SNL Season 42 - Tom Hanks

SNL closed out their opening 4 week stretch with Tom Hanks. Would he give the show a much needed jolt? onto the review

Third Debate Cold Open: The last of the debates, at last. The last 2 debates had just gotten so ridiculous that's it been tough for SNL to cover them, though they've done their best to basically just stay on script with the actual debates themselves. I thought they might do more with the "no, you're the puppet" line from Trump, but maybe that would have been too predictable. All in all this was pretty alright. (7.3)

Monologue: This week's monologue seemed more thought out than last week's. Hanks gave America a "dad chat", trying to talk to calm us down from the election. While amusing, it also felt honest and sincere. Felt like needed given the closing stretch of the campaign. (8.3)

Black Jeopardy: This took a turn from previous iterations of this sketch. Sasheer Zamata and Leslie Jones played contestants...along with Doug (Hanks) sporting a "Make America Great Again" hat. At first I was curious where they were going with this. But then Doug starts answering the questions correctly, showing  commonality with the other contestants in their economic struggle. Things are going swimmingly until the final jeopardy final question "lives that matter". This political sketch perfectly showed the similarities and differences between the political system. In a divided and partisan campaign, this hit all the right points. (9.0)

Halloween Block Party Song: (6.2)



Funny New Comedy(short/ad): This took on shows like "Transparent" with dark and/or serious topics, but which play off as labeled half hour sitcoms. I could legit see this parody show "Broken" as an actual HBO or Showtime sitcom....that would win tons of awards. (8.4)

Funny New Comedy

Haunted Elevator: Beck Bennett and Kate McKinnon were on a haunted ride and met some curious and spooky characters.....including none other than David "S" Pumpkins (Hanks). How did we ever live in a world without Pumpkins? This was from the same writers as Kevin Roberts last season. It was pretty easy to tell, but just as brilliant. This is just something that needs to be witnessed. (9.4)

Lady Gaga: "A-Yo" (8.0)

Weekend Update: Jost and Che got back on track, doing their usual riff on the election. 

The first guest saw Leslie Jones discussing her website/personal accounts being hacked over the summer, along with the other trolling she had to face online. This was a better vehicle to deal with this issue overall than that "Mr Robot" sketch.

Cecily Strong then did her thing as "That girl at a party that you avoid having a conversation with". At times this character can get a little old, though it worked with the election underway. (8.7)



Cockpit: (6.0)



A Girl's Halloween (short): (7.4)



Lady Gaga: "Million Reasons" - Lady Gaga can just bring it. Her performance here was near perfection. (9.5)

America's Funniest Pets w/ Tom Hanks: Who would have thought that we would gotten these 2 characters back, as Cecily and Kate play french hosts who help out on an American pet clips show....with their own unique analysis. We first saw them in the Adam Driver episode last year. (8.2)

Funniest Pets

This was a much improved show from last week where it just seemed that the energy had seeped out. Tom Hanks just brought a lot of pep to the show, as he usually does. He's one of those incredibly reliable hosts. 

SNL continues its creativity, beyond just the cold opens in covering this election. From "Day off" to now "Black Jeopardy". They're less about mocking or parody and actually trying to find a connection to elements of this wild presidential election. (8.03)

Tom Hanks: 8.03

Lin Manuel Miranda: 7.74

Margot Robbie: 7.38

Emily Blunt: 7.07

SNL Season 42: Emily Blunt

SNL continued its opening stretch, with its 3rd of 4 straight shows. Would they be able to keep up the pace? Onto the review.

