by John
SOPRANOS COLD OPEN
Donald Trump’s (Alec Baldwin) fate lurks a la final scene in The Sopranos
— Right from the “HIV/HPV” joke you know what you’re getting in for.
— The decision to have a cold open centered on Meet the Parents at least made some sense, if you were going to cash in on Ben Stiller and Robert de Niro reuniting. Deciding to use the Sopranos close when no one involved has any connection to the show is just more desperate use of pop culture to hide lack of inspiration – and this is far from the last time either. (Looking at you, Phoebe Waller-Bridge cold open…) Imagine if, instead of the classic Clinton McDonald’s sketch, they had just had Clinton reenacting scenes from the end of The Fugitive. Who would be talking about that sketch today? Hell, who would have cared about it even at the time?
— It’s very distracting to have “Don’t Stop Believing” blaring while the actors are trying to speak, although I have to assume someone was trying to do us a favor.
— Between Baldwin phoning it in (as usual) and Stiller genuinely trying to give a performance, Kate McKinnon’s mugging as Rudy is even more on display than usual, and even more embarrassing to watch.
— Speaking of embarrassing, after huge audience reactions for the above three actors, poor Mikey Day barely gets a response when he walks in – the audience seemingly have to force themselves to applaud. It’s a cruel expose of what happens when SNL prioritizes cameos and select cast “stars” over a majority of their ensemble – not the last time tonight, either.
— There is also a huge contrast between said hooting and hollering and actual laughs at the lousy jokes – so what we end up with, rather than people enjoying a comedy segment, is people acting as if they are at their child’s school play.
— The silly gag with Eric-as-Meadow parking his trike is the first time I’ve smiled at any of this.
— Thank goodness they were smart enough to not give de Niro any lines.
— The whole scenario with Mueller watching Trump and then doing the snake eyes is both clumsily executed and the type of wishful (and delusional) thinking which was so pervasive at this time.
— The blackout is poorly done (they should have just had them start to say LFNY then cut to black) and de Niro manages to mess even that up by arriving late, but being positive – at least this dumpster fire only raged for 5 minutes.
STARS: *
MONOLOGUE
Jerry Seinfeld, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anne Hathaway [real] query TIF
— I’m just going to get this out of the way – I don’t care for Tina Fey as a host. There are several reasons why, but the pertinent one here is her role as one of Lorne’s avatars (the head writers who cut their teeth on this show over the last 20 years). They each have some of his qualities, and for me, Tina’s often exhibit themselves as the stubborn, passive-aggressive streak that has long been a hallmark of Lorne’s work with the show. Someone, anyone – critics, fans, the cast – has to be put in their place.
— We see this almost immediately here, with a monologue which becomes a cameo parade after two jokes.
— The reason for the parade is clearly the criticism SNL had received (and would continue to receive until a global pandemic made them hit the pause button) over the excessive amount of cameos in this season and the previous few seasons.
— Tina’s role through the monologue is to react, in what is likely meant to be a droll fashion, to other people lampooning the idea of cameos being suffocating. As a result, her presence feels both oppressive and underused, which is a real feat.
— Just in case you didn’t get the hint that they don’t genuinely care about criticism over the cast being shut out, Beck appears solely to be shut down when he tries to ask a question. Considering how often he has to be the straight man to cameos in political sketches, it feels a bit like a poke in the eye, even if he does have a prominent sketch role later in the evening. I guess I should be relieved they didn’t have Luke Null in this role (that would mean giving him actual dialogue though…)
— Speaking of cast, it’s interesting that Kenan is specifically mentioned in a joke even as no one else is, which reminds you again of how the show is comfortable having a running gag of him being above or separate from the rest of the cast. (this isn’t really a criticism, more an observation)
— There’s something very (unintentionally, as they probably just got whoever was available) revealing in the celebrities they use. You have a former cast member (and a bad/mediocre host) who complained about his own lack of airtime (Chris Rock), you have another former cast member (and one-time host) who already got years of unfunny, selfish vanity pieces as a cast member and in his many bad cameos (Fred Armisen), and you have hosts who ranged from outright bad to competent (de Niro, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anne Hathaway), all of whom were heavily aided by the cast, even though the whole idea of this “joke” is to accept how meaningless the cast are.
