Cold Opening – The Mueller Report
Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) digs Robert Mueller’s (Robert De Niro) report
- Sadly, despite the cold open “parodying” the Mueller Report, it is not the end for De Niro’s “impression” on the show, as he’ll grace us one more time in the finale.
- Ugh at the visual of Aidy as Barr. So unnecessary. Why not keep Beck in that part? I know he plays already so many political figures on the show, but still.
- I actually like the structure of this cold open, with us cutting to multiple sets, with various versions of the Report, but in typical Trumpwin fashion, this is droning on and boring me to tears.
Rating: **
Monologue
LEJ helps host overcome her Asian-Canadian self-deprecation propensity
- Nice to see the trend of real monologues continuing. Sandra is already coming off energetic and fun, which is what I remember her displaying in this episode, making me excited to cover her performances.
- Now, Leslie enters the monologue. I enjoy Leslie more than some (and her run holds up as pretty good), though I wanted Sandra to carry this on her own, but the result ended up fine.
Rating: ***
Discover
Red (EGN) is Adelaide’s (EGN) tether & her Discover Card operator
- I really like how the short starts just mundane and very normal, which is great, as I know the twist coming up.
- Each time we get this Us parody transition, I just love my ass off. Ego Nwodim is absolutely fantastic here imitating how Lupita Nyong’o sounded in the film. Her look and the visual of the bunnies & scissor are also adding to the humor.
- I absolutely love the transitions between the two versions of Ego. She is doing an effortless job in this, and her straight man reactions are cracking me up.
- Overall: short-and-sweet.
Rating: ****
Empire Meeting
Jussie Smollett (CRR) fabricates attack to avoid being fired from Empire
- Oh, geez. I completely forgot these pop culture pieces this season, especially this regarding the debacle with Empire’s Jussie Smollet.
- Poor Chris. After a consistently strong & impressive year in season 43, he’s been brutally underused this year. And this is the sketch that gets him airtime? Oof.
- Chris & Sandra are such solid performers that they are cracking me up despite the poor material. I do at least like the unexplained MAGA hat joke and “a bag of clues” line which cracked me up.
- The KKK bit felt dead and dragged this sketch even longer than needed.
Rating: **
The Duel
suitors (BEB) & (PED) repeatedly shoot (host) by mistake
- For an SNL digital short, this short is produced wonderfully, with some nice cinematography and costumes.
- Sandra’s acting is very solid and is cracking me up. For some reason, I always felt she was impersonating how Uma Thurman came off in Dangerous Liaisons, one of my personal favorite films, which makes her performance here even better.
- A huge laugh from the bullet hitting Sandra. I remember this direction the short suddenly took had me laughing my ass off, even when I didn’t know where it will lead.
- This short has now turned into a gory escalation piece in the tradition of Farewell Mr. Bunting and the great A Christmas Carol one, but it manages to be its own thing, with a solid focus on slapstick humor, deadpan, excellent performance by Sandra (her best of the night, in my opinion) and great visuals accompanying the gore.
- Sandra is killing me in this! I am absolutely love her not caring at all about how often she’s being shot and maimed, hilariously parodying love-stricken damsels in such period pieces and making an initially-repetitive premise very funny.
- The ending with Sandra flying away is dumb on paper, but as expected, her committed, strong performance had me laughing my ass at it.
- A great short as a whole. In fact, one of the more underrated of this season, in my opinion.
Rating: ****
Future Self
teen’s (MID) future selves (ALM) & (BEB) love middle-aged weirdo (host)
- A pretty popular sketch from this season.
- Here is Sandra as the strangely-memorable Tishy. She is just priceless as this character, and I love the detail with her look, that raspy voice and the random detail of her left arm being broken.
- I remember some fans thinking this sketch is partly an inside joke about how Beck, Mikey and Alex are interchangeable. I have never heard that about Beck, but it was definitely the case with Alex and Mikey early in their tenures, before Mikey settled as a major player and Alex vanished as his tenure progressed.
- This is a typical Seiday piece with the oddball figure, usually played by the host, interrupting a more normal process, such as the classic Kevin Roberts sketch with Larry David, but Sandra is having me in stiches as this character and is nailing her lines and moments. It is always so fun to see actors of this caliber have fun on SNL, as Adam Driver would do in his hosting stints.