Town Hall Debate Cold Open: Following an anticipated and nasty debate last Sunday, all eyes were on SNL on how they would cover it. This was more or less just the best hits. They didn't really add anything new, but basically painted it by the numbers. They had Trump (Alec Baldwin) creeping behind Hillary (Kate McKinnon), and of course Ken Bone (Bobby Moynihan). This was probably the weakest cold open yet of this young season, but still enjoyable overall. (7.2)

Monologue: Given the road this election has turned down, this monologue was pretty necessary. Emily Blunt tried to pep up the audience with a song, featuring puppies and cake. I mean, how can you go wrong with that? It was a little sloppy in execution, but pleasant still. (7.9)

Monologue

Escorts: It always felt like this sketch was going to take one of those classic turns, but it just never hit that stride. Nothing much to say beyond that (set up the tone for the first half of the show). (4.0)

Melanianade (short): This was an interesting concept for a short. A parody off of Beyonce, we see the women of the Trump and campaign with a tear-down of Trump given the recent accusations and the Access Hollywood tape. This should have really worked, but unlike "Day Off", something just felt a little off with this (though the Tiffany Trump line in the end was really good). (6.5)

Film Festival: Its nice to see Vanessa Bayer being more prominent, given her absence in the season premiere. Here she played an audience member who was forced to ask question after question at a short film festival. Now this was a sketch that was executed well, from the mic passing down the lineup, to Vanessa trying to leave, only to have to answer more questions. You could imagine a scenario like this actually happening. (7.8)

Film Festival

Chonk (ad): This played off like a classic snl ad parody. Mocking a woman's clothing store, this was just well done. From Cecily Strong's delivery of "Chonk!", to the reactions of the cast as they show off in the ad. Even better was the hit at the end, where men can find a perfectly fitting shirt at "Normal Clothes". (8.4)

(Bruno Mars): "24K Magic" - Bruno Mars was just made for flashy and entertaining performances, whether it be at the super bowl or award shows, just the perfect performer. (9.2)

         






Weekend Update: The energy for Update just felt really flat. Jost and Che just seemed to lack the pep that they had the previous couple of weeks. That was something that was noticeable for the show in general though.

Olya was the first guest, played by McKinnon. While you can make the argument that this character gets a bit repetitive, its still really enjoyable.

Olya

Vanessa then brought back Laura Parsons to "talk about the news". While probably the weakest segment of this recurring character, the writing was still brilliant, especially the dig at NBC and their settlement with Billy Bush.  (6.9)

Laura Parsons

Drive Thru Window: This appeared to be one of the first marketing ads that SNL is going to do this season (along with Honda Robotics). And to put it lightly, they weren't great. This one was character driven, as an eccentric art group in an incredibly long limo keep going through the drive thru. Here's hoping these type of sketches are minimal for the rest of the year. (5.0)


The Sink (short): Give a raise to whoever wrote this. It played off like a short film....about a fancy existential bathroom sink, wondering why its so fancy. What made it even better were the end credits, making sure to list Emily Blunt as the voice of the sink. Just one of those bizarre ideas that SNL does well. (8.6)

The Sink 

Honda Robotics: (4.5)



Melania Moments #3 (short): I'm so glad that this is becoming a running piece to start the season. They're starting to get exponentially darker however. Here, Melania wonders if she could get her maid (who looks oddly like her) to take her place, as she longs to feel sand beneath her feet again. What makes these work is that they aren't mocking Melania directly.

Melania Moments

(Bruno Mars): (8.1)

British Bake Off: (6.5)

Hamsters: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe", but with pet hamsters. Classic 10 to 1 sketch idea. (7.0)

This show felt a bit bogged down, especially given the current atmosphere of the election. Maybe it was the current stretch they're on, but there lacked energy. The back half of the show picked it up though with some odd-ball ideas that worked. (7.07)

Lin Manuel Miranda: 7.74

Margot Robbie: 7.38

Emily Blunt: 7.07

SNL Season 42 - Lin Manuel Miranda

We thought the premiere was highly anticipated, and then comes out Trump's Billy Bush tape. Wow. All eyes were once again on SNL to see how they would take on a wild few days in the 2016 race.