— Fred in particular is just insufferable in this to me. If I am objective I can say at least his piece is well-performed, rather than clearly just reading off cards like the others, but I don’t really want to be objective…
— The only cameo that makes me feel a bit sad is Jerry Seinfeld – not because of Seinfeld himself (if I was going to complain about him I could find a better reason than this appearance), but because I end up thinking of his first hosting stint, which has some wonderfully written, true ensemble pieces, utilizing a group that was actually larger than the cast so blatantly dismissed here.
— The audience segment closes out with Donald Glover, which doesn’t feel as off putting (as he had recently hosted) and is the closest to amusing anything here gets.
— We now have a lengthy ramble from Tracy Morgan, seeming even more disconnected than his appearances usually do. How you feel about this depends on how you feel about Tracy – it’s fine (and it’s nice to see how much he and Tina can still play off each other), if not memorable.
— So that’s over. 8 minutes that felt like 80. One of my least favorite monologues ever. For Tina hosting stints, I would still rank this above her 2013 monologue, which treated new cast members as cattle and which I still think bears some responsibility for nearly all of them being fired or demoted, but that isn’t saying a hell of a lot. If such a sour, bloated screed (in a season finale no less – the final image viewers will see for months) is the last monologue Tina ever does on SNL, it would be unfortunate, yet also, somehow, very appropropriate.
STARS: * (this night is starting out great!)
ROYAL WEDDING
Prince Harry (MID) greets guests on video of the royal wedding reception
— Thanks to my fellow reviewer Matt for informing me of the most interesting part of this sketch – Mikey is made to seem as if he is going into a separate room part of the way through the sketch, but is actually just standing there as the set rotates, lazy-Susan style. While he stands there, the people in the first part of the sketch leave and are replaced by the second group. You can see the circle in the floor here:
— Mikey talks about the cue card use about 2 minutes and 45 seconds into this Creating SNL video.
— Now that the interesting part is out of the way…
— Given the huge upheavals with Meghan, Harry, and the Windsors since this time, you would (similar to the cold open) be forgiven for not thinking this only aired 3 years ago.
— Right off the bat you get a reminder that Mikey can’t do a British accent, which is more endearing than irritating.
— Right off the bat you also get a reminder that SNL will work VERY hard to avoid having Meghan in these sketches, as no cast members could play her (the days of putting, say, Cecily, in “honeyface” were thankfully gone). The closest SNL gets to a Meghan appearance is a cut-for-time Update piece with Halsey (who is, like Meghan, biracial) in the season 45 episode she was MG for.
— None of the impressions bear much of a resemblance to the people themselves, which isn’t a big deal, but also seems more noticeable with flat material such as this.
— So far my only amusement has come from Kenan as a Markle relative making the Queen uncomfortable (telling her she needs to watch The Crown as it makes her “look like a bitch”).
— We finally get into some laughs with our reliable double act Alex and Mikey as William and Harry, recreating the cringeworthy “banter” between the brothers before William starts to lightly twerk on the dance floor. Alex is always so good at adding some subtlety to silliness, and the cutaway to a “not amused” Queen and Kenan is just as fun.
— Heidi’s appearance as a Deal or No Deal hostess doesn’t go anywhere, but she makes the material more vibrant than most players would have.
— Tina’s turn as an embarrassing royal relation (who is slowly revealed to be an absolute monster) feels like a much harder cut than the rest of the sketch, and is another reminder of how out of place she seems when she hosts.
— The camera quickly panning from Pete-as-Russell-Brand as soon as he gets one line out is a hoot.
— Aidy’s Elton John isn’t much to write home about either.
— I like the idea of Leslie playing herself, being invited because of her tweets, but Leslie’s delivery is off and she’s noticeably looking at the cards the whole time.
