Ben and Big Mart-Mart are too distracted by thoughts of gourmet restaurant ramen to console John through his very sudden breakup. I did like the "spicy/with buns" bit in the middle and John subtly getting his wallet stolen near the end. That added a bit of variety to this. Even with their signature quick cuts and manic pacing, this felt just a little longer than it needed to be since they established the joke in a bit of a rush. Still, it had the perfect ending. B+

Update was really only worth it for 2/3rds of the commentaries (sorry Bowen, I don't think we needed to see your Santos again...especially if those were the best OnlyFans jokes you guys could come up with). Weirdly, Jost had better jokes this week with his "feeling menopausal" crack and his meta NBCUniversal/X (even as awkwardly delivered as that was) and Six Flags/fraud awareness jokes. Che's jokes didn't really land with me but I did like his delivery of that "gender death gap" joke JUST for how he and Jost leaned into the reaction to it without cracking themselves up over it. Every bit of Devons' Draymond Green gave me my first genuine laughs of the night. I especially liked how it was written in such a way that you really didn’t need to follow basketball that closely to get the jokes. It's nice to see Devon find another impression role that fits his voice and niche within this cast. He definitely put that over better than Kenan would've. It was great to see JAJ & Dismukes as another musical duo initially (especially as Colins' intro made it seem like this would be more of a unique format break than it was). I even laughed immediately just at JAJs jacket and that sphere/cylinder joke but as soon as it dawned on me that they were just giving us a 2018 updates of Geminis' Twin and Jon Bovi in 2023 (seriously, Dismukes was even vocally channeling Forte REAL hard) I realized this may not have been their best work as much fun as it was to see them pop up at this point. One particular piece it reminded me of was when Beck Bennet played himself on Update in early 2017 to "sing" brief fake pop songs he wrote for himself. Sadly, I think I liked that better than this. C+

Guess Who's Coming Straight Off The Island To Dinner? (Or Yassified Castaway...wait, Yasss-taway is right th...nah, I'll just stick with the first one) - Well, Chloe sure gave us a lot of exposition for what turned out to just be her "Ok, Ego. You had your fun in the airport sketch. Now, it's MY turn to hang off of and drool all over Jason!" sketch. Still, you gotta hand it to Dismukes for trying his damndest to put this one over (and hey, bud...you should be proud of yourself for getting just as much audience lady screams as Jason did when YOUR shirt came off!) C-

Untold: Battle Of The Sexes - Sarah Squirm as the woman who suffered the most gruesome public sports related death imaginable so Billie Jean King could run. It's great to see Sarah finally found a way to sneak in as much Squirmgore as NBC would allow in one sitting. She gave us a more interesting twist on a sketch template we've seen previously when Mikey Day got pummeled by both John Cena and J.J. Watt and when Vanessa Bayer got pummeled by Ronda Rousey. Hell, we even saw it earlier this year when each of the PDD boys got wrecked by Travis Kelce. I also loved how precisely measured it seemed. She knew exactly when to escalate this and what the perfect ending would be. By far, this was the best sketch of the night (minor pacing issues and an unnecessarily edgelordy line from Chloe aside). A-

Cab Ride - This was fun, too. A list of increasingly absurd bad medical news delivered via speakerphone ending with a Kenan comfortably and casually speed walking out of a slow moving cab. Not every little detail worked for me, but I did chuckle at "Hepatitis Gold" and "Purr Night," and Jasons attempt to high five Kenan over the worst things ever. I had heard via the SNN Hot Take show that this sketch was actually cut from Keiran Culkins' episode two years ago. After hearing that, I am thankful that we got a cut sketch from THAT episode instead of any litany of cut sketches from Travis Kelces' episode back in March. I considered the possibility that that's what we might be getting after I noticed a slight facial resemblance between Jason and Travis during the monologue and also just from the semi-gassed out, last show before they get to go on a holiday break feeling I got from this and really most Thanksgiving episodes of SNL. C+

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

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)
2. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
3. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)
4. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
5. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

Well, they sure put that episode as a whole over. After Thanksgiving, SNL returns on December 2nd with Emma Stone (our first female host this season) returning to most likely receive her five timers club jacket! I have to say, I'll be looking forward to this one. Emma has proven herself to be a dependable, versatile host who the writers always knew exactly how to write for. She has proven she can gel well with three very different casts so it will be great to see her do the same with a fourth. Seriously, of the four episodes she has hosted thus far, I can't think of one that stands out as being any worse than the others. Even during the weaker seasons she hosted in, she always found some way to elevate the show. Yes, Emma Stone is a welcome presence at SNL who has demonstrated her deep love of the show (and I mean that literally as she married and had a baby with a writer/producer/director who I'm fairly certain has left the show recently) so it should be great to have her come back and try to steer the show back on course. See you then!

Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)

Okay, here's my review. This was an episode that took some wild swings that may not have paid off and relied a bit too much on old sketch premises (some not even from this particular hosts last episode). Still, the highs were higher this season than they've ever been and the lowest were just shocking blows coming out of nowhere. It's still a wildly uneven episode, though. Certain things were holding this show back from being the best of the season. I'd say it was second best behind the comfortably consistent Nate Bargatze episode and just ahead of the slightly avant guard Bad Bunny episode. Timothee was still a likable presence as host, but he didn’t seem to be giving it his all like he was three years ago. Unsurprisingly, Heidi had a great night. More surprisingly was how Ego and Punkie managed to have great nights this week. JAJ and Squirm dropped in with some assists. Longfellow was barely present but he managed to make the most out of what little screentime he did get (much like everyone else even if they weren't given the best roles). Anyway, let's just get right to it because there's a lot we gotta break down this week.

Republican Debate 2024 - Jesus Christ, old habits really DO die hard on SNL, huh? Well, good on Kenan and Devon for trying the hardest right out if the gate (even if Devon ended up accidentally doing the hackiest Bill Clinton impression 1993 had to offer...geez, I sure hope he isn't recovering from a bout if laryngitis or something), but Ego, Heidi...why? I mean, I hope it wasn't you guys' INTENT to send a cold chill through my very soul like that. You know, things aren't going great when one of your first thoughts on trying to process this cold open is "Hmm, okay... maybe out of all of these new political impressions I MIGHT not mind getting to see Molly Kearney as Chris Christie some more?" Oh, thank God for JAJs' scene/focus stealing abilities. I mean, I don't like how SNL is basically using his Trump to give it's audience Stockholm syndrome at this point but I was holding out hope that this would be some kind of low-level fakeout that would turn out to be worth not completely tuning out of and letting my brain turn into unpleasant white noise at some point. At least Ego as Vivek and John Higgins as Michael Longfellow as Arturo Castro as Ron DeSantis were only there to set up a meta moment. I just wish it wasn't the type of meta moment we used to get in either season 20, 43 or 48 just to shake off the cobwebs and dead weight and work through their baggage of 47 (although I will admit to chuckling at that Paul Rudd line as well as the slams at Vivek as a candidate and the jokes about Trump going after his judge). D+

Monologue - Well, already Chalamet isn't quite bringing that season 46 energy to the monologue. It's all right, bro. That cold open really drained me, too. Anyway, I wasn't expecting him to reference the SAG-AFTRA strike ending THAT directly, but go off, I guess. I appreciate the attempt at a "pure imagination" parody as clumsily and sweatily written as it seemed. This was one of several moments where Timothee was visibly on the verge of breaking (although this actually was the only one where the entire audience was right there with him). The only way I can process it is that everyone was just as taken aback by that one guy just voluntarily giving up his seat so easily for Timothee to sit down in or he thought the CGI bleachers crowd was as funny as I did or just the Wonka portion of this monologue was heavily rewritten between dress and air Stefon-style so Timothee was reading a lot of those jokes for the first time. This wasn't quite the meta moment I wanted either, but compared to that cold open, it's the kind of meta moment I can live with. Thankfully, Marcello, Punkie Minaj and Kenan Thompson were there to liven this up for me. Sadly, none of this was enough to distract me from wondering "why the hell did they just smash two different monologues together instead of just doing the baby face rap as a pretape? I mean, I realize that the Wonka song was probably written after the SAG strike ended and the rap was written before, but just pick ONE monologue concept and stick with it! Did they just not have it in their budget for one extra pretape?" B-

50 Years Of Hip Hop - Frankly, I was hoping they would leave this a one off and not try to recapture lightning in a bottle for the sake of YouTube views and TikTok hits but shockingly this worked better for me without Pete. It does help that they also switched around pretty much all of the impressions starting with Punkie J. Blige. Chalamets' character in these is somehow funnier when he is playing off of someone who is not trying to match his wild energy. JAJs' Rick Rubin in particular was really the yin to Chalamets dialed back yang here. Plus, Timothee had several actual lines here that were funnier alone than the entire last sketch such as the one about hip hop being discovered in 2014, his dad making him get braces instead of Invisalign, his explanation of the absence of Pete's character, listing Jason Derulo and Dixie D'amelio as "GOATs" and him only knowing Kenans' Cornell West from a Matrix sequel and, last but not least, him dissing Biggie Smalls just to drumroll his new Soundcloud single. The ending with Kenan spanking him was a bit too similar to the last one for me but it would've worked more if Timothee would have sold it a bit better. B+

