October 2, 2021 – Owen Wilson / Kacey Musgraves (S47 E1)  

Cold Opening – Biden Unites Democrats

Democratic infighting threatens Joe Biden’s (JAJ) legislative agenda

• Right out of the gate, newbie James Austin Johnson leads the show and opens the new season as the newest president Biden impersonator! I love this.
• Solid Biden vocal impression from James, even if it isn’t the funniest impression I’ve seen of him. This impression it still the most accurate of the current-day Biden.
• Cecily is still on the show, for a 10th freakin’ season, doing the same voices for half the politicians she impersonates.
• Aidy’s look as Manchun is the stuff of nightmares, and, yet another pandering bit by havimg female cast members playing male politicians.
• Melissa as AOC, great impression overall, and a solid take on her.
• Ok, the main conceit of this open is fine by itself, with good satire on how the Dems need to get their shit together, too bad it‘s unfocused.
• Why is Cuomo here? I know it’s probably Pete’s best role (which isn’t saying much) but his book bit with Alex’s Schumer gave me a groan.
• Good to see Alex next to James’ Biden, I would assume to show us that there were no hard feelings with the impression being given to a newbie.
• Overall, that was decent, the choas line, and James’ and Alex’s performance gave this a bump in my rating.

Rating: ***

Opening Montage

• So, the same as last year’s montage but with color now, a good sign of coming out of the darkness hopefully with this pandemic.
• Really shocked again to see Cecily still in the cast, after her big Update piece last year, and how invisible, and frankly useless she was most of the previous season.
• Chloe & Bowen deserved their promotion, both are my favorites of the current cast.
• Aristotle Athari, James Austin Johnson, and Sarah Sherman join the cast tonight. of the three, I knew about JAJ from Chapo Trap House, he’s a very good impressionist, which the show truly needs after Beck left. Sarah is an absurdist comic that I knew from Eric Andre, and her great Helltrap Nightmare troupe, hopefully she will find her niche, especially on Update, and the weird 10-1 pieces. Aristotle is also interesting, and from what I’ve seen of him, he seems to be an alt comic who specializes in Dark surrealist humor, which I LOVE. Such an exciting group of newbies, MUCH more than the boring group from last season.

Monologue 

with brothers Owen & Andrew [real] in audience, host defends unambition

• Good energy from Owen at the beginning.
• Nice to see Luke Wilson, as he hosted one of the very few decent episodes from the dreaded season 30.
• Overall, very short & sweet monologue, and Owen came off his usual likable & charming self, and also it’s good that gave him an actual monologue, a sign of trust at a season premiere.

Rating: ***1/2

The Talking

Covid-19 test results pull talk show panelists from live TV

• I see that the show is doing a parody of the View incident.
• My GOD, Aidy does looks just like Lauren Holt, no wonder that poor girl never had a chance from the beginning.
• Ok, Owen seems to be glued to the cue cards, really distracting to see.
• Really SNL? this is the first post-monologue skit of the season? 
• An ok laugh with the hosts alternating due to Covid.
• They’re really just gonna repeat the same joke aren’t they?
• Wow! this is over already?! Good thing at least, as I was beginning to lose attention.

Rating: ** (being generous)

Star Trek: Ego Quest

Jeff Bezos (host) & other billionaires play in space

• Hilarious concept commenting on the rivalry between Musk & Bezos.
• Great look & cinematography to this, the filming units continue to step it up this year too.
• Great Richard Branson voice form Alex, showing what an underrated scene-stealer he is when given the chance.
• solid & funny Elon Musk impression from Mikey. I would love to assume that he developed his impression from when Musk hosted last year.(*shudder*)
• Some harsh satire against Bezos here, with the bottle thrown at Kenan and all, a much better & sharper take at Amazon than previously done on the show.