— As is often the case when modern SNL tries to tackle celebrity culture, none of this ever escapes the feeling of people who have to talk about something, rather than actually wanting to talk about it. So much time and effort spent on…this??
STARS: **
MORNING JOE
Morning Joe (ALM)- Natalia Veselnitskaya (TIF) denies Russian collusion
— My second review with this thing popping up. I promise it was not intentional…
— Ruby, a reliable commenter on Stooge’s blog, has mentioned how many times the current era of SNL prioritizes a string of clever one-liners over sharp sketch-writing. Carson also mentions this in his review of the Charles Barkley episode. You get that here quickly with the funny line about Willie Geist being a “Norman Rockwell painting come to life,” before the immediate shift to the same old sexual banter that wasn’t even worth watching the first time.
— Aidy makes her debut as Meghan McCain. This is just a throwaway part compared to her later appearances in the thankfully short-lived revival of The View, although she is wearing a similar outfit (and likely the same wig, just parted differently) to her later Meghan costume.
— Can I just say how unique it is to have back-to-back sketches which both have or mention someone named Meghan? If we’d gotten a Meghan Trainor sketch next we’d really be cooking with gas.
— And we’re ALREADY back to the tedious sexual banter. The audience seems to enjoy this more than I do.
— I am an advocate of Alex getting more lead roles, so I feel like I should have positive comments to make, but, while he’s decent in these sketches, he comes off as a support to Kate’s endless vamping and Comedy Voices.
— With that said, these first few sketches show how much Alex does work to spark up weak material when given the opportunity.
— Tina is more than fine as the Russian lawyer, but feels very underused. I mostly want to ask her if she too loved watching Colonel Ninotchka.
— The end feels abrupt (even the audience seems unsure of when to applaud), not helped by the sketch never really taking off in the first place. (or this may have originally ended with LFNY)
— This is the type of flat, filler piece you often find in a finale, but that doesn’t make the few minutes feel any less like a waste of precious time. The main reason I’m not giving a lower grade is because the previous one-star pieces deserve to be singled out for just how bad they are.
STARS: *½
MEAN GIRLS
TIF wants to be in the Mean Girls musical; Lin-Manuel Miranda cameo
— A great big plug for Tina’s musical.
— This takes the approach of many plug pieces (if you watched movie channels in the ‘80s-’00s you know what I am talking about – or just go on Youtube) in that they decide to try to hide the commercial aspect under a comedy take of the main player being vain and everyone reacting to her vanity.
— It’s fun to see Jeff Richmond, MG composer and Tina’s husband, pop up to say things like, “She’s not really loud enough…and she has a really small head.” He also gets the first laughs of this piece – so he can officially say he got more laughs than Tina Fey or Cecily Strong. Not too shabby, eh?
— Lin-Manuel Miranda, earnest as ever, pops up for the first time since his hosting stint.
— We also get a late-stage cameo from Lorne, who still has his comic timing (“It’s going to be fetch…as in, it’s never going to happen”).
— Aidy now makes an appearance, soon teaming up with Cecily to react to Tina’s rehearsals. Much as I complained earlier about the cast not getting a chance to shine, I’d actually rather see Tina on her own here; filling these types of near-meaningless roles with cast members seems worse than not being involved at all.
— The rehearsal portion has some solid comic moments for Tina, from her failed attempts at singing and dancing to her “Gretchen goes to the mall” look.
— The part where she details the shoes she needs (“sold in the back of Parade Magazine…they have a little pouch to hold your pills”) is especially memorable.
— I’m not sure how I feel about Lin’s role – ending with him putting in his burn book is a nice dose of energy (if I was more into Mean Girls, or Hamilton, I might be more of the intended audience), but his presence comes off as a bit forced.
— The piece as a whole never escapes the fervent attempts to not just exist as product placement, but still, it’s the best thing to air up to this point.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Chun-Li”
— Blue: The masks that Nicki’s backup dancers are wearing seem startlingly prescient…
— Not sure how to feel about the Asian-inspired visuals, but I’ll let that slide and focus on the music.
