A week off to help us forget about Chris Rock, this week brought us Woody Harrelson & Kendrick Lamar in a fairly consistent show.
The cold open saw President Obama and Sen. McConnell having that Kentucky bourbon sitdown that they've been talking about. Things got pretty out of control as they went 6, 7, and 9 drinks in. All in all, it was a fairly good opening political skit, but could have done better to be really memorable.
Honestly, Woody seemed a little out of it during the monologue. He started singing about the last time he hosted (1992), to the beat of Taylor Swift. He was joined on stage and saved by his fellow Hunger Games cast-mates Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, and Jennifer "Taylor Swift" Lawrence. JLaw in particular was really good in this monologue (funnier than her entire time when she previously hosted SNL).
Next saw a promo for a CBS sitcom "The Dudleys", a stereotypical sitcom with viewers wanting it to be edgier, so it was, and it kept on going, with viewers continually complaining. This was actually pretty topical, with CBS just cancelling "The Millers", and looking to be in trouble regarding sitcoms not named "The Big Bang Theory". This also featured a great cameo from "Orange Is The New Black's" Crazy Eyes (Uzo Aduba). This was pretty good.
The first skit was an MTV show "Match'd". It started off not really knowing where it was going, but got its twist with Woody Harrelson (playing the host) announcing that Cecily Strong (as the contestant) was actually his daughter. Beck Bennett/Kyle Mooney and Taran Killam quickly eased up as the 3 guys looking to date her. The twist definitely saved this skit, and made it passable and amusing.
There was a short about NYC's new marijuana policy. It had everything (Stefon's voice). Woody Harrelson was a leader, looking similarly to Andy Samberg's "Ras-Trent" character. And Free Funyuns!. Was it stereotypical for a pot skit? Sure, but it was well produced.
The next skit was a football halftime locker-room speech, with Woody as the coach. He introduced new ways to tackle to prevent concussions (and Jay Pharoah's reactions were priceless). Kenan Thompson also was great as the veteran player coming in to talk (and being pretty out of it, due to concussions). It was a dark, comedic take on head injuries in football, that really showed the reality of the situation.
SNL brought back the ensemble singing thing, with a CD based off the Tony Bennett-Lady Gaga duets album, titled "Young Tarts & Old Farts". It featured Aidy Bryant as Meghan Trainor (how did it take this long for this impersonation?) among others. It wasn't as good as the Michael Buble Christmas version last year when Jimmy Fallon hosted, but was fairly amusing.
Weekend Update was pretty good, although the chemistry between Jost and Che continues to be hit or miss. Relationship expert Leslie Jones returned, and just owned it. She came on to talk about "crazy bitches". Her rapport with Colin Jost is great.
Then True Detective stars Woody Harrelson and "Matthew McConaughey" (Taran Killam) came on. Taran's McConaughey impression is just spot on, and over the top.
Next, we saw a skit in a NYC bar with a group talking about how much has changed over the years, the pizza places, subway etiquette......and crack....lots of crack. Crack was the main element here, with Woody's character obsessed with crack. He ended up walking out, with the group then approving of meth. It was pretty much a 1-shot/1-joke skit, but it did work for some laughs.
The skit that will be the bane of my existence, the campfire song. Right after watching this, I honestly hated it, declared it the only bomb of the night. After watching it again the next day, I must admit, I actually liked it. Basically, Woody decided to sing a song about apples to his group around the campfire (Vanessa Bayer, Bobby Moynihan, Leslie Jones, Kyle Mooney). "In the usual way......in the usual way........in the usual way". Too Many Cooks theme vs. "Apples", its on.
The final skit saw the return of "Last Call", featuring Woody and Kate McKinnon. It brought what you expect from the "last call" skits by now, general making out and grossness (although shrink wrap was introduced).
So with my change of heart with the Campfire skit, there weren't any real bombs this week. While there weren't really any true stand out "skit of the season" types (although maybe my love of the campfire song will grow), it was consistent up and down.
Avg. Score: 7.42 (each segment was scored out of 10, and averaged, including the musical act).
Bill Hader - 8.06
Chris Pratt - 7.5
Chris Pratt - 7.5
Woody Harrelson - 7.42
Sarah Silverman - 7.15
Sarah Silverman - 7.15
Jim Carrey - 7.01
Chris Rock - 6.52
No comments:
Post a Comment