- I love the dumb dance moves Sandra is doing, as well as her hilarious “good goo-goo” line which always stuck with me.
Rating: ***1/2
Kremlin Meeting
lack of Trump collusion calls Vladimir Putin’s (BEB) clout into question
- It definitely feels so odd getting a political sketch later in the night instead of the cold opening. I enjoy Beck’s Putin, so I guess I cannot complain much.
- I love the accent Cecily is using. Even in her smaller moments this season, she’s just killing it with me.
- Weird utilization of Sandra Oh, but it is even weirder seeing future cast member Bowen Yang(!) in the role of Kim Jong-Un. This sadly reminds me that the show still, 44 seasons in, didn’t hire an Asian cast member.
- This sketch is dying for me, but Bowen is absolutely great as Kim Jong-Un. He rightfully got lots of praise for this part, which eventually led to his hiring to the cast after a short stint as a writer. While Bowen Yang would do an equal number of things I love and hate in his tenure, he definitely impressed here and helped elevate this tepid sketch for me a tad with his energy.
- Guess it won’t be Putin piece without Beck tearing off his shirt. Cannot complain here myself.
Rating: **1/2
Musical Performance – “Patience”
Weekend Update
Trump exoneration narrative has Jeanine Pirro (CES) head over heels
astronaut Anne McClain (AIB) claims to be fine with spacesuit snafu
- I love the opening part with Colin, especially calling Trump White OJ. The subsequent Fox News montage of personalities laughing was both creepy & funny.
- Great Scrooge/Tiny Tim analogy from Colin regarding Trump.
- The Trump clips are…. Christ. How can you even parody that? It says much of this Update era they mined so much comedy gold from this administration and still didn’t cover all of its scandals.
- I always enjoy Cecily’s Judge Jeanine and her appearances around this time are always pure comedy gold. I also love how uncanny Cecily sounds like her not only in voice, but her absurd physical movements. Her calling her “superfans” mean horny men laying in their home hospital beds is hilarious.
- The “wax that ass from dusk till dawn” line is fantastic.
- I love the pratfalls Cecily does as Pirro, especially her “What?!” As funny as these are here, the upcoming ones are more epic and hilarious. An overall excellent commentary from Cecily.
- Very funny Apple joke/rant from Che. Surprised the Ike Turner punchline didn’t work as much with the crowd. The following “this many!” Patriots joke from Colin is so dumb-it’s-funny to me.
- I totally forgot this Aidy commentary, despite having vivid memories of this episode.
- I’m cracking up per usual due to the solid Aidy delivery, especially enjoying her upset-yet-faking-joy delivery from her, which is something I do not think Aidy did as much in her tenure.
- Odd use of Beck & Melissa, especially the former by this point in his tenure.
Rating: ****
Louise’s Birthday
for her 85th birthday, (KAM) wants to watch co-workers kiss each other
- This is a sketch I remember hating back when this season originally aired, and considered a prime example of the freedom Kate has as a popular veteran by this point, but I have come around it in more recent years.
- A weird premise, but I love that we are getting odd, unique sketch concepts so far tonight (and it’ll keep getting better). Kate also can play such roles in her sleep by this point of her tenure.
- Kate is cracking me up here with all the oddball requests and demands, even as she is using a voice she used before and the makeup is a bit much, which is a theme with Kate these latter seasons of her run.
- I didn’t care for the ending, but this was overall OK. A little silly sketch performed decently by all involved.
Rating: ***
Cheques
cheques are the form of payment most suitable for illicit transactions
- A fantastic sudden twist with the mundane cheques commercial turning 180 degrees; our second short tonight with such a turn. I really love the murder mystery/soap opera-esque turn with this. The visuals, direction and editing are also adding such an eerie atmosphere to it.
- This is such a very Julio Torres premise. Only he can make this concept so lived-in, real and very funny.
- Sandra is fantastic in this and her line about forgetting what you saw by the gazebo is both hilarious and strangely epic.
- The ladies look both amazing in this (especially Kate – always very Old Hollywood) and are having their individual moments to shine. I also really love the faux-dramatic moment with Kate and her stretched arm.