— Nicki’s rapping is sick! I also like the track, specifically the horn sounds that come in on the “and” of 3 and 4.
— I feel like I should be complaining about the use of pre-recorded vocals, but I don’t mind it here because 1. I’ve gotten used to seeing it on SNL, and 2. I know this is commonly done in rap performances.
— Dramatic costume change from Nicki, showing some skin.
— She’s doing a great job of rapping while joining her dancers’ choreography.
— Ha, I liked seeing Nicki’s hair fly into her face while she was dancing, which she brushed aside seconds later.
— ”If you tryna get drunk, make some noise!” Nicki, this is Studio 8H, not a bar.
— Only at the very end does Nicki reveal the effort of that performance- she’s visibly breathing hard.
— And yet, right when I thought it was over, she and her dancers still have a final bit of choreography to perform.
STARS: ****
WEEKEND UPDATE
Donald Jr. (MID) & Eric (ALM) say pa Trump didn’t know of Russian meeting
Bishop Michael Curry (KET) took advantage of royal wedding opportunity
at the end of Weekend Update, displeased BBQ Becky (AIB) is on the phone
— Jost using a Stranger Things photo to show how he and Che looked a year ago compared to now gave me a laugh.
— The Yanny/Laurel computer voice bit probably should have been funnier than it actually was.
— Thank you to Matthew for telling me about a dress sketch (apparently mentioned on the Afterparty podcast) also using the Yanny/Laurel joke, only this time the recording makes Tina want to kill her co-workers. That sounds like a much better concept than a number of sketches we got in this finale.
— I’m so burned out on Trump/Mueller material (even though I’ve only reviewed three episodes of this season) I’m struggling to care about any of these jokes.
— The stuff about Trump and Hannity does not work, but I did get a laugh with Jost’s delivery of, “…and was that a flush?” when imagining Trump calling Sean Hannity late at night.
— It’s the Trump sons! Probably the only recurring political impressions of this era I can truly enjoy.
— As always, Alex shows his comic gifts in a way he doesn’t get to with other roles. He’s a brilliant mimic for Mikey, yet also manages to add some honest-to-goodness sweetness when he kisses Mikey’s palm instead of high-fiving him.
— Mikey is, as always, the perfect straight man for Alex. We have had less and less of this double act as the seasons go by, which is a shame.
— The material itself isn’t up to much, but any time I see Alex’s childlike glee at the latest gadget (this time Play-doh and a mixer) Mikey gives him, it makes me smile.
— The piece about blacks and Hispanics being arrested for pot instead of whites is the first time in this Update Che has seemed invested in what he’s saying.
— A very timely character for Kenan.
— It’s always good to see Che and Kenan playing off each other, and there are some diverting lines (like when Kenan says, as the only black man among a large white audience, he now knows what it’s like to be Darius Rucker).
— That came and went without much for the memory box for me, although apparently it got a great deal of publicity at the time, unsurprisingly. I would probably be more interested in seeing the process of writing, as this had to have been done in less than a day.
— Enjoyed Che’s “show and tellTELLTELL!!!” joke about the kid who brought cocaine to school.
— We now get to a cut-for-being-offensive joke segment, a precursor to the much-loved joke swap of the last few seasons.
— Compared to the increasingly-near-the-knuckle joke swaps to come, this is all fairly mild, aside from the “pot cigs catch [you can guess the last bit]” gag from Che.
— Update winds down with a surprise appearance from “Barbecue Becky,” she of the infamous phone call; one of the exceedingly rare examples of modern SNL trying something so freewheeling.
— I am hoping I will get to review one strong Update with Jost and Che sometime in these upcoming three seasons. So far, we’re just not getting there.
STARS: ***
PERVERT HUNTERS
Dateline- pervert (BEB) gladly does retakes during sting operation shoot
— There is a reporter named Dana Milbank, one the show had a bit of fun with before. I wonder if Tina’s character is named after him (only as “Milbrook”).
