September 29, 2018 – Adam Driver / Kanye West (S44 E1)

(Note: Before I start my new set of reviews, I wanted to both thank all of those who asked about me during my hiatus from online venues and deeply apologize to those who got worried due the aforementioned hiatus; should’ve checked up with all of you. I apologize once again and hopefully the summer reviews live up to your standards.)

Cold Opening – Kavanaugh Hearing

Brett Kavanaugh (Matt Damon) is emotional at Supreme Court confirmation

• Did we really need the Fox News start with Leslie’s Harris Faulkner? It added nothing to this cold opening.
• I absolutely love Cecily’s Diane Feinstein impression; both spot-on and funny. Alex’s look as Chuck Grassley is also amusing.
• Now here comes Matt Damon as Brett Kavanaugh; the audible gasp from the audience as they recognize him is priceless.
• While this is yet another stunt casting for a role that a cast member could’ve played instead, Matt’s random yell before being asked anything at the start killed me back when this aired and slayed me now still. I remember being already on his side as soon as I saw how hilarious he is as Kavanaugh.
• Matt’s opening statement is absolutely fantastic, especially his lines about yelling into a Doritos bag and puking from something other than beer; the random Alyssa Milano line, complete with a cardboard cutout of her behind him, is equally hilarious.
• Matt’s calendar bit, with the constant mention of his college friends, especially “Handsy Hank” and “Gangbang Greg” is yet another absolutely hilarious moment here. Only several minutes into this cold open and it’s ALREADY a billion times funnier than all of the cold opens from the last two seasons combined.
• Look, I love Rachel Dratch as much as the next SNL fan, but THIS random casting of her as Amy Klobuchar (who looks NOTHING like her, by the way), is a better example of the show’s desperate stunt casting. Why not have Melissa play her instead? She definitely looks more like her and I bet would do a dead-on impression of her to boot, unlike Rachel’s non-attempt here.
• I haven’t mentioned her so far into this review, but Aidy’s very solid & fun as Rachel Mitchell; dead-on casting as well.
• The very random shouting match between Kyle’s John Kennedy and Matt’s Kavanugh regarding the latter proudly boasting about drinking only American beer completely slayed me. Kyle’s so good at these random, over-the-top outbursts.
• Eesh, this so-far-great cold open has now suffered a screeching halt; I am not caring for the Pete & (especially) Kate portions; the latter’s mugging & vamping storms feels so out of place with the earlier portions of this cold open.
• Ah, Matt’s a great straight man to Kate’s Graham’s ramblings, especially his taken aback reactions to being constantly compared to Bill Cosby; Matt’s also keeping a perfectly straight face to Kate’s clear attempts at making him break with her mugging and constant pointing at him.
• An overall really strong, memorable cold opening, even with its runtime being almost at a staggering 13 minutes! While I do not think of this cold opening as the classic some other fans consider it to be, it was a very well-written, clever piece of political satire, with a killer Matt Damon performance to boot.

Rating: ****

Opening Montage

• New montage! Now this is one of my favorite montages in SNL history, alongside the 88-90 and 84-85 montages.
• Alex, Melissa, and Mikey have now been promoted to repertory cast members. I remember, back when this season originally aired, thinking that the first two’s promotion and the potential of Aidy, Kate, Cecily, and possibly either Kyle or Pete leaving would give Alex & Melissa the chance to gain the airtime they should’ve gotten. Boy, how very optimistic I was back then….
• Ego Nwodim has joined the show starting with tonight’s episode. I am very excited to cover her first two seasons, as I remember her having some really solid moments, with some of them not getting the focus they deserved.
• This is such a well-edited and shot montage: the New York shots, the colors and filter used, and the cast members (especially Beck, Cecily, Kate, Melissa, and Ego) look great here.

Monologue

host dreads making small talk about summer with AIB, BEB, KET, PED

• It feels so good to review Adam Driver again, considering how he’s both one of my favorite actors and SNL hosts.
• Not sure if this summer recap premise is good enough for our very first monologue of the season; it feels lazy and boring if nothing else.
• I’m really not caring at all for the cast walk-ons while Adam is trying to mask that he cannot stand them. Adam, the consummate professional he is, is trying his best to elevate this, but it isn’t working for me and feels redundant.
• And now comes Pete Davidson to a wild applause from the audience, which is partly due to his huge summer & engagement to Ariana Grande. If I am not mistaken, Lorne even wanted her to be the musical guest for the season premiere, which means we would’ve gotten EVEN MORE hyperfocus on Pete’s personal life. Oof.
• If feels painful seeing Adam suddenly loving Pete in contrast to how annoyed he was by the others; yet another example of the show cashing in on his rising fame outside of the show.
• Just ugh at Pete’s winking at the camera before leaving the stage.
• All-in-all, what a complete waste of both the first monologue of the season and especially Adam’s talents,