- I love the cutaway to Aidy saying “Cheques!” in a whispery voice, and the voiceover by Cecily is great, especially her whispery, mock-dramatic delivery.
- Very strong, short-and-sweet piece.
Rating: ****1/2
Electric Shoes
1966 footage shows (KET)’s endless encores preempting blues singer (LEJ)
- Kenan is having such an incredible season, and this has always been one of my personal favorite pieces of his from his latter seasons.
- This recurring, absurd “Electric shoes!” lyrics is strangely super catchy and Kenan, per usual, is performing it with so much energy and fun.
- Sandra isn’t given too much, but I love her accent, and her “WTF?” reaction as Kenan’s character is more and more interrupting the program to perform his song again and again.
- Kyle is great as the program host at the beginning and end of the sketch. The balls line by him was hilarious. It also feels odd seeing him in such a “Glue” role that someone like Ego or JAJ would perform if it aired today. He has a similar role in the Emma Thompson episode near the season’s end as well.
- Such a very fun, catchy ending with Kenan being in modern-day. This is one of the primary sketches that only someone like Kenan Thompson could make into a real gem.
Rating: ****1/2
Musical Performance – “Borderline”
Test Prep
high schoolers give lengthy & dramatic answers to SAT test prep questions
- Boy, rewatching this season makes me forget how many Kate McKinnon-starring sketches it has. I’ll say it’s been a better season for Kate than I recall. Outside of the routinely bad cold openings, she’s having some good stuff here and there, though I sadly remember her going downhill in the upcoming S45 compared to this year.
- Solid sketch concept. I’m not sure if this is a Kate-written piece, as it doesn’t feel too much like her voice, but I like her in this and love her character’s specific look. Her patented (and very funny) natural delivery is ideal for this premise.
- Pete can be seeing smirking out of character, especially as Kate delivers her faux-dramatic monologue, I would be annoyed, but I really cannot blame him here.
- Sandra’s straight man reactions are solid, especially love her reaction to Kate’s revelation that she cannot read.
- Sandra’s disgusted face and “Yikes!” delivery cracked me up. Hell, she even made the predictable ending with her doing a faux-dramatic monologue work well and ended this sketch decently.
- SNL would do a similar sketch to this in the most recent season with Chloe Fineman and host Ryan Gosling. While I really enjoyed this, probably more than some do, I prefer the one with Chloe a little more.
Rating: ***1/2
Cut For Time: College Admissions
questionable college applicants are evaluated
- Yet another solid sketch concept. The premise of showing the process of college admissions is promising in sketch comedy format, and I know that this piece is going to take a different path than predicted.
- I got a huge laugh from the girl having a hand of her photo holding, as well as the reveal she barely did any extracurriculars.
- The photo of that applicant being clearly photoshopped into Stephen Hawking is so oh-so-wrong laugh. Cecily is also doing an excellent job leading the sketch, especially with so much dialogue to deliver.
- I love Aidy Bryant, but I’m not really sure if she is needed in this sketch, particularly how she is explaining the photos. She gave me some of expected laughs, especially explaining the horse photo.
- Great reactions from the others in reaction to Sandra asking if they are admitting too many Asian applicants. Heidi’s face and delivery was very funny.
- I’m not sure if the whole undercover cop ending with Sandra worked for me, but this was a really solid sketch that didn’t even feel its length.
Rating: ***1/2
Goodnights
Segments Ranked From Best to Worst
Electric Shoes
Cheques
The Duel
Discover
Weekend Update
Test Prep
CFT: College Admissions
Future Self
Louise’s Birthday
Monologue
Kremlin Meeting
The Mueller Report
Empire Meeting
Final Thoughts:
- While not flawless, this was a very solid episode as a whole. Tons of great sketches all night and I loved how the night consisted of many fun, silly, solid and original sketch concepts, especially the pretapes and the back half of the episode. Sandra Oh was also a very fun host, while not as heavily used as her caliber of talent deserved, she had some truly shining moments and was a lot of fun to watch. I still wish she hosted one or two more times since this episode.
My Favorite Moments of the Episode, Represented with Screencaps:
Up Next:
- Kit Harrington / Sara Bareilles
My full set of screencaps from this episode is here
Been loving these S44 reviews, and this is another excellent one as per usual Blood!