Auditions For Britneys' Audiobook - Um, I...thought we were PAST the era of "impression parades," but I do have to give the 2023 cast credit for finding a new angle that keeps these fresh. All right, let’s just get through these as quickly as we can. First of all, I'd like to thank Chloe Fineman for limiting her presence in this to her few impressions thst worked for me (Britney, Natasha, her Julia Fox even if it seemed a little aimless and pointless in this and her Chalamet even though I still think that the real Timothee may have aged out of whatever early era of his career she based that impression on...but at least they got the hair and the over all current look right?) and I'd also like to thank Chloe Troast for debuting a Maggie Smith that was silly enough to work for me. Speaking of the real Timothee, his Scorcese was a little run of the mill for me. I've seen plenty of other Scorceses that were just like his but shockingly he msy be one of the few to impersonate him who also worked with him. It's always nice to see Heidi's Allison Janney and Kenans' Neil Degrasse Tyson again (although in the context of this sketch Kenan sound more like he was chanelling his Virginica character and his Deep House Dish host at the same time with a dash of Rick Ross thrown in to taste). I wasn’t expecting Sarah to have a Mulaney in her back pocket but that may have been my second favorite moment of this sketch. She really nails Mulaneys' stand up style. Vocally, it worked better than Melissa Villaseñors' impression whereas Melissa's worked mainly based on a slight facial resemblance between her and Mulaney. My absolute favorite moment of this sketch may have been JAJ as Werner Hertzog just for the "entranced by this Floridian vernacular" line they gave him. As much as I like seeing Molly Kearney used on the show, their Kevin James meme impression is something that should've been cut entirely. I feel like the show actually is starting to lean on Molly playing heavyset men as a crutch too often lately and it may be diminishing their presence in the cast. The same goes for Egos' Jada Pinkett Smith as that impression (and moreso the material it is based on, really) have both more than run their course. Bowen as The B-52s' Fred Schneider and Punkie as Ice Spice were two impressions that worked better than they had any right to in this. Hell, I might have laughed a bit harder than I should have at Bowens part. The age and height differences alone between Punkie & Ice Spice made me doubt she could pull that off until I actually saw it but then again, Punkie just has a certain knack for playing female rappers in general. Speaking of parts of this sketch I laughed at more than I should've, I got a kick out of Mikey as Steve-O stapling his nutsack to his leg. The voice was a little less nasal and a little more Tiny Tooms Buster Bunny than it should've been and with that wig he looked a little more like Knoxville than Steve-O but it was just dumb and goofy enough and I could see where he was pulling from. I appreciate that they gave us Michael Longfellow as Bill Hader even if it only seemed to exist as the shows' mere acknowledgement that yes, there is a slight resemblance between these two gentlemen. C+

Lost Bag At Shred Gym - Hmm...DID PDD write this? I mean, it does seriously lack their signature pacing, but it DOES seem like someone HEAVILY diluted their Spectrum sketch with Kieran Culkin. Either way, this worked for me just for containing the exact right amount of dumbness and not iverstayimg it's welcome. As soon as I said to myself, "Ok, Sarah's gonna come out," it ended. C+

Tiny Horse II: Giant Horse - Hey, I gotta give 'em credit for the way they decided to Trojan ho...nope, not going there. Uh, uh. It's not worth it. Anyway, I wouldn't prefer they kept this a one off too but at least this worked well enough as a well plotted sequel. I also got a kick out of the visual gag of Bowens' severed Alien-like robotic head singing along to the "tiny horse" song. Also, did anyone else get strong David Mitchell vibes from JAJs' Palpatine Malfoy character? B-

