Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Hillary Clinton (KAM) lets Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) fumble debate
— An extremely rare sighting of Michael front-and-center in the LEAD ROLE of a sketch, no doubt due to Jay Pharoah no longer being in the cast, and the only remaining non-Che black male cast member being Kenan, who I guess SNL figured wouldn’t look convincing in this Lester Holt role. I remember that, right before this season began, a lot of online SNL fans predicted that we’d see Michael making lots of non-Update appearances this season, due to SNL only having two black male cast members left, but that ended up not being the case at all. Aside from another Lester Holt appearance that Michael makes towards the end of the season, I don’t recall Michael having any other really MAJOR roles in any sketches this season.
— I enjoyed the Willy Wonka-esque gimmick that Kate’s Hillary Clinton made her entrance with.
— The debut of Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump impression. Hooooooooo, boy, this is gonna be a long four years. Like a certain number of other SNL fans, I would go on to get VERY sick of Alec’s impression. However, I did enjoy this impression a lot when this season’s election period originally aired, back when Alec’s impression was new, fresh, and fun. It wasn’t until the second half of this season, well after the election ended, when my slow burn towards Alec’s Trump began, gradually leading to the seething hatred I’d eventually have towards it. All that being said, I will be fair and go into my reviews of the first handful of Alec’s Trump sketches with a clean slate, hoping to recapture the positive feelings I had towards Alec’s impression at the time.
— Oof, right out of the gate in his Trump debut, we get some sloppiness from Alec, as he doesn’t hit his mark properly during his entrance, causing half of his body to be out of the camera shot (screencap below), eventually forcing the camera to pan over a little so Alec is fully onscreen.
— I’m now a few minutes into this cold opening, and, aside from my minor quibble about his entrance above, Alec is actually 1) killing it in this cold opening, 2) capturing the spirit of 2016 Donald Trump much better than Darrell Hammond did the preceding season, and 3) having tons of funny lines here. I am definitely reminded of why I and many others praised Alec’s impression back when it was new.
— Michael’s Lester Holt, after a ridiculous rambly spiel from Alec’s Trump: “Senator Clinton, what do you think about that?” Kate’s Hillary: “I think I’m gonna be president.” Oh, man. When this originally aired, I remember finding that line of Kate’s to be classic, and assumed it would go down in history as one of those legendary debate moments on SNL (such as the moment in the 1988 presidential debate sketch where Jon Lovitz’s Michael Dukakis followed a ridiculous rambly spiel of Dana Carvey’s George Bush by bluntly stating “I can’t believe I’m losin’ to this guy!”) However…yeah, that line of Kate’s sadly hasn’t aged well, for obvious reasons.
— Despite her aforementioned “I think I’m gonna be president” line not holding up, Kate’s Hillary has lots of great lines here.
— Michael is a solid straight man. I particularly love the way he responded “Moving right past THAT…” after Alec-as-Trump’s disclosure of once kissing Sean Hannity in a private encounter.
— The energy in this cold opening has been great.
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding two seasons.
— Michael Che, Pete Davidson, and Leslie Jones have been promoted from featured players to repertory players.
— Mikey Day, Alex Moffat, and Melissa Villasenor have been added to the cast.
— Starting with this episode, the musical guest and host’s shots in this opening montage are now moving clips instead of still photos.
MONOLOGUE
host, KET, LEJ, CES, PED, AIB give themselves instant fact-checks
— Mixed feelings on the election-related concept of Margot Robbie fact-checking herself throughout this monologue. It seems kinda corny to me.
— Lots of applause breaks from the audience throughout this monologue.
— Love the meta bit with Kenan saying into the Fact Check camera, after telling Margot he couldn’t sleep last night due to the excitement of the season premiere, “This is my, uh, 14th season. I slept like a baby.”
— HUGE audience applause for Leslie’s walk-on. Heartening to see, after the rough summer she had with so much awful crap she had to deal with online.
— Leslie’s message into the Fact Check camera, after telling Margot she’s embarrassed over calling her “Kate Upton”: “I’ve done way worse. I called Kate McKinnon ‘Kate Middleton’ for a year.”
— Leslie’s second “message” into the Fact Check camera is even funnier, with her just sternly giving a very knowing look into the camera after lying to Margot about being born in 1990.