— Beck’s performance reminds me of Chris Parnell (who played his share of pervert roles), especially the laugh-cry moments.
— Mikey brings the right amount of seriousness and bravado to the director role (I suppose it helps that he and Streeter Seidell co-wrote this sketch), and has a believable rapport with Tina in moments like: “What am I going to remind you?” “Get outta my head!”
— A bit odd seeing Kyle pop in briefly as the makeup guy – a reminder of how much Kyle’s and Beck’s paths start to diverge by this point.
— I like how this gradually builds, with Beck becoming more and more involved in the performance aspect and the phony, schmoozing aspect with Tina and Mikey.
— Good enough execution of the obvious outcome.
— Luke makes his first appearance of the night, and has his last line as a cast member (“GET ON THE GROUND, CREEP”). I’m not even entirely sure that’s him saying the line, which may tell you something about his value by this point.
— This could have easily been something from ‘70s SNL, with a few changes (Buck Henry in the director role, Bill Murray as the pervert, Dan playing the cop [he probably would have shot Bill]).
— A good sketch, and one which should have aired earlier in the episode. This is also the first sketch of the night that even feels like it has a concept.
STARS: ***½
WHAT I DID FOR TRUMP
Sarah Palin (TIF) sings “What I Did For Love” variant with Trump coterie
— This starts very abruptly, with the camera right on Tina staring us down. That immediately gives a very slapdash feeling, and leads me to wonder if this was originally meant to be much earlier in the night, only to be moved back because of having so many political pieces clumped together, or because it’s shit. Or if this may have originally been the cold open, with the Sopranos knockoff coming together at the last minute.
— Given Tina’s ambivalence about playing Palin, as well as how completely irrelevant Palin had become on the national stage by this point (even hinted at with the “I’m still alive, but ya had to think about it, didn’t ya?” line), I’m not sure why we need a reprisal.
— With that said, there’s something perfect about Tina’s Palin, who kicked the cameo craze into high gear, making her final appearance in the era of Trumpwin, the hideous, mutated final form of this type of pathetic stunt device.
— Trumpwin and Palin do not, however, interact here…probably because the set would have exploded.
— Tina’s work as Palin is, as usual, strong, but she seems a bit shaky with some of the lines as she reads them off, which makes me wonder if this whole segment with just her talking might have been thrown in late in the process.
— “What I Did For Love” is one of my favorite showtunes, which is the only reason this half-assed musical number does not permanently ruin the song for me.
— “Isn’t it funny that our names are Sarah when we’re both classic Beckys?” Awful line given to poor Aidy.
— I don’t think Kate has gotten through one scene tonight without overacting. Um…nice wire work at least…I guess?
— Fred is a bit late (not late enough…) for his final Michael Wolff cameo.
— Given that the real Stormy Daniels had appeared on SNL only a few weeks earlier (even wearing the same dress!), having her played by Cecily is a bit confusing (the audience also seems a bit confused to me). Obviously they weren’t likely to get Stormy back again after they already got the publicity they wanted, so why bother? Cecily is fine, aside from not really getting the voice right, but this could have been cut. Then again, the whole sketch could have been cut…
— Now we have John Goodman, in his last (up to season 46 anyway) appearance on SNL. Even as someone who was never a huge fan of his episodes, I am sorry to see him go out with unfunny, endless strangling sounds that sound like Gomer Pyle got punched in the throat.
— As if this isn’t bloated enough, let’s add Leslie as Omarosa. Leslie looks beautiful, but she looks nothing like Omarosa, and while I know she had debuted the impression earlier in the season, her being thrown into the role Sasheer Zamata played only a season earlier is more of the unfortunate tendency by SNL to treat black women (or in even worse days, black women and black men wearing wigs and a dress) as interchangeable.
