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)
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)
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)
(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)
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
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