(insert long-winded paragraph about Star Wars: The Force Awakens with corny jokes and analogies and mention of Mark Hamill that not a lot of readers wouldn’t read anyway here)
This week’s host Adam Driver had a big year for him. After surviving 4 years of moping, whining, body problems and disgusting sex on Girls, along with starring in independent films not many people have heard of, he’s hit the cinema diamond mine starring in the most anticipated film of last year (and highest-grossing of all time in North America), playing the uber-menacing Kylo Ren--becoming a favorite in the eyes of fans, and a new hot commodity in the meme circuit. Just like Mark Hammi--Oh, well, that's it.
Now he’s hosting SNL, and just became a favorite of of this episode for me. Because he pretty much was a highlight of this mediocre episode.
The CO is on yet another Republican Debate (the sixth, actually). And while I haven't had enough of them just yet (just as I’ve had enough of them in real life), this isn’t exactly one I wouldn’t remember (or want to).
Ehh, this wasn’t as funny or strong as the last ones, even if it had the breath of fresh air that is Jon Rudnitsky not sounding like a gayer and slightly more fuckable Andy Dick during the CNN GOP Debates spoofs. I still get a kick out of Darrell Hammond playing Trump (which is probably now official, he’s taking over) and Taran Killam getting the load off instead playing a charming yet still very punchable Ted Cruz (I'm not from New York, so I won't say fuck him for saying their values are screwed up beyond oblivion). Other than that, the writing was weak, and this therfore unmemorable.
This started the episode on a so-so note, and it got more so-so as it continued.
Fave Lines:
“Thank you, Maria Tony Romo.” -Donald Trump
“Canadians are genuine and warm, whereas when I smile, it looks like I’m peeing.”
-Ted CruzAlso, side note, if playing Justin Bieber hasn't taught us anything…
Kate McKinnon looks VERY convincing as a guy.
Her silent performance as Lindsey Graham was perfect.
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During the Monologue, Adam is mentioning everything we already know. He’s starring in Star Wars (“and if it goes well, they might make another.”), he mentioned the NFC Conference-winning Arizona Cardinals, and now he's a big movie/TV star. Except that he also was a soldier in the military (I should thank him for his service) and claimed he was menacing.
“Look out terrorists. Adam Driver’s gonna take you down!” -Me
This wasn’t a really strong Mono, but it was still chuckle-worthy and enjoyable. Especially when Taran and Bobby (“Come on, it could be Kenan!”) come in trying to talk shop about Star Wars and getting shot down.
“Where’d you find that suit?” “I made it.”
“How much does that cost you?” “$65,00--$6,500.”
(Sounds like he flubbed it, but if he did, it sounds much funnier.)
and Leslie Jones mistaking him for Minnie Driver.
(You know, he kinda does look like her...)
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Starting off this week’s sketches:
The Sketch After is a spoof of the NFL game that pushed the show’s start time a half hour later: the NFC Divisional Championship between the Arizona Cardinals and the Green Bay Packers.
The punchline: QB Nobody Jared Schleff getting the life knocked out of his knees. Over and over.
The writing was weak, but I enjoyed the performance by Driver as Cris Collinsworth. He was really good, sounded almost like him and lifted the skit for me. Plus, I thought that was TKill doing the impression, but then I thought “hey...his face is way chubbier than that”. So that was really good. Also good was Beck Bennett’s take on Al Michaels. While he sounded a little gruffer than the real guy, he was right on the money. And Cecily’s Michele Tafoya was probably better than the guys. I almost never look closely into her during an NBC telecast, but she pulled off everything about her presentation spectacularly. Other than that, this was a milktoast sketch which was mock of the game for taking over the timeslot.
Fave Line:
“Aww, Lord, take my eyes! [...] Blind me, Lord!” - Packers Doctor Louis Kavner
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I’ll get to the funniest part of the episode later on. I’m tweaking the review style in which the Pre-Tapes go after the live sketches. You know to wade through the meh to get to the prize.
But first...
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Aladdin and his new love Jazmine are taking flight for their first encounter as more than strangers on his flying carpet. But things go waaaaaay less than planned. (Poor Jazmine.)
This was a really strange sketch.
First, that bird flew too slow to be not noticed before hitting Jazmine. Chehh, that was crappy. (#PropDeptFail)
Second, this sketch went from...whatever time period in India the film took place in to our time really fast (granted, the film was anachronistic as hell, so that’s a good point).
Third, that airplane toilet sewage must’ve been toxic, since it caused a hole in the carpet. Don’t worry, it was hilarious. And that it made me think it caused the change in plans to land. Genius.