Rating: **

Fortnite

unskilled 46 year-old (host) spoils teens’ (KYM) & (PED) Fortnite session

• Really, SNL? This is our first sketch of the season? Tired, lame jokes about old people not knowing how to use technology? I guess I can consider this sketch the first of way too many in this season that focus on humor I cannot stand.
• Did we also need Pete Davidson’s stupid face on the side of the screen for basically the entire sketch? Yet another reminder of how much the show tried to use his then-engagement to Ariana Grande for headlines which comes off nowadays even more pathetic.
• Ego Nwodim makes her very first SNL appearance as basically a background extra alongside Alex Moffat. I also believe she barely utters a single line in this entire episode. Damn. I know this is her very first show and everything, but considering the highly-regarded performer she would go on to be later in her run, it is so surreal seeing her having such an unmemorable debut episode.
• You may have noticed I barely wrote anything about the actual sketch, that’s because there’s basically NOTHING here to dissect. Aside from Mikey’s impressive, spot-on imitation of a video game character and Adam’s commitment, this is a very dull, nothing sketch.

Rating: **

A New Kyle

jealous of PED, ignored KYM changes his image; Wendy Williams cameo

• Another Pete Davidson-focused piece? And now freakin’ Kyle Mooney, of all cast members, trying to cash in on the media hype around Pete? Words cannot express how flat-out pathetic this is. Man, not even halfway through this episode and it’s already starting to destroy me.
• No comment about the very random Wendy Williams cameo. At least Bowen Yang’s glare towards her cracked me the hell up, which is the very first thing that amused me here so far.
• Oof, and now we are mentioning Pete’s mental health problems here? Yeah, this short is definitely desperate for attention.
• Not even the absurdist turn with the trial by combat between Pete and Kyle is doing anything for me.
• Very, very poor utilization of Adam Driver’s talents in this short. But hey, what’s new for this episode so far?
• I didn’t care for the ending especially. All-in-all, just as bad and desperate as I recall it being; a rare misfire from Kyle Mooney.

Rating: *1/2

Coffee Shop

Pizza Hut betrayee & husband (host) get fooled by Burger King coffee

• Excuse me: is this a rerun of last season’s premiere? Why in the WORLD are re-doing the solid pizza shop sketch with Ryan Gosling, and wasting the great Adam Driver in this complete rewrite??!
• Man, it feels so painful seeing Adam trying his best with the material he’s given, but this is such a lazy, boring rehash of a sketch that only works once.
• Even Cecily’s outbursts, which cracked me the hell up in the original sketch, are doing nothing for me here.
• This sketch is so by-the-numbers that we even get some of the same performers that played couples in the first sketch, with them doing Mikey Day’s patented REACTING shots, complete with Ego Nwodim’s talents being wasted in yet another sketch.
• Overall, yup, no need to bring this back.

Rating: **

Rad Times At Frat U

1980s party excesses come back to haunt attendees

• The first of many pieces this season not on YouTube due to music rights.
• Solid concept for a short, and after an endless string of rough segments, it feels good to actually LAUGH during an SNL episode.
• Beck is priceless as the typical fratboy, especially his smug laugh as he welcomes Adam & Mikey.
• I am enjoying how increasingly funnier and funnier the revelations continue to be throughout the short; I especially loved the Fox News correspondent revelation about Cecily, as well as the dark revelation that Mikey is dead.
• Beck is a lot of fun here (and looking damn good to boot), especially when he strips naked before jumping to the pool.
• Very solid ending.

Rating: ****

Musical Performance – “I Love It”

• Ok, I don’t usually comment during musical performances, but what the FUCK am I watching right now?! How in the world did this mess get on the air? This will probably end up being my biggest unintentional laugh from this entire episode.

Weekend Update

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (KAM) has salty takes on Supreme Court dynamics

LEJ insists on doing a portrayal of Serena Williams’ U.S. Open outburst

PED describes what it’s like to be engaged to Ariana Grande

• Not too great string of jokes & commentary from both Colin & Che, especially some of the clapter-inducing moments. Hey, maybe because the cold open was more than enough coverage of the Kavanugh hearing. I remember hearing the That Week In SNL podcast making lots ot great points regarding the political coverage on SNL during the Trump era and how suffocating it is: you either keep the politics in the cold open or as a string of Update jokes and comments, not doing both at the same time. Needless to say, the podcast hosts are more than dead-on in their point here.
• Ok, I really enjoyed Colin’s whole rant about Kavanaugh keeping a calendar from 1982; Colin’s reaction to that one guy laughing at his Memento joke was also priceless.
• Oh god, yet another Ruth Bader Ginsburg commentary, complete with endless applause from the audience; being ready to get tucked to bed by this soft, barely comedic piece by the ultimate security blanket: Kate McKinnon.
• I really don’t have anything to add regarding this commentary; if you seen one of them, you’ve seen them all. I also really hate how endless and overlong Kate’s desk pieces tend to be. God knows how many she’ll do this season & the next for me to put up with.
• Fantastically dark joke from Che about Dunkin’ Donuts being renamed to just Dunkin’ due to the other half being amputated due to diabetes.
• The random bit with Leslie as Serena Williams was certainly energetic, but didn’t make me laugh nor did I *get* what it was going for.
• (*Pete Davidson enters the Update desk to start talking endlessly about being engaged to Ariana Grande, all the while Blood shatters into a million pieces*)
• All-in-all, a middling string of opening jokes from Colin and Che, alongside three back-to-back subpar commentaries really brought the inaugural Update of the season down for me. Although, there were several strong highlights, such as the two bits mentioned above; the latter Dunkin’ Donuts joke will probably stand out as one of my favorite Update jokes of the whole season, that made this Update overall decent.

