by Mike (Male) on Thu Oct 15, 2009 12:32 pm
Cold Open: Incredible, we rarely see a one-joke premise in the cold open anymore, but here it is. Not that it's a bad thing necessarily, but this time around it's not funny. The Bush lines are tired, and the writers have dug further into Obama's own head before.
Monologue: Alright, our host hit the sauce already! Seriously, this was perhaps the best premise of the entire night, a cute look at Drew's influence on her acting family. It did go for one or two cast members too many, and the writers need to quit putting Kenan in as that final goofy punchline. It just turns into a race thing each time.
Gilly/Gigli: The worst. You know, if you want to guarantee a collective nationwide groan, write for SNL and have the host try and do a popular recurring character alongside the real thing. We got duplicate Mangos that way, duplicate Culps, duplicate Church Ladies, etc, etc. It's never funny, and more often than not it makes everyone look really desperate.
Celebrity Ghost Stories: Nice to see a somewhat original thought. And congratulations to Abby Elliott, who introduced her first GOOD impression in her Anna Faris. But the sketch got dragged down by a bad Sharon Osbourne, a totally unnecessary Justin Long doing a bad Matthew McConaughey, and a bad Charlyne Yi (Did anyone actually listen to her? Forget the fact that nobody knows who Charlyne is, the impression wasn't anything more than this alto vibrato thing).
University of Westfield: Really liked this one. The best pretaped fake ad of the season so far.
La Rivista Della Televisione: Let's give this one a bonus point for acknowledging that yes, there have been numerous celebrities on Vinny's "show" stymied by his misunderstanding that they were to speak Italian. And the Letterman references were funny. That said, I still think Hader needs to move on already-- they still never changed his interactions with Forte, Armisen, and now Moynihan.
"Eet": Very cool song. It became obvious right away that this would be one of those nights we'd enjoy the musical guest so much more than anything else.
Update: Andy has the uncanny gift of taking on a potentially hilarious character (Cathy, Larry the Goose), and disappointing us all. Same goes with his Scrooge McDuck, which Andy doesn't even come close to nailing. He honed that impression with some kind of blunt axe. Kenan's Maya Angelou was just flat-out boring. I'll take Hader's Carville again, though he can't be showing up once every couple weeks. Don't want to ruin another good impression. As for Seth, he was fine.
Tampax to the Max Tournament of Champions 1991: An A for Jason's game face. The Tampax plugs were repetitive, but came at the perfect speed, and the audience was loving it by the sketch's end. And a D for the rest of it; Forte's character was the bad kind of repetitive, and the ladies might as well have been extras yanked from the audience.
Cooking al Fresco: It's funny, I also liked one individual element of this sketch-- the cartoony caricatures of Drew and Andy during the bumper shots were terrific. But couldn't anyone else have cohosted with Drew? Andy has his place in the show, and this sort of sketch is just not it. Of course, the great premise was still wasted by weak writing. There are bigger potential outdoor calamities than bird attacks, and that's what I think we should've seen.
Larry King Live: After Fred's great intro, I tuned out. None of the guest characters were funny, and it was embarrasing seeing them try to ride on these TV-safe "dirty" words. Next time, let's have Larry chat with Jenny Slate and Lady Gaga.
Digital Short: It's Body Fusion, this time with a twist ending. That's all you need to know.
"The Calculation": Another terrific performance. She's got a heck of a voice, really cool during live television.
Book reading: Well, I can't blame SNL for trying new things. Take a character that got a few laughs in two earlier sketches, and make him the star. Honestly, I think I'd need to see him helm his own sketch one more time before I can figure out if I like him or not. I didn't laugh much, but Hamilton has the potential of being a good recurring character.
Grade: C-. Thank Regina Spektor for pulling this out of the D range. I tried to find parts of the show I liked, but outside of the fake ad it was limited to a few isolated elements in a few sketches. Drew Barrymore remains a good host, but not great enough to be deserving any sort of SNL record. I think things will pick up for Show #4.
