SNL Season 41: Ep.8

SNL continued on as it approaches its midseason finale next week, and a familiar face stopped by. So how did Chris Hemsworth do? Onto the review

Cold Open: George W. Bush: Will Ferrell stopped by as Bush to discuss the current GOP field. Political cold opens have been very hit or miss this season, but this week's was the best one yet. Ferrell was in his element on Bush, talking about how "Jeb!'s" slogan, and riffing on Donald Trump. As Bush mentions, compared to this field, Bush didn't look half-bad as a President. (9.2)

        


Monologue: Hemsworth joked around about how soon he's coming back to SNL since hosting last season. He went back-stage and roughed around with the cast-members (but wouldn't mess with Leslie Jones). I actually really like these types of monologues. Its been done before, but Hemsworth did it really well. (7.6)


Star Wars Toy Commercial: With Force Awakens coming out this coming Friday, we were bound to get a Star Wars bit, but this was done really well. The commercial featured kids.....and collectors trying to dictate on how to play with them. One particular line made this great; when one of the kids told Taran Killam if his wife likes to play with toys....followed by a close-up of his solemn face. This was a bit that spoke to a lot of people. (8.7)

         




Christmas Sing-a-long: This was a sketch that was out there, yet it still worked because everyone involved really committed. Hemsworth and Cecily Strong played a couple with some friends over (Kenan Thompson/Sasheer Zamata/Kate McKinnon/Killam) singing some carols. Then Cecily and Hemsworth started singing "Debra's Time", which no one knew. Cecily was just so committed to this, and it played well on how the friends somehow knew the song by the end. (8.1)

         



Brother to Brother: Wrestling Meet: A recurring sketch from the last time Hemsworth hosted, he played as a twin brother with Taran, and like the first one, they try to pass Killam off as his brother at a wrestling meet. There, the coach and teammates start to tear him down on his looks. This was good the first time around, but we got the point. I'm not sure we needed a repeat of this. (5.5)


Time To Bleed (short): Next was a short where Hemsworth played a cop partners with Zamata, who gets shot but doesn't go to a hospital, playing off of situational TV dramas where they seem to bounce back quickly. Hemsworth and Zamata had a lot of chemistry, and worked well together. The premise was just great, as he continually tried to hit on Zamata, even through lead poisoning. (8.0)




On The Record: This saw Kate McKinnon take on the role as Greta Van Susteren as she asked GOP candidates their take on Trump's recent plan to ban Muslims from entering the country. Killam as Ted Cruz was pretty great, but once again it was Jay Pharoah's Ben Carson that made this lackluster sketch memorable and amusing. (6.6)


(Chance The Rapper): (8.0)


Weekend Update: The writing for Update this week was just fine. Nothing extraordinary. Che and Jost had a nice little riff on Trump, but it felt like it lost a little punch (especially considering how he hosted this season).

Coming off of being named Time's Person of the Year, Kate appeared as German Chancellor Angela Merkel. As always, she was pretty great. She had a great line on Trump's disapproval of her, saying "I guess Trump's more of a fan of our earlier work".


Leslie Jones showed up talking about Breaking Bad (she's been live-tweeting her marathon viewing of the show over the past couple of weeks). Leslie is usually always on point, but this appearance seemed rather pointless. (6.4)



Brunch: Hemsworth went under-cover as "Clair" to see if his female fans still liked him. This was a sketch that was kind of dumb on its face, but was still pretty humorous. The group (Cecily, Aidy Bryant, Vanessa Bayer) started wondering why Clair kept talking about Hemsworth, and then wondered how they even met her. Aidy's last line in particular was very well delivered. (6.6)


Pirate Ship: Oy, this sketch. This was one of, if not the first sketch where new cast-member Jon Rudnitsky was the star...and it wasn't good. I mean, it wasn't epically horrible or anything. Jon played a pirate who messed and joked around on a ship.....but it just wasn't good. It leaves me wondering why they even hired Jon in the first place. (4.5)


(Chance The Rapper): (8.5)



Male Strippers: A group of strippers (Pharoah/Beck Bennett/Hemsworth/Taran) put on a show....well more of a dance performance without stripping, much to the disapproval of the crowd. This was a sketch that was a good premise, but just didn't play out when performed. (5.9)


Maybe its too early to call Hemsworth the next Timberlake or Jon Hamm, but coming off of his 2nd hosting gig right after his first, he's very well up to the task. He seems to enjoy poking fun at himself, and he works really well with the cast. Its nice seeing a show where it looks like the host and cast really enjoy one another.


 Overall Score - 7.20

Tracy Morgan - 7.94
Elizabeth Banks - 7.53

Chris Hemsworth - 7.20
Amy Schumer - 7.18

Matthew McConaughey - 7.13
Ryan Gosling - 6.92
Miley Cyrus - 6.07
Donald Trump - 4.92