Steelers Pod: Steelers-Broncos

Steelers Pod: Steelers-Jaguars

Reaction to a wild comeback win

SNL Season 44: Liev Schreiber

Jeff Sessions Farewell Cold Open: With Sessions exiting the white house, that may just mean the end of Kate McKinnon's Sessions. This was a fairly by the numbers cold open with a lot of different appearances, but most importantly from Mikey and Alex's Don Jr and Eric. (7.6)
Monologue: (7.0)

Invest Twins: A play on words sketch, this could have come off as sophomoric, but they were able to pull it off. (7.9)
Unity Song (short): A political themed song showing how we're united despite being divided. I get what they were trying to do here, but it came off somewhat flat. (7.5)

Paranormal Occurrences:  Kate's recurring character returns, as Cecily and Liev account their run-ins with ghosts, with Kate telling a much different story. Kate is just a master at this character, doing whatever it takes to break the cast. (8.0)
Permission (short): (7.2)

Weekend Update: Update was on fire this week, coming off the midterms.

Cecily made an appearance as the White House press aide, trying to take a pencil away from Colin. Her mannerisms were spot on.

As I mentioned last week (w/o going into detail), Pete Davidson stirred up some controversy going after Rep-elect Dan Crenshaw, making a joke about his eye-patch. Pete came on again to apologize, and in a surprise Crenshaw himself showed up (along with an Ariana Grande ringtone) to poke some fun at Pete while then going on to discuss how the right and the left can come together. It was a very nice moment altogether (one I haven't seen before on SNL). (9.0)


The Poddys: (6.2)

House Hunters: This started a strong post-Update stretch. Leslie Jones really had a moment. (7.8)

Brothers: A perfect beck and kyle sketch. They just played off each other perfectly in this. (8.4)

Outside The Women's Bathroom: A perfect, bizarre 10 to 1 sketch. Liev plays a guy whose randomly hosting a talk show outside the women's bathroom. It was the perfect amount of random. (7.9)

This felt like the most complete episode to date this season. Liev tried to tempt expectations in this monologue, but what followed was a top to bottom solid episode. (7.68)


Liev Schreiber: 7.68
Jonah Hill: 7.39  
Adam Driver: 7.33  
Seth Meyers: 7.08  
Awkwafina: 6.48

Steelers pod: Panthers - Steelers

Midterms Recap (Pod)

A reaction/recap to the 2018 midterms, looking at some of the senate, governors and house races; as well as looking ahead to the senate map in 2020.

SNL Season 44: Jonah Hill

Caravan Cold Open: Kate McKinnon adds another character to her list, Laura Ingraham. She riffs on the "dangers of the caravan". An added surprise was seeing how well Cecily Strong took Judge Jeanine Pirro. She just had that voice down pat. Once again, the best political cold opens are the ones without Alec Baldwin's trump. (7.2)

Monologue: Jonah Hill got his induction into the 5-timer's club. I didn't realize he'd hosted that much to be honest, but as I'll get to in the wrap-up, he blends in nicely to the cast. (7.0)

Benihana: The makings of a long-term host is that they have a recurring character, which we got here with "6yr old Adam Grossman" making his return. It feels like its been a while since Jonah's hosted and done this character, and it was refreshing. Its the sort of timeless comedy that works no matter what, all revolving around Jonah's delivery. You could easily see this kind of character get annoying, but Jonah is able to keep it in check. (8.0)

Midterm ad: Unlike the run-up to the 2016 election, where SNL seemed to think a Clinton win was a given, this time around it was more cautious. We see various people in this ad just hoping for a Democratic congress, being cautiously optimistic. (7.6)

KCR News: (6.0)

Political Musical: Another solid political sketch, as we see this off-broadway musical trying to do its part to inspire voters to come to the polls....with negative effects. (8.4)

Teacher Fell Down: This was quite something. It felt like a 10 to 1 sketch, and I couldn't tell whether it was genius...or just bizarre. Maybe a mix of both. Kate McKinnon plays a teacher....who has fallen down, and drags it out through a monologue to her bewildered students. (7.9)

Weekend Update: Pete Davidson showed up....and did a thing that became controversial (non-Ariana related)....that's all I'll say about that.

Melissa Villasenor introduced a new character...every teenaged murder suspect on Law & order issuing a book report. A character straight out of left field...but it really worked. I hope this character become recurring.

With the Red Sox winning the world series, that means one thing.....Kenan as David Ortiz. This is just always a delight. (7.8)

America's Got Talent: Wait They're Good?: (5.3)

HuckaPM (ad): A sleep-aid just for Sarah Huckabee Sanders. This was just great physical comedy. (8.6)

Dog Infomercial: A shop that sells wigs for pugs, what more could you want? (7.5)


Ultimately, this felt like the most complete episode yet, with most things working as a whole. Jonah Hill is the perfect kind of host who can blend in with the cast, and take on secondary characters without disappearing altogether. (7.39)

Jonah Hill: 7.39
Adam Driver: 7.33
Seth Meyers: 7.08
Awkwafina: 6.48

Steelers Pod: Steelers - Ravens