Mainly, this looks like something Lorne and the producers would save for the end just before 1am. But I think since this ep was held back from that NFL game, I’m sure they pushed it to the beginning. Also, Beck Bennett and Leslie Jones did great as the air controllers. They gave some really good performances and jokes, and Jones actually acts like her role, and not a crazy black woman.
This wasn’t great, but I liked it enough.
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And now aversion of “America’s Funniest Home Videos”--with cats! With a quirky, yet manic host and his guests, French women wanting to do a French version. This oughta be good.
This sketch was hilarious, and the French hostesses made it extremely funny. The characterizations put together by Cecily and Kate Mc were spot-on, and exemplify the behaviors and mannerisms of most of the French--dull disposition and death humor. Plus, Cecily actually speaks French, so that’s a major plus. As for Driver, he did great acting like a weird, stymied host with a close-to-snapping.
The clash in nationality humor displayed here-America’s cute, quirky, super-sweet humor and France’s (assumed) dark, morbid death-minded humor-is spectacular; and the three members of the sketch played the representations very well and made me laugh so hard.
This is the Best Sketch of the Week.
Fave Lines:
“Hey there! I’m Finn Reynolds, not Raynal-Beads. I don’t know many times I had to throw a fit about that. I confronted so many people, someone’s responsible and that just doesn’t happen! HEY GUYS!!” and
“Yeah, those panties will look great on that pussy’s booty.”-Finn (traitor!) Reynolds
“This cat has neurological disorder. She cannot gauge distance between herself and the couch(window).” -FH2
“Boy-yoy-yoing. This cat is certainly dead. [???] That is death spasm.” -FH1
“Quite a workout. This cat is also [chuckle] dead. This cat is in his death costume.” -FH2
“[???] This egomaniac cat just walked into a TV(aquarium); will not go back to same.” -FH1
“Boy-yoy-yoing.” -Both Hostesses
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“Just pack your junk, Raynal-Beads!” -AFC Producer
“Boy-yoy-yoing.” -Both Hostesses
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Chris Stapleton, Update and a tribute to David Bowie by Fred Armisen Coming Up.
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But first…
At a high school, two representatives from a prevention group talk with some students about the worst kind of social and mental disorder...Social Puppeteering. The students are...more excited.
This wasn’t a particularly strong sketch, but there were a few jokes I really liked.
Also, Jon Rudnitsky appears here. But you probably wouldn’t notice much.
Oh and by the way, the stopsocialpuppeteering.org website mentioned? IT EXISTS.
This website exists by way of a subpage on the show’s website on NBC.com. It’s amazing.
Great job to the staff for making a great effort to make the sketch closer to a real-life entity.
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And finally, another sketch I'm so glad is returning.
The sketch about porn where a girl pops up. In this edition, a doctor helps a Soccer player with an injury. But things get even more painful when...that girl...shows up.
The acting is still stiff and wooden (geddit?), and Baby Aidy's character is still hilariously blissfully clueless about the whole ordeal. While it's not as strong as the last one ("But that's still a D+" still leaves me breathless), this is still funny on it's own, and carries on the proud tradition . Plus, the "production" looks more improved here, with the crap lighting and camera work. I really want this to appear more; maybe one more time before the season ends. Yeah, that'l be juicy.
Fave Lines:
"Good point; I'm convinced. Let's do sex." -Soccer Player #69
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"I graduated Best Top in my class." -Dr. Rockhard
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"...She has Blue Cross." -That girl
"And I have Blue Balls." -Soccer Player #69
"Uh-Oh! You need 50 CC's of boner, stat." -Dr. Rockhard
"Wow. All this medical talk is going right over my head!" -That girl
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"[...]so thanks for squeezing me in."
"I love to squeeze things in"
...
"I know you're jam-packed in."
"About to be." -Dr. Rockhard
...
"Okay. Well, I'll get out of your hair."
"I don't have any hair." -Dr. Rockhard
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"Oh F" and "F Yeah" -that's just hilarious
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And now for the Pre-Tapes of Episode 9, both of which were some of the most hilarious of the season so far. One was a worthy spoof of both Star Wars and Undercover Boss, and the other was a great take on time after the Golden Globes, with a nice balance of comedy and light drama.
First up, we all know Kylo Ren is the evil, menacing, diabolical (and possibly lemon-scented) villain of The Force Awakens. But what if he (and the producers) had the great idea of him pretending he was one of his workers, seeing what could be--as in what his workers think of him?
Well, this leads to this episode where Ren--ugh...Matt investigates the crew’s work and thoughts of him.
Driver give a perfectly hilarious take on Ren, showing him as a butt-hurt stick-in-the-mud when his workers reveal what we all know he was--a horrible villain, and a crap boss. Also, the reactions from Moyni and TKill’s characters were really funny as well, knowing that “Matt” is actually Ren.
