SNL Season 42: Chris Pine

SNL started off its season ending run with Wonder Woman's Chris Pine. Was it a start of a solid run? Onto the review

Morning Joe Cold Open: Coming on the wake of the engagement announcement of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, SNL played off of it, with Alex Moffat and Kate McKinnon playing the duo, blatanly flirting with each other, making the fellow correspondents feel awkward. A phone-call cameo from Trump (Baldwin) added to it, calling as a spokesman. The main element though was the relationship with Joe and Mika. (7.5)  

Monologue: Just remember, Chris Pine, Hemsworth, Evans and Pratt are all different people. Never forget. (6.4)

Where In The World Is Kellyanne Conway: The nostalgia was there with this one, with the classic Carmen Sandiego theme. Maybe a bit too brief, but it made its point and didn't linger, with the kids not really wanting to find Kellyanne. Its true though, over the last month, she's only appeared on Fox News programs. (7.6)

World Peace Rap (short): It took me a while to process this, but after a couple listens I found myself cracking up at this. Its parodying a fairly obscure Hungarian Rapper. Its not really necessary to know the original though. Also, as good as Beck Bennett is, I'm just mesmerized by Pine's character. (8.0)

SWAT Recon: (7.4)

H.R "The Boy Is Mine": (6.4)

The House (short): Its been a while since we've seen this Real House/Reality show parody with Beck and Kyle, but it returned with Chris Pine as a house guest. The cutaways and confessionals are so great and spot on, creating the drama. (7.7)

LCD Soundsystem: (7.2)

Weekend Update: Leslie Jones appeared to talk about meeting a man while on vacation, but the top Update guest was a new character by Vanessa Bayer, meteorologist Dawn Lazarus. She just sells it, mumbling through. I hope we see this character return. (7.4) 

Auto Shop: As a fan of RuPaul's Drag Race myself, I was excited to see this take on it. We see employees of an auto shop (Pine, Kenan, Beck, Alex & Bobby) sitting around, casually talking about Drag Race as the conversation gradually builds to evolve that they're all huge fans. It results in a pretty great lip synch battle between Chris and Bobby. You could see elements of this conversation being true, with some guys being reluctant that they watch it. (8.0)

The Handmaid's Tale (short): (7.0)

Star Trek Lost Episode: Whoever knew that we needed Spock's brother "Spocko" in our lives. (7.5)

LCD Soundsystem: (6.5)

Couples Game Night: (7.8)

This was quite a music filled episode. Seems to be the year for musical episodes, with the Supergirl/Flash crossover and Once Upon A Time. You could tell there was some rust, but overall this was a perfectly fine episode, getting more into original material and giving a bit of reprieve to political satire. (7.31)

Dave Chappelle: 8.83
Kristen Stewart: 8.13

Tom Hanks: 8.03

Scarlett Johansson: 7.98

Aziz Ansari: 7.82

Lin Manuel Miranda: 7.74

Louis C.K: 7.65

Felicity Jones: 7.62

Alec Baldwin: 7.58

Jimmy Fallon: 7.57

Emma Stone: 7.56

Casey Affleck: 7.40

Margot Robbie: 7.38

Chris Pine: 7.31

John Cena: 7.19

Kristen Wiig: 7.09

Emily Blunt: 7.07

Benedict Cumberbatch: 6.60

Octavia Spencer: 6.49