It was the penultimate episode of the season this week, with Reese Witherspoon making just her 2nd appearance (her 1st, you may recall, was the post 9/11 episode). So how did this week build up for the finale? Lets get to the review.
The Cold open saw a bit of an introduction to who will be playing the 2016 GOP presidential field. The skit took place at the Southern Christian Leadership conference, with the candidates being announced while dancing......and that was pretty much it. Beside Taran Killam's Marco Rubio (which could be great next season), there just wasn;t much to this.
The monologue saw the cast members come up with their mothers and apologize for things they had done in the past. This was a really good monologue, as we actually got to get more of glimpse on the cast. It ended perfectly with the mothers then showing actual home movie footage, which was fantastic. One of the better monologues of the season.
Not sure what was happening with this 1st sketch. It was once again another local news TV show "Be Scene In L.A" with Cecily Strong and Witherspoon. This seemed to be playing off the Bronx TV show they would do with Amy Poehler/Maya Rudolph and Kathie Lee/Hoda Kotb. Jay Pharoah/Kenan Thompson saved this somewhat as the technical guys, but this was mainly just diaper and fart jokes.
SNL has been fairly soft when it comes to big issues this season. That changed with this "Picture Perfect" gameshow sketch. At first, this looked like it was going to be just another typical gameshow celebrity sketch (Cecily as Rosie Perez and Kenan as Family Matter's Carl Winslow). However, this quickly made a point with the 2nd team (Moynihan/Witherspoon) being asked to draw the prophet Muhammad. This topic has been in the news with the Garland,TX shooting . This was a nice way to take this on in this unpredictable setting of a gameshow. Moynihan and Kenan's reactions were fantastic throughout. Finally, an edgy sketch done well from SNL this season.
Next up was a short about a Hallmark office and a boss "Mr. Westerberg" (Moynihan). The group was joking around about him, but Beck Bennett's remarks are out-there, resembling sexual harassment. This was a short that went there with some dark humor, and it was a nice moment from Bennett, breaking out from that "bro" character he usually does.
Weekend Update was another okay edition. Colin Jost and Michael Che interacted with each other again during a segment featuring jokes they got from their mother's "with Che later saying how he would take Jost's mom out for dinner".
Leslie Jones returned to talk about social media and relationships. She had a really good bit on writing letters to her "4 yr booty call"....since he blocked her. There's so much chemistry between Jones and Jost.
Cecily Strong and Witherspoon appeared as the now 2 girls you wish you hadn't of started a conversation with at a party. This didn't necessarily work, as it came kind of awkward with 2.
Kenan returned as Che's neighbor, Willie. This was pretty much the same as its been before, just kind of blah.
As a pleasant surprise, the high school theatre showcase sketch returned. It didn't necessarily bring the same results, although I thought the concepts here were better than the original. It'll be interesting to see if this returns next season as a recurring sketch.
The show kind of hit a roadblock with these next 2 skits...that I'll just combine here. First, the female cast appeared as southern housewives, talking about random things (losing a foot, a husband in a coma now possessed as a demon). It turned out that they were robbing the house they were in. This sketch had some good ideas, but it didn't execute them.......now on the flipside, there was this bizarre sketch with Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney as lifeguards monitoring a water slide, while trying to hit on Witherspoon? Maybe? That seemed like the general premise, it wasn't quite clear. This was just a mess.
I'm including the 2nd performance from Florence + The Machine. While their 1st performance was great, the 2nd one here was just fantastic. They performed "What Kind Of Man", and Florence Welch was really emoting here.
The 10 to 1 sketch saw a return of "Whiskers R We", featuring Kate McKinnon and Witherspoon. Kate is always great in this role. While this sketch may have just been a run of cat puns and innuendos, the way they're delivered made this a great closing sketch.
This was a very strong episode. However, there's no denying that it had a pretty dire and devastating 1-2 punch with 'southern housewives" and "lifeguards". Luckily, Florence + The Machine's 2nd performance and "Whiskers R We" were able to bring the tempo of the show back up. This episode was classic SNL, in the sense that it was a bag full of brilliant......and horrendous sketches.
Avg. Score: 7.20 (each segment was scored out of 10, and averaged, including the musical act).
Bill Hader - 8.06
Martin Freeman - 7.56
Kevin Hart - 7.51
Chris Pratt - 7.50
Michael Keaton - 7.45
Chris Pratt - 7.50
Michael Keaton - 7.45
Chris Hemsworth - 7.44
Woody Harrelson - 7.42
Reese Witherspoon - 7.20
Amy Adams - 7.19
JK Simmons - 7.18
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson - 7.16
Sarah Silverman - 7.15
Taraji P Henson - 7.09
James Franco - 7.07
Jim Carrey - 7.01
Dakota Johnson - 6.83
Cameron Diaz - 6.81
Scarlett Johansson - 6.72
Blake Shelton - 6.60
Chris Rock - 6.52
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