— Despite my initial reservations over the Fact Check concept of this monologue, it’s definitely working for me ever since the cast has gotten involved.
— A particularly good laugh from Aidy, after claiming Margot is her favorite host, delivering an emotional apology towards Drake into the Fact Check camera.
STARS: ***½
ACTION 9 NEWS AT FIVE
TV news team can’t get why hottie (host) married dweeb Matt Schatt (MID)
— Impressively, Mikey Day already gets his first lead role in the post-monologue lead-off sketch of his first episode as a cast member.
— A big laugh from Kenan immediately yelling “HE DOES PUPPETS?!?” after finding out Mikey’s character is a puppeteer.
— A very funny reveal of Mikey’s name being Matt Schatt. Kenan has great lines in relation to that, such as responding to Mikey’s clarification that “Schatt” is spelled with two t’s by telling him “It doesn’t make it any better!”, and reacting to finding out Margot’s name is Alexandra Kennedy-Shatt by saying in utter disbelief, “She’s a Kennedy…and she put a Schatt on it.”
— Very funny how the newscast is devolving into all of the so-called professional news team members making assumptions on why Margot’s character got with Matt Schatt.
— Alex Moffat’s very first SNL role reminds me of that of Bill Hader, in that Jet Blue Flight sketch from the season 31 Steve Carell episode.
— The surprising or embarrassing reveals about Matt Schatt keep getting funnier and funnier.
— Leslie once again gets huge applause from the audience, this time when she joins in on the news team’s speculation on how Matt Schatt managed to get a wife as hot as Margot’s character.
STARS: ****½
THE LIBRARIAN
male high schoolers get turned on & creeped out by librarian (host)
— The name of this short film’s fictional school, Villines Academy, is a tribute to Matt Villines, of SNL pre-tape directing duo Matt & Oz, as he passed away of cancer that summer.
— Very funny how the guys’ statements about Margot’s various actions are played in a slow-motion deep pitch to match the “Oh, yeah” part of that famous Ferris Bueller song that’s playing throughout this short.
— This is like a much more extreme version of Kristen Wiig’s “Sexy Shana” character, but I’m enjoying this more.
— I absolutely love the “Haley Joel Osment?!?” “Haley Joel Osment NOW?!?” bit with Margot’s two tattoos.
— Another particularly great bit, with how what seems like it’s going to be girl-on-girl action between Margot and Cecily turns out to instead be Margot violently cracking Cecily’s neck. I also love Kenan’s “Straight-up murder?!?” line in reaction to that.
— Funny appearance from Beck randomly accompanying Margot as a sleazy dancer, complete with a snake wrapped around his neck.
— Solid ending to this priceless short.
STARS: ****½
FAMILY FEUD
Bernie Sanders (Larry David) & Team Clinton meet Team Trump
— The debut of Kate’s Kellyanne Conway impression.
— Kenan’s Steve Harvey, to Margot’s Ivanka Trump: “Oh, you sexy. I know that might sound inappropriate, but if yo daddy can say it, so can I.”
— We now also get the debut of Beck’s Vladmir Putin impression.
— Our very first display of Melissa Villasenor’s knack for doing spot-on celebrity impressions. Not only is her Sarah Silverman voice very good here, but she facially even LOOKS just like Sarah with certain facial expressions she’s making here.
— Cecily playing Lin-Manuel Miranda one week before he hosts SNL makes me wonder how many other times a host or musical guest was impersonated on the show just one week before they appeared. The only example I can think of is Amy Poehler playing Avril Lavigne in Lindsay Lohan’s season 29 monologue, just one episode prior to Avril being the musical guest. There have been some examples of musical guests being impersonated the episode AFTER they appeared. I’m not sure of hosts in that regard, though.
— A funny prune juice analogy that Larry David’s Bernie Sanders makes to Hillary Clinton.
— The debuts of noteworthy political impressions continue, as Mikey and Alex’s Trump Brothers make their very first appearance, complete with Alex’s Eric introducing himself by saying a dopey “And I’m Eric!” Nice to see that some of the key aspects of Alec’s Eric characterization were already established right from its first appearance.