Funnily enough, I had always pegged this episode in my memory as decidedly meh/okay at best, but looking back over these sketches, I’ve come to realize this is a quietly strong night. Not flawless and the highs aren’t as high as, say, the Mulaney episode, but there’s still plenty to enjoy here.
I’m glad to see your praise for that Duel sketch. I too think that’s a very underappreciated short from this era. Sandra is so good at milking so many laughs out of this and the gory visuals and costume design are really well done.
Cheques is yet another Julio Torres masterpiece. All the mock drama here is delightfully absurd and the sudden twist in the beginning is great. This is yet another great VO role from Cecily. I’ve always considered her top 5 when it comes to VO roles and this is easily one of her best. The fact that she can pull off both the stereotypical commercial voiceover and the mock-dramatic one shows how versatile she really is.
Love love LOVE that Electric Shoes sketch. It’s, as you said, such a perfectly Kenan sketch and he sells it perfectly. I really can’t think of anyone else who could do a role like this. It really speaks to how unique and hilarious Kenan is. He may not be the most versatile cast member, but he’s easily one of the most naturally funny.
I’ve run hot and cold on Bowen recently, but his portrayal of Kim Jong-Un here is great and it’s easy to see why he got hired as a cast member soon after this. Even his mere facial expressions in the screencaps are cracking me up. Great performance, even if the sketch itself is nothing special.
My one point of disagreement here is Louise’s Birthday. I’ve never liked that sketch, even though I get your point that it’s harmless. For me it epitomizes so many things about latter day Kate that I despise. I love Kate, I think she’s very talented, and I’m sure she’s a lovely person, but the free rein she got in this era is rather annoying, especially having to constantly do these sketches that amount to little more than just “Kate being a weirdo”. That’s not to say these sketches can’t be great (ex. Close Encounter), but I really feel like the writing around them got increasingly lazy as her tenure went along.
Sandra Oh really was a terrific host, even though I don’t quite think she was utilized as well as she could have been. Had the writing and utilization of her been stronger on this night, I think she’d really be fondly remembered as a great host. She was clearly game and up for anything and managed to get a lot of laughs, even out of some thin premises. Hope she comes back one day.
Season 44 is memorable in large part due to all the one-time hosts who bring personality to some lackluster nights and a cast that didn’t quite gel. Sandra is certainly high on that list. She didn’t have a real moment to shine but she did well, and she loved the experience. She tweeted repeatedly about how much she enjoyed playing Tishy, and you can see that enjoyment onscreen.
I believe the classroom sketch has Kate and Aidy playing the Clare Danes and Jared Leto characters from My So-Called Life.
I have more of a soft spot for the “Kiss” character than most do. I am not sure why. I might just enjoy Kate in old lady roles. They bring the character back briefly for a Red Nose Day Update Che and Jost did…she tells them to kiss. The camera cuts away before it can happen.
I kept thinking about The Duel after the not that great Scooby Doo sketch in the season 49 finale. Looking back on season 44 I’m reminding of just how much of a backbone the pre-tapes were – Cheques is a minor masterpiece for the show, and even though the Us pre-tape went over my head as I haven’t seen the movie, I can see all the care that went in, and the sharpness from Ego that I miss.
The Jussie Smollett sketches were just plain bad. You can tell they had no idea what to do with Chris.
Electric Shoes is so much fun. Sometimes SNL can lurch into a rictus grin, but not here.
Definitely a more topical-heavy episode (in a positive way) that also was mixed with some nice weird pieces and makes me wished Sandrah Oh would host again, especially with writers like Bulla or PDD
While Sandra was a fun host, it was obvious that the writing did not play to her strengths. Similar to what Monette stated above, I feel that some of the more eccentric writers currently on the staff would probably know how to use her better than they did here.
From the moment he was announced as a new writer, I knew that he was going to become a cast member at some point, but didn’t know when. But his appearance here as Kim Jong Un made it clear to me that he was going to be promoted by the end of 2019.
Also those two Tame Impala songs are near the top of my list for my favorite performances on the show. I had food poisoning that day so I was barely registering this episode while watching it motionless on my couch, but he caught my attention. I’ve said it before, but this season had some really incredible musical guests. Probably the best of the last decade.