Rating: ****

Cars 4

during recording for Cars 4, host balks at Lightning’s sexual predation

• This seems to be a successor to the one they did with JJ Watt from season 45.
• Oh, here’s Punkie delivering her usual two lines of the episode, and then stays as likable filler. I’m still shocked that she survived & Lauren didn’t.
• Owen is still looking at the cue cards at the beginning of this piece, very distracting.
• Adorable & heartwarming to see Owen’s “Ka-chow” catchphrase getting a great reaction from the audience.
• Here comes JAJ once again, so far he had two lead roles, and we aren’t halfway thorough the episode! Very impressive.
• An absolutely FLAWLESS impression of Larry the Cable Guy from James. He’s been killing it so far with his impressions.
• Big laugh from the witch hunt line.
• Good ending with the take on Disney, they truly only care about money these days, and funny that Owen’s character will record his lines for that Disney money. 

Rating: ****

The District 7 School Board Meeting

eccentrics go off-topic at school board hearing about Covid-19 policy

• Oh, here comes a piece that I love, ever since seeing it the first time it grew greatly on me.
• Cecily’s part was decent and had a good laugh or two. but AGAIN, this is a bit she did to death many times before, showing us how useless it was for her to be brought back.
• A huge laugh from me due to Mikey’s look & voice.
• Ego & Alex are solid straight men here, wish they were paired more together.
• Bowen’s look and voice were hilarious here, his ”Barack Hussein Obama” line gave me a guilty big laugh.
• Surprisingly, this is Kyle’s first & only appearance all night.
• great laugh from Andrew’s ”bitch” delivery, as we will see later in the night, his delivery always elevates the material.
• Pete’s scene came & went without me caring much, as I do not know the guy he’s supposedly impersonating.
• Sarah Sherman makes her very first appearance.
• Hilarious look to Sarah’s character, I would love to think that this is her alter ego, Sarah Squirm, but I digress.
• Sarah’s ”smart lady!” gave me a big laugh, and got a solid reaction from the audience. Solid first showcase for Sarah, and a perfect skit for her to debut in.
• Aristotle Athari makes his SNL debut, and what an interesting outfit he’s wearing.
• Man Aristotle only got one word, at least his part was decent with Chloe & Melissa, if not too short for my liking.
• Always great to see Kenan appearing in those pieces.
• Great ending with Kenan freaking out Alex & Ego.
• This was a laugh riot, this era truly excels with those” parade of idiots” pieces, and a great way to utilize the whole performing cast (except Kate, who’s in Australia filming a Tiger King show).

Rating: ****1/2

Musical Performance – “Justified”

Weekend Update

missing Black woman (EGN) points out inequities in coverage of her plight

PED wore a dress to the Met Gala & his uncle isn’t happy about it

clips of NOM on Weekend Update mark his passing

• With this season, Colin & Michael will both pass Seth’s record on Update, Colin will sooner than Michael tho.
• Wow, great enthusiasm from the crowd tonight, a continuation from how hot they were in the previous year’s finale.
• Decent jokes so far, the R. Kelly one, and Colin trying to transition from it was the best part of Update so far.
• Great to see Ego on Update, especially after having such a great season last year, and her previous commentary being so good.
• Solid & sharp commentary by Ego, and an interesting comment about how some people sadly see black women as interchangeable in the media.
• Funny that they used Ego’s pic from the great Us parody from Sandra Oh’s episode form season 44.
• Funny dig at the Billie Eilish album, as someone who was never a big fan of her music, I find this joke to be quite funny.
• Nice shirt from Pete to remember the late great Norm Macdonald.
• Pretty funny look from Pete at the Met gala, and solid comments from him.
• The Mario commentary is fun, and that movie looks like a dumpster fire already.
• I remember when the episode aired, I predicted that Sarah will get her first showcase on the Update desk, similar to how Cecily got one in her debut episode, it turns she would get the rare honor of STARRING in a skit toward the very end of the episode.
• Now we transition to Norm’s tribute, classy from SNL to have a full-on tribute instead of just a card shown after Update or before goodnights.
• LOL! That stabbing hat joke still rocks, I knew they would have at least one OJ joke in this.
• Pretty powerful to have Norm give the sign-off from Update, it’s like him saying goodbye to us. We will miss the hell out of you Norm, rest in peace.