VP Debate Cold Open: At first I was concerned this was just going to be the VP debate straight up. It starts with Melissa Villasenor playing the "asian moderator'...because "baby steps". But while Mike Pence (Beck Bennett) discusses whether Trump appreciates women, we get a breaking news report on the tape. This was a pretty fast turnaround for a cold open. Brooke Baldwin (Cecily Strong) questions Trump (Baldwin). Trump mentions that he can do "more than just grab 'it' ". We then hear him say a few crewd things off camera. From that, to Clinton HQs in a full on dance party, they pretty much hit this one out of the park. (9.5)

Monologue: This week's monologue was a high mark, and would have been one of the best among last season's. Miranda breaks out into a version of "My Shot", about his desire hosting SNL, and then getting into the current race. The moment of the song was when he goes by the pictures of last year's hosts, and stops at Trump's, stopping with saying "This piece of s---", and going into "never gonna be president". It shouldn't have been a surprise that he would come away with a good monologue. (9.0)

Pine Ridge Camping: (6.9)

Crucible Cast Party (short): They keep trying to recreate "doing it in my twin bed" with the female cast, but nothing has been able to reach those heights, this included. Really the only good part was when Lin steps in with his verse. (6.5)

Substitute Teacher: (7.0)

A Day Off (short): In the same vain as last week's "family feud", SNL brought out another unique political sketch, but this one really hit home. We see Kate McKinnon as Trump manager Kellyanne Conway on her day off, but getting continuously interrupted by breaking news by Trump remarks. It was just clever and creative, especially the background song. (9.7)

(Twenty One Pilots): "Heathens" (7.1)

Weekend Update: Update started off really hot, with Jost and Che firing off on the Trump Tape. There was a particular biting line where Jost says "what locker room is he at, Penn State?". He could have said Baylor, but I think more people know of the Penn State scandal, regardless if you're a sports fan or not. 

The guests were a bit disappointing. Pete Davidson did his thing, talking about hair loss medication.

And then we got Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon as undecided PA voters. This had all the right ingredients to be good , but Jimmy's incessant giggling just stalled it. And then Tina tousled his hair, in a flashback to Jimmy's panned Trump interview. It felt kind of like a cheap ploy to lessen the pressure off of him. We get it, Jimmy's Tonight Show isn't going to be a hard hitting show that goes into political comedy. But when you have that access, you can't just throw softball after softball like he did. I guess we just have to really lower expectations for him.  (8.5)

Music Man - Wells Fargo: A clever way to cover the Wells Fargo scandal, with the wagon scene from The Music Man. Its always just fin to see so much of the cast put on a sketch like this, where they're singing and dancing and just having a blast. (8.0)

Wells Fargo

Diego Phones Home: (short): This didn't really have you "laughing out loud", but it was a very interesting piece nonetheless, as Lin plays an immigrant calling his mother about his time in America. It left you both hopeful, and a little embarrassed out our current culture. (7.7)

Diego Calls

Stranger Things: I have yet to see Stranger Things, so I didn't really get much of this sketch in context. With that being said, I thought Leslie Jones and Kenan Thompson were excellent as the parents, and Sasheer Zamata was really present as well. (7.0)

Stranger Things

(Twenty One Pilots): "Ride" (7.3)

Melania Moments (short): The second installment of Melania Moments, I hope we see more of these now that they appear to be a recurring theme. Melania thinks of going to Latvia to save her successor from herself. It was both humorous, but also sort of touching. (8.0)

Melania Moments

Degree of Valor: (6.1)

SNL is having a pretty fantastic election season thus far. They really nailed it with the Trump tape cold open, along with the first half of Update and the Conway short.

One concern though, is that it seems the regular writing may be struggling a bit with the election pieces in process, but that's to be expected I imagine, as they work on their coverage. (7.74)

Lin Manuel Miranda: 7.74

Margot Robbie: 7.38

SNL Season 42 - Margot Robbie

SNL returned for Season 42 in a time where you could argue its needed most, with the 2016 Presidential election in full swing. Saturday Night Live has long provided excellent sketches and pieces during election season, but it could be tougher this time around; both with how wild the campaign has been, along with SNL's controversial decision to invite Trump to host last year. So how did SNL do in its premiere? Onto the review.