— Some good laughs from how creepily in-unison the three Trump siblings are, prompting Kenan’s Harvey to call them Children of the Corn.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Starboy”
WEEKEND UPDATE
undecided voter Cathy Anne would rather see Barack Obama remain in office
The Weeknd Update- musical guest got a haircut
on the cusp of retiring, David Ortiz (KET) lists more punny endorsements
— Several things about the style of the photo graphics that are displayed next to Colin and Michael looks very different this season, but I can’t put my finger on what all of the differences are. One difference I’ve noticed is that the preceding season’s blue color motif for the photo graphics has now been changed back to the burgundy color motif that Update used prior to the preceding season.
— Tonight’s Update is starting out HOT, with so many great Trump and election-related quips from Colin and Michael.
— Cecily’s Cathy Anne character makes her very first Update appearance, after previously only appearing in sketches.
— Right out of the gate, Cecily’s Cathy Anne characterization is coming off much funnier to me here than it ever did in those awful sketches she appeared in.
— A lot of funny election-related lines from Cecily’s Cathy Anne here.
— A big laugh from the National Anthem “choreography” that Colin says white people can easily follow.
— A very funny sequel to the “The Weeknd Update” bit from the previous episode that The Weeknd was a musical guest in.
— Colin, on the National Museum of African American History giving a detailed account of black history in the U.S.: “Or, for a different version of black history, give my grandpa scotch. (*audience ‘ooh’s*)” Michael: “Oh, now you on my side!”
— Ah, Kenan’s David Ortiz. His commentaries always slay me.
— I’m getting my usual huge laughs from Kenan-as-Big-Papi’s endorsements, especially the “Hepsi” one, which had me practically on the floor.
STARS: ****½
THE HUNCH BUNCH
girlfriend (host) doesn’t fit in with mystery team
— Since when does Nick At Nite air programs like this?
— Kinda charming seeing the cast play expies of Scooby Doo characters. Are Beck and Mikey both playing a Fred expy?
— Our first display of Mikey playing this specific type of straight man role, which is coming off fresh and funny in this first outing. Between the Matt Schatt sketch and this, Mikey feels like an established natural in his first episode, which makes sense, given the fact that he was a writer for several seasons prior to this.
— A lot of this sketch is a little on the meh side, though not awful.
— I did really like that ending, at least.
STARS: **½
MELANIA MOMENTS
Melania Trump (CES) speculates about life beyond 5th Avenue
— The debut of these Julio Torres-written Melania Moments segments.
— A short and sweet segment, and I absolutely love how very Deep Thoughts-esque it felt.
STARS: ****
WOMEN’S ROUND TABLE
veteran actress Debette Goldry (KAM) relays tales of Hollywood misogyny
— (*sigh*) Yet ANOTHER season premiere in which poor, poor Sasheer’s airtime is particularly rough, even for her standards. Luckily for her, this is the final season that she has to suffer through SNL’s poor utilization of her.
— The debut of Kate’s Debette Goldry character.
— Margot going all Ryan Gosling in her giggling towards Kate’s performance right now.
— A big laugh from Kate’s Goldry casually referring to Sasheer’s Lupita Nyong’o as “Little Peter No-no”.
— Lots of very funny lines from Kate’s Goldry lightheartedly disclosing how extremely rough it was for actresses back in her day.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “False Alarm”
MR. ROBOT
hacking victim LEJ enlists the help of Elliot (PED)
— I’ve never watched Mr. Robot, but I’ve still always enjoyed this spoof of it, and I absolutely LOVE the premise of Leslie appearing as herself to find out who hacked her photos that summer, which is something that really happened.
— There’s that rare Pete/Leslie pairing that I previously said I wish we got to see more often during their years on the show together.
— Interesting seeing Pete playing a role that feels much different than anything else he previously did on SNL.
— A funny “I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghosts” line from the then-recently-co-starred-in-the-Ghostbusters-reboot Leslie, which gets a huge audience reaction.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong season premiere. High-quality material all throughout the episode, with the Hunch Bunch sketch being the only thing I didn’t care much for, and not even that was anything particularly bad. Another great thing about this season premiere was the energy in the air, helped by the very enthusiastic audience, which is a nice way to start a season.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Librarian
Weekend Update
Action 9 News At Five
Melania Moments
Women’s Round Table
Mr. Robot
The Presidential Debate
Monologue
Family Feud
The Hunch Bunch
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2015-16)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
This fella: