Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE / CNN BREAKING NEWS
Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) handles Access Hollywood bus remark fallout
— Melissa, in a very meta moment: “I’m the new Hispanic cast member, and tonight, I’ll be playing Asian moderator Elaine Quijano. Because…baby steps.”
— The debut of Beck’s Mike Pence impression.
— An accurate Tim Kaine voice from Mikey, and his delivery is also amusing.
— A funny sudden twist with how a CNN breaking news report about Donald Trump’s Access Hollywood scandal suddenly cuts off the vice presidential debate right after Beck’s Pence claimed Trump never said anything bad about women.
— A laugh from Alec-as-Trump’s “apple-ogize” bit.
— A huge oh-so-wrong laugh from when Alec’s Trump, in regards to his “grab ’em by the pussy” remark, promises women that he can do more than just grab it, clarifying “I can also bop it, twist it, and pull it”. I also like Cecily-as-Brooke-Baldwin’s shuddering reaction to that.
— Another huge oh-so-wrong laugh, this time from Alec’s Trump being heard telling someone he wishes he was Hurricane Matthew, tearing through that “hot Miami pussy”.
— Kate’s Hillary Clinton scene, with her acting like she’s already won the presidency thanks to Trump’s Access Hollywood scandal, is another instance of something with Kate’s Hillary not aging well, due to the outcome of the election, but there’s still some laughs from her here.
— We didn’t need the cut back to Alec’s Trump continuing to speak to someone off-camera at the end of this. It was pointless, there was nothing new to say there, and it ended this cold opening on an awkward note.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
host performs “My Shot” variant to express his excitement at being on SNL
— Lin-Manuel Miranda is coming off pretty likable here.
— I’m not a fan of musical monologues (though most of the ones in the season that preceded this were actually good), but this one is really fun so far.
— Regarding that “Never gonna be president” part about Trump, I’ll just quote something Michael Che said as Lester Holt in the preceding episode’s cold opening: “Moving right past THAT…”.
— Love the part of the song with Lin namedropping select cast members from various eras in rapid-fire speed, even including then-current cast member Vanessa Bayer. Feels nice hearing her name being mentioned with noteworthy cast members of the past.
— VERY infectious energy in the air when Lin is heading back towards the home base stage near the conclusion of the song. This part is fantastic.
STARS: ****
PINE RIDGE CAMPGROUND
at a campground, overly-amorous siblings (KYM) & (VAB) sing obnoxiously
— Surprisingly, this is Vanessa’s first appearance this season, as she was completely absent in the preceding week’s season premiere. Being shut out of a season premiere is unheard of for a 7-season veteran like her. In hindsight, knowing this ends up being her final season, her absence in the season premiere can be taken as a sign that she’s on her way out.
— The foreign-accented, loud Footloose singing is a pretty different use of Vanessa.
— Kyle’s delivery of “COLD AS HELL!” made me laugh.
— Okay, the repeated foreign-accented, loud Footloose singing is starting to give me a headache.
— I did get a laugh from Cecily’s puzzled delivery of “You-you’re doing impressions now???”
— The incest subplot isn’t working for me.
STARS: *½
CRUCIBLE CAST PARTY
high school theater nerds’ celebration is tame
— Can’t say the concept of this particular music video excites me, maybe because I can’t relate to the “theater kids” premise as much as some other viewers might.
— Hmm, the song so far is turning out to have a good charm to it, at least. I’m getting more and more into this.
— Nice to see Melissa grouped with the female cast in a music video like this so early in her run as a cast member.
— I love the melody of the brief portion of the song where Aidy sings about bringing Kyle up to her bedroom.
— From what I gather, some people don’t like the rap break from Lin, but I don’t mind it.
STARS: ***½
SUBSTITUTE TEACHER
students preempt substitute teacher’s (host) attempts at cool pedagogy
— Funny angry ranting from Leslie at the beginning, even if it feels like a very standard role for her.
— Kenan’s “Awww, man” facepalm in reaction to Lin turning a chair backwards and sitting in it while attempting to come off cool made me laugh, because that mirrors exactly how I would react if I were in Kenan’s place in this situation.
— This sketch is slowly starting to lose me. Not sure what about it isn’t working much.
— When this sketch originally aired, I remember assuming Melissa’s natural voice (which some people have called a “froggy voice”) was just her doing a silly character voice, since I wasn’t yet familiar with Melissa at the time. In fact, at the time, I considered Melissa’s “character voice” in this sketch to be very reminiscent of the voice Nasim Pedrad used for both her Bedelia character and her impression of Charlyne Yi. It wasn’t until the following episode, during a Burger King Drive-Thru sketch, that I realized “Holy hell, Melissa’s voice really sounds like that?!?!?” I was shocked that her natural voice sounded so odd. However, over the course of this season, I would gradually go on to find her voice to be one of many endearing things about her. (I do recall hearing someone claim, however, that Melissa stated in an interview that her odd natural voice is actually fake, and that she adopted it so she won’t attract creeps, or something like that.)
STARS: **½
“A DAY OFF” WITH KELLYANNE CONWAY