— To Tina’s credit, her performance keeps everything afloat a little more than you might think; the lack of Baldwin and of Kate’s Rudy also gives a slight boost. I can also see where one might find some sort of end-of-an-era pathos in this if they squint enough. With that said, the show is still better off with music rights keeping this thing buried.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Playboi Carti [real] perform “Poke It Out”
— Blue: “Once again, Nicki Minaj!” But this is not Nicki Minaj…
— The title of this song, “Poke It Out,” sounds a LOT like “Polka Dot” when Playboy Carti is singing it.
— Either this song has a lot of abrupt pauses, or a lot of cursing.
— Here comes Nicki. I previously let her use of pre-recorded vocals slide, but now I’m confused as to why she’s using them, given that her entrance doesn’t involve any complex choreography.
— Nicki’s verse just gave this song a shot in the arm. Unfortunately that’s the only part I found interesting.
STARS: **
TALENT SHOW
(MEV) clashes with mom (TIF) during high school talent show duet
— Youthful as Mikey Day is compared to some 40-year old guys, whenever he has to play high schoolers he seems ancient for some reason.
— This will be the first of two consecutive years where Melissa stars in the final live sketch of the season. You wouldn’t think that, given her overall severe underuse.
— “I’m Scissors…don’t run with me, I’ll poke your eye out!”
— Leslie’s role as an audience member disagreeing with Tina’s parenting skills seems extraneous.
— It’s very interesting to watch the different sketch styles of Tina and Melissa.
— I know she’s supposed to be a teenager putting on an act, but Melissa’s facial expressions and acting choices aren’t entirely working for me.
— The parts where she starts to sing with Tina then goes into a stompy segway are better.
— Principal Kenan stepping in during their argument to bluntly tell the audience he and Tina are in a sexual relationship gave me a good laugh. His reaction to Leslie also disagreeing with him made her involvement work a little more.
— Fun, fast cameo from Kyle wearing the same teenager wig he wears through 8 seasons. Why he is still believable to me as a teen, I don’t know, but it works.
— Kenan’s frequent intervals to remind us of the sex still make me laugh. “The booty is worth it, ya’ll. The booty is worth it.”
— Our first of two silent appearances from Luke to wrap up his stint on the show.
— The end, with the audience loving Melissa’s System of a Down performance and Tina bonding with her daughter as she joins in, is surprisingly sweet and tender. I always want to see more heartfelt moments on SNL.
— A good final live number for the season, and one where the back half of the sketch makes me forgive many of the flaws.
STARS: ****
CHICAGO IMPROV
Dick Wolf drama makes serious business of comedic art
— I’m very fond of this pre-tape.
— I’m not sure of Tina’s full involvement in this piece, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she contributed some of the ideas given that it can read as a bit of a love letter to her Chicago improv years.
— Some fans felt this piece was a bit of a wink (or possibly a dig) at Don’t Think Twice, which had been seen as a bit of a wink (or possibly a dig) at SNL. Even the film poster isn’t too far off the tagline in the last shot.
— Not only is this a fitting showcase for Tina, but also for Alex and Chris Redd, who were both in Chicago improv.
— Melissa’s hysterical, “Guys, we’re all on the same Harold team!!!” never fails to amuse me.
— I’m guessing they just used the logo rather than actually going to Chicago, but it’s bittersweet seeing Alex and Tina standing in front of an iO Theater, knowing the theater would permanently close a few years later.
— This is one of my favorite roles Alex has ever played on the show. His argument scene with Tina is flawless, and I love the ridiculous-dramatic line, “I guess you finally got what you wanted – a stage all to yourself.” Alex co-wrote this with Streeter and Mikey, which just makes you wonder what might have been if he’d been able to get more of his own material on.
— Love the aggressive shoulder bump from Chris to Mikey after Mikey “sells out” by booking a commercial.
— Beck’s status as a very underrated voiceover guy is on display here, as he does so much with great lines like, “The fire imagery was misleading,” “I don’t know who the bad guy is here,” “I wanna see pretty people,” and, “Too much improv…says Improv Magazine.” I’m not always a fan of overusing fake reviews, but it works here.