Update was thankfully short considering how all over the place the jokes were and what the sole commentary was. I liked Che's Eric Adams/Trump bibles/couples therapy/Instagram app jokes. Josts' elephant/Jared Leto jokes were solid but his Bankman-Freid/Streisand jokes were so heavily telegraphed I could see the punchlines coming from two towns over. Che's "Israel School" joke was only notable for how shockingly hesitant he was to even tell it. All the rest were just pure white noise to me. I wasn’t crazy about Heidi's performatively busy coworker the first time. I certainly didn’t need to see it again, but with more phone throwing and Peepers-esque burrito consumption. I will say that having her occupation be "Britney Spears' Instagram coreographer" was an easier joke to get than having her be Che's assistant (which again, felt too "inside baseball" even for me). On a personal note, I will add that this commentary gave me some pause and left me more time and space to look inside myself and examine how much Heidi's work/life habits might have mirrored my own these past few months (especially as I try to get these blogs finished and posted on time) as I prepare to swtich jobs for the second time this year, but I won't to too much into those details of my personal life on this here blog. C-

Troy "Sleep Demon" Sivan - Hmm...well, they knew exactly who their audience would be for this episode. This wasn't exactly what I was hoping a sketch that opens with the visual of Sarah Squirm with electrodes hooked up to her temples would be. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Bowen had a hand in writing this. Thankfully, he made it seem more like a vanity piece for Timothee than for him (well, at first. Hell, given how out of step he seemed with Timothees' already inconsistent and seemingly under-rehearsed choreography I'm not sure calling this a "vanity piece" for either one of them would be entirely accurate...heyoooooooo!). I'm not quite sure the Boygenius girls needed to make cameos in this, though (though I find it oddly funny how the one who clearly has the most tattoos was the most seemingly hesitant to show her underwear). Don't you just love it when modern-day SNL writes an entire sketch devoted to just simply explaining some current pop culture ephemera to you? Now, I do remember about five (almost six now, really) years ago now when Mr. Sivan himself was an actual musical guest on this show. Since I'm already vaguely familiar enough with him just to know the name but not whatever HBO show he was on (I wanna say "The Idol" which I never bothered watching but, I mean...that SOUNDS right, doesn't it?), it honestly makes it all the more confounding as to why they would do this sketch now and not six years ago. Either way, I can't imagine ol' Troy having an enthusiastically positive reaction to this if he even is made aware of it (unless he and Timothee are friends which I can't imagine as easily as him being friends with Boygenius). Oh yeah, and before I forget, I will admit to having seen one interview with him in the past so I do really appreciate Timothee just straight up calling himself out on his own inability to do an Australian accent because if he didn’t, that would’ve gotten under my skin for the entire sketch. C+

Also, quick side tangent, those "Prime" water drinks are made by fucking Logan Paul? Yeah, I tried those and they weren't that great. (Hey, that had ones flavored like Rocket Pops! I'm not completely made of stone!) I think I'll stop buying those and just stick with those "Hoist" drinks. They're not made by anyone that bad, right?

PDD: Frank & His "Music" - Goddammit, PDD. Thank you for coming in clutch once again and giving me my longest, most sustained laughter in this episode. I've said this to you guys before, and I'll say it again; Never EVER stop being you! B+

Lil Orphan Cassidy - Hey, a Chloe Troast led sketch! It's also a very writerly character piece with a lot of absurd escalating little details! She even makes Maya Rudolph in Dreamgirls-esque singing work pretty well. The assists from Mikey & Timothee didn’t hurt this sketch either. I think I have an idea who wrote this too. Don't ever stop being YOU either, Chloe T! B+

Calm App Sleep Story Recording Session - I'm not too crazy about these types of "already strange recording session gone gradually more and more wrong" sketches we first got with J.J. Watt and Owen Wilson either but Mikey Days' absence makes me think this isn't exactly one of those. Whatever the hell this was, at least it gave us a fairly short burst of Timothee and Andy Dismukes matching each others' passive agression with aggressive aggression. I didn’t like how this ended with a cameo that felt like just as much a slap to the face as that cold open was. Man, I hate to sound like a broken record but old habits really DO. DIE. HARD. on this show, don't they? C-

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

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)
2. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
3. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
4. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

Well, that was certainly a wild ass ride. Next week, Jason Momoa returns for his second time hosting. Again, I am cautiously optimistic about this one as well for different reasons. While Momoas first episode from December 2018 wasn’t that strong, his social media posts in the weeks leading up to his episode showed him to be almost as big and as an enthusiastic of an SNL nerd as you or I (emphasis on "you" if you are still reading this far). Unfortunately, that energy didn't translate as well onscreen as it should have. Still, he hosted in the middle of a slightly troubled, mostly D.O.A. season so I'm sure that had someone to do with it. He seemed like a fun guy to work with even if the writers may not have figured out how best to use him. Fortunately, the show has shed all its dead weight from season 44 and we have a new, more dynamic cast that I can already tell may be able to play to his strengths better so we should be in good shape. See you then!