And now to this:
I loved the main performances here:
Kate Mc and KyMoo give amazing performances of precocious kids bewildered of their parents disappearance and are closely awaiting return home. I loved the warm, homely feel from their segments and their chemistry is effervescent. It’s like they’re Dipper and Mabel Pines pre-Gravity Falls...if they weren’t twins.
On the other side, Nessa B. and Driver were hilarious as the couple getting a little too excited about the Globe wins, treating them as a better value to them than their children (although it has to be the coke, though) and getting to meet Liev Schreiber after the male sneaks a peek at his dick. This was a very hilarious take on already one of the most loose awards show of them all.
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Okay, so I’ve mentioned before that I love when “SNL” invites relatively new artists to the stage, which is great so I can listen to new music I would love for years to come...and then forget as soon as the review’s posted. This time it’s Chris Stapleton, a rock-country artist, that I first thought was Bray Wyatt taking time off from beating up and creeping out people at the WWE and starting a side-job in music, like Chris Jericho. But nope, he’s his own person. But he’s still cool. And his performances were just awesome. The production has a great, country sound with a nice touch of rock. And Chris’ vocals sound perfectly rugged with a soft heart intertwined. And his sound is like country. And I’m talking real, true, genuine country, not like the crap we hear today.
Here’s “Parachute”, which has a very catchy production in the chorus with a rough exterior and a sweet humble interior, courtesy of the organ and other instruments in the background.
And finally, “Nobody to Blame”, a more slower and heartbreaking. I love this one here because of Stapleton’s performance, especially where he hits the high notes surprisingly well under his rough low vocals. And the sound is actually great for a song like this; the emotion is conveyed organically and genuinely. That is one thing that makes the song great.
I’m not a fan of country, but his music is great enough for me to get more into it more. This guy is an awesome artist bringing real country back to the genre, and I like him alot (and not just for that). His debut album Traveller, which is nominated for 2 Grammy Awards (Best Country Album AND Album of the Year), is available now. This is well-deserved.
Best Sketches:
America’s Funniest Cats
“...Stuck in My Butt 4” aka Porn Doctor
honorable mention:
Aladdin (wasn't a fan of Driver's singing, but that was the only gripe)
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Best Pre-Tape:
Golden Globes
(for the perfect contrast of hilarity between the couple acting like idiots while coked up and wasted, while their kids are humbly resting, fearing f their lives and thinking about their parents’ return from the event. The background music helps. And Liev Schreiber making a cameo at the end was great.)
Worst Sketches:
NFL Playoff
Social Puppeteering
Wraparound:
Do you guys at least once mistook Driver for Taran Killam? I did. In Every sketch. Seriously, when he’s not talking normally (as in pretty close to deep), he really sounds like Taran, and I think that's him in the first few seconds.
Anyway, he was a really great host. He was game for whatever the writers threw at him and made the sketches entertaining...enough to watch without changing the channel. They were dull, but he was sharp. He doesn't have much range, but he made up for that with some really nice energy, charm, humor and charisma to pull us over until the end, even if the writers’ room weren’t exactly above solid this week. I really couldn't wait for the episode, but I never realized the reason was him, and I'm glad for that.
As for the cast:
Cecily was certainly the star of this week. She did the best in terms of performances: Her Michele Tafoya in "NFL Playoff"; The un-excited acting as Jasmine reaction to the titular character’s proclaims in "Aladdin"--along with her singing; and the dull, emotionless personality of one of the French hostesses in "AFC" and the performance in "Social Puppeteering". She really pulled the best out of the cast, and she deserved to be noticed,
Jon Rudnitsky barely appeared, and for all his worth, it wasn’t worth it.
Also, Sasheer Zamata didn’t appear at all.
Also, Leslie Jones appeared more than usual, and it was pretty good to see that.
Plus, I really enjoyed Chris Stapleton’s performances. While he is a relative newcomer I probably won’t remember as soon as I will have posted this review, his music surely was a pick-me-up. The country rock sound and lyrics are fantastic and are reason you should give him a try. Great artist.
ConcluSLoN:
While I enjoyed the episode, I feel like I was afraid to say this. I enjoyed almost all of the episode, but it felt too overwhelming to be great. The writing is really good, but felt not good at all; The performances were very nice, but the writing showed its true colors through that; and I really wanted laugh at this, but the material makes me strongly chuckle at best.
This was a pretty good episode. Just one I wouldn't remember a lot.
Maybe next week's episode would meet the same fate.
Ronda Rousey, one of the hottest new fighters of the UFC and one almost overrated woman is hosting. And Selena Gomez is the musical guest. ...see, forgettable.
See you next week!
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