— Luke, in a fitting, if disheartening, farewell, yet again gets a silent part, with his last shot being one of him somber and lost in thought. At least he did get to have a strong improv-themed piece with modern comedy legends like Tina Fey as his last hurrah, and hopefully has some positive memories of making it.
— The more I watch this the more I realize one of the reasons I enjoy it is because it’s one of the rare glimpses of what might have been if Tina had been a cast member, or even put in more of an ensemble role when she hosted. That, on top of getting to see her relive something of her improv experience, makes this a strong closer for her if this is her final hosting stint.
STARS: ***** (screw it, I’m going for the full five)
IN MEMORIAM
a photo of Margot Kidder marks her passing
GOODNIGHTS
at closing, BBQ Becky joins cast onstage
— Nice to see an attempt at a quasi-runner with BBQ Becky, although more could have been done with the concept.
— Not that this was in any way new for SNL, but the huge throng of cameos up front while the actual cast members struggle to be seen in the background is…really something.
— Goodbye, Luke…
CUT FOR TIME: FRIENDSHIP SONG (FT. NICKI MINAJ)
CFT- women (TIF, AIB, KAM, Nicki Minaj) come to each other’s aid
— I was initially going to say that Tina being in this ode to not tearing down other women is a bit of a whiplash, because even though Tina did a great deal to support women while on SNL and post-SNL, her tenure was also extremely callous toward young women who were easy media targets (Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, etc.). Then I read that apparently Sudi Green wrote this pre-tape, with Tina (presumably) just appearing in it.
— The Tina, Kate and Aidy characters are apparently meant to be a reference to HAIM, which the band even responded to.
— I suppose it may be something of a symbol of Nicki Minaj’s commercial fortunes at the time that, after her other episodes had a number of sketch appearances from her, this one has a cut-for-time piece.
— In a period where SNL often seems to have no idea what it is trying to say, I appreciate that this has such a clear premise, one which is mostly well-fleshed out.
— Tina is slotted in as part of a natural group with Kate and Aidy, which I appreciate.
— Nicki’s rap is a big shift from the mellow song it follows, but still works (and fortunately, they do not try to have any of the other women join in with her).
— While this isn’t entirely to my taste, I would have put it in the episode in place of several of the sketches, or Mean Girls. Kate’s work alone is far superior to anything else she did in the finale.
STARS: ***½
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The post-Update segments of the show had something of a rallying effect, with one exception, but what came before was not only bad, but terrible in a way which almost seemed surgically designed to emphasize the very worst of this era and of modern SNL. You often hear people dredge up one particular lousy sketch and use that to peg the entire show, but it’s proudly, aggressively bad patches like the first half of this episode which truly cast a pall for me, because they aren’t just a one-off, they are worn as some badge of dishonor.
— A number of sketches in this episode (the cold open in particular) give the impression of daring to hope the Mueller investigation might lead to serious changes by the time of the season premiere, attempting to serve as a coda for the last two years of political material. If that was the case, then I can understand the choice, but that doesn’t make the material any less turgid. It just illustrates the perils of basing so much of your show’s identity on reacting to Trump. These were, in my opinion, the last days of the show being able to get notoriety solely out of talking about Trump, and they ended with a whimper.
— I try to keep low expectations for finales, as the cast and writers are tired, but seeing the surprisingly strong and consistent season 46 finale some weeks ago just reminds me it does not have to be that way. So, while I am willing to grade on a curve to a certain point, and I’m also aware the season 46 finale had very special circumstances in opening up after the pandemic, I’m no longer as willing to be as generous as I might have been.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” FROM THIS EPISODE, COMPLETE WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Chicago Improv
Talent Show
Pervert Hunters
(CFT: Friendship Song)
Weekend Update
Mean Girls
Royal Wedding
What I Did For Trump
Morning Joe
Cold Open
Monologue
COMING SOON
We talk about the past season as a group and exchange best-ofs! It’s a new thing we’re doing, because we can. Stay tuned!