Debate Cold Open: Starting right off the bat with the first debate, we saw Kate McKinnon's emmy winning Clinton, along with another new Trump, Alec Baldwin. Coming off last year where we saw a brief attempt with Taran Killam, followed by Darrell Hammond take on Trump, it seems they've finally found their guy (more on that in the end). They were pretty much able to just use Trump's lines verbatim, though with a nice added whiff on the microphone. And Kate's Clinton remains to be the best impersonation of her SNL has done yet. Sometimes these debate sketches can feel bogged down, but even with the added expectations, SNL was able to make this land. (8.7)

Monologue: These were a big problem throughout last season, with either abbreviated, or half-thought out ideas. But they opened up with a fairly clever one, as Margot Robbie fact-checked her own monologue. It did drag on though, as various cast members got the spotlight and did the same thing, that was a bit much. (7.0)

Live Report: Felt a bit odd having the first post-monologue sketch being non-political, but this sort of timeless ('non promo', heh) sketch is one that could work in any year. Its a simple premise, as we see an average looking guy with Margot Robbie's character during a news report on a sink hole. Its the kind of sketch that hits one note, but is able to build on it. (8.0)

Celebrity Family Feud - Political Edition: I think these are the kind of sketches that could breakthrough for SNL's coverage of the 2016 race. Yes, it went a bit long and was packed, but there was a lot of good bits here. From Kate's portrayal of Kellyanne Conway, to Margot as Ivanka and new castmembers Mikey Day and Alex Moffat as Trump's sons playing the "children of the corn". Beck Bennett did a really good Putin, and we even got Larry David back as a more free-wheeling Bernie Sanders. (8.5)

The Librarian (short): So this was a thing. At first, you weren't really sure where this was going, as a group of eyes admire Margot as a librarian. But then things get weird. She almost takes on a Harley Quinn persona (with added acid spit.....). One of those things where it seems they just threw a lot of things out there to see if it would stick, granted it was so out there that it sort of worked. (7.2)

(The Weeknd): (7.5)

Weekend Update: Update got its first take on the election, post convention. They seemed to take a more even-handed "both sides" take, bringing up old stories (with how fast the cycle goes) like Clinton's post pneumonia rally and the James Brown song used. There was surprisingly little about Trump and Alicia Machado, or his last night tweets, which was a fresh story for the week.However, Jost and Che did show a nice amount of chemistry for the premiere, riffing on each other.

The first guest saw Cecily Strong playing an undecided voter "Cathy Ann". She sort of played a bubbling idiot of a character. It was tough to understand what she was saying. While I don't hold high opinions on the so-called "undecided voter", even this stereotype was a bit much.

Kenan Thompson then came on and played David Ortiz. This is becoming a good recurring role for Kenan (hopefully they keep him on, even when Big Papi retires after this season wraps up). (7.0)

David Ortiz

Hunch Bunch: This was a Scooby Doo parody, where Margot plays someone whose slow to piece the clues together. Kyle Mooney played a good Shaggy, and while there were some funny bits (like the conclusion where Margot can't 'go back to jail'), this was merely just okay. (6.4)

Melania Moments (short): This was sort of like "deep thoughts". It was tough to judge, given his brevity, but hopefully this becomes a recurring bit throughout this election. (7.0)

Actress Round Table: Taking place at the NY Film Festival, this was used as a vehicle for another Kate McKinnon role, an old actress whose had to make her way through the industry. Unlike previous oddball characters by Kate, this just didn't really hit for me. (6.0)

(The Weeknd): (7.7)

Mr Robot (short): Here, Leslie Jones recruits Elliot (Pete Davidson) to find out who hacked her. I thought this was a fairly clever way to deal with this issue that really took off this summer (along with all the online harassment she's faced). It'll be interesting to see if she'll address it during Weekend Update, but I thought Leslie and Pete really worked well in this short. (8.0)

We got a first look at how SNL will cover this '16 race. While they'll have to parody debates, pieces like Family Feud and Melania thoughts could be more effective. This is an election season where to really make a point, they'll have to go out of the box besides just the debates.

First impressions on Alec Baldwin as Trump, I think he was perfect for this role. His portrayal was more biting and accurate to the present day than Hammond's was. Hammond's impression was still stuck in the 90s/Apprentice era. It'll be interesting to see how Alec evolves through October. (7.38)

Margot Robbie: 7.38