Rating: ***1/2 

Funeral Song

grandma’s (HEG) funeral reveals her problematic taste in celebrities

• An absolutely hilarious gaffe right out of the gate with Lorne being in the shot, and with Owen whispering when can he start. It reminds me of January Jones’ gaffe when asking where’s the camera in season 35, even if it isn’t THAT bad.
• Meh, from Kenan’s look this looks like an Anderlette piece, even though James Anderson (mercifully) left before season 46.
• Ok, I got a good laugh from the celebs that Heidi’s been friends with.
• Whoa! They’re freaking running this premise to the ground, another argument that the show needs a big overhaul in the writers room.
• Man, Kenan looks like he’s about to break when singing that R. Kelly song, even though he always has that big grin on his face.

Rating: **1/2

Musical Performance -“Camera Roll”

The NFL on Fox

during an NFL broadcast, lower-third show promo flummoxes announcing team

• For a newbie in his first episode, James has been EVERYWHERE. I ask still: why are Sarah & Aristotle barely used to far?
• James does it once again with a great Joe Buck impression. I’ve heard from some that they thought this was an actual sports show before realizing that the show returned from commercial.
• I’m loving the absurdist tone here, with the tv show that James’ Buck having to constantly promote having Stacy Abrams, of all people teaming up with Sarah & Chloe with their puppet to fight for social justice.
• By the way, Sarah looks unrecognizable without her glasses, she reminds me somewhat of Melissa for some reason.
• Solid Erin Andrews impression from Heidi, whose impression skills are always underrated in my view. 
• Overall, this was great & short enough with great straight man performance from James.

Rating: ****

Mail-in Testing Service

stool testers (AND) & (SRS) act suspicious during commercial shoot

•  From afar, Sarah looks just like Heidi here, its probably the wig she has on.
• Already, I’m loving this absurdist concept, and it’s giving me some Tim Robinson vibes.
• interesting voices & accents from Andrew & Sarah, and it’s so great to see them lead a skit, even if it’s the 10-1 of the night.
• Right out of the gate, Sarah is NAILING her delivery and getting good reaction from the audience, very impressive for a newbie.
• Poor Aristotle, he just flubbed his line & made an awkward pause, I’ll chalk it up to first show jitters.
• Great chemistry & strong duo potential between Andrew & Sarah.
• Oh, I love that the only addition to the tagline is just the word ”Maybe!” Funny facial expression from Sarah too, and again she & Andrew are doing great here.
• Chris’ brief moment here is HILARIOUS, and it got another huge reaction from the audience.
• Great ending & a cute moment with the high-five between Sarah & Andrew.
• With this skit, Sarah has already got a better showcase than the three newbies last year, and Andrew just proved why he deserved to return for another year.

Rating: ****1/2

In Memoriam – a photo of Herbert Schlosser marks his passing

Goodnights:-

• Classy to see Aidy supporting unions.
• Cute visual of Sarah & Aidy hugging and waving at the camera, I wonder if Sarah knew Aidy before SNL. I do know that she’s friends with Bowen before the show.

Segments Ranked From Best to Worst

Mail-In Testing Service

The District 7 School Board Meeting

The NFL on Fox

Cars 4

Star Trek: Ego Quest

Weekend Update

Monologue

Biden Unites Democrats

Funeral Song

The Talking

Final Thoughts:-

• Solid season premiere, and a better show tonight than about 75% of last year’s episodes.
• Owen was a good host who blended well with the cast, and despite his cue-card staring did fine on his own, came of charming & did great in the School Board & The NFL on Fox skits.
• The episode did a good job of utilizing the cast tonight, even when I wished that Bowen, Sarah, and Aristotle could’ve been in more pieces, Sarah at least starred in a skit in her very first episode which is very rare. I think Kate is the latest cast member to star in a skit in her first episode. (ADDENDUM:- According to Jesse, Tim Robinson & Mikey Day also starred in skits in their first episodes, apologies).
• James had a fantastic first episode, starring in three skits, and leading the cold open, one of the more impressive debuts in recent seasons.

My Favorite Moments of the Episode, Represented with Screencaps:

Next Week:-

• Kim Kardashian is hosting, and when I heard rumors that she’ll be hosting the premiere I shuddered and brushed it off as a stupid rumor. It turns out that Lorne is desperate enough for ratings to have her on. I’’ll review that episode as soon as possible, till then, farewell all!

My full set of screencaps from this episode is here.