Rating: ***

Career Day

at high school career day, oil baron (host) delights in enemy-crushing

• Now here comes a legendary SNL sketch; one of my absolute favorites of this whole late ’10s/early 20s’ era.
• The concept of this sketch is absolutely fantastic, with a normal, boring career day turning into basically a Shakespearean tragic monologue about vengeance and shunning the supposed weakness in mankind. This is fantastic already and Adam Driver’s talents are tailor-made for such a concept.
• Adam is already coming off fantastic here; his look, his characterization, the voice he’s using, his delivery; everything about him here is so damn incredible.
• Man, even the detail of Adam’s character being named Abraham H. Parnassus and his son, played by Pete, being named Mortecai, adds to the aforementioned Shakespearean tragedy vibes of this priceless sketch.
• Adam’s lines, especially the constant mention of H.R. Pickens, are terrific. This sadly feels like the very first time all night long that Adam’s talents were used in an actual sketch, instead of getting squandered and put to the side.
• Of course, Pete Davidson is “giggaling” his way through the sketch, like he was never in dress nor rehearsed this sketch all week; I’ll not let his usual jackassary hurt my enjoyment of this masterpiece.
• Adam’s ending monologue, stating in its epic climax: “I outlived you, H.R. Pickens! I crushed you into the ground, and now your bones turn to oil beneath my living feet! I married your granddaughter, filled her belly with my festering seed, and sired a boy! He is my final revenge, H.R!” is hands down, one of the highpoints of this season and recent SNL history; both a fantastic, brilliant ending twist to this sketch and one of the very best performances I’ve ever seen from a host in SNL’s history.
• All-in-all, an all-time SNL highlight. I know some find this sketch a tad overrated due to the whole episode being a flop, but I respectfully disagree with said fans; this sketch is a fucking killer, and even better on rewatches.
• This is one of only two sketches (I believe) newly-hired writer Eli Coyote Mandel would get on the air in his first and only season on the show. I remember finding his other sketch, Weezer, to be solid-yet-overrated in comparison to this one, but I’ll have to rewatch it to rate it fairly this time around. All I can say is that this sketch of his will live on due to both incredible writing and an all-time, mesmerizing host performance from Adam Driver.

Rating: *****

Musical Performance – “We Got Love”

League of the South

southern white supremacists learn that Vermont is a Caucasian paradise

• Yet another boring premise in tonight’s episode; not even the audience laughed much at the reveal of this being a KKK meeting.
• While I should be happy seeing the criminally underrated Alex be in a lot of sketches tonight, I cannot even think he uttered more than three or four lines after the cold open in contrast to Pete Fucking Davidson basically hosting the episode while Adam acts as a prop next to him. Yet another example of this premiere wasting Adam’s talents and utmost professionals such as Alex & Melissa to cash in for fame outside of the show.
• Can this sketch end please? There’s nothing here to be reviewed; just overly talky, barely funny lines delivered by the performers.

Rating: **

Goodnights / Musical Performance – “Ghost Town”

• I am not going to dignify what Kanye West would be doing in a short while, but it is so sweet seeing Ego being pointed at and celebrated after going through her first episode. Great that no one will be ruining this memory for her in a minute…..

Segments Ranked From Best to Worst

Career Day

Kavanaugh Hearing

Rad Times At Frat U

Weekend Update

Monologue

League of the South

Fortnite

Coffee Shop

A New Kyle

Final Thoughts:

• A mediocre premiere. Sure, there were several strong pieces here, including a legendary sketch in Career Day, but these are not enough to mask the pandering and most importantly the unbelievable laziness in the writing of a lot of this episode, and to say nothing of Kanye West’s trainwreck first performance and goodnights debacle. I remember how many fans online were outraged at how much this premiere basically focused, as I stated several times above, on Pete’s love life to the detriment of both the show and especially Adam Driver’s talents, which makes this premiere even more awkward and poorly-aged to see mere months afterwards.
• As for Adam, he was once again a very committed, strong host, but was sadly wasted in both a sea of lame, uninspired sketches and especially being basically a prop while Pete gets a lot of the focus tonight. While this disgraceful way he was treated tonight still angers me (and a lot of other fans), knowing how his upcoming hosting stint is going to be makes it even more rewarding to watch it after sitting through THIS one.

My Favorite Moments of the Episode, Represented with Screencaps:

Up Next:

• For the very first time in many years, we get an Asian American host. Awkwafina hosts with music from Travis Scott.

My full set of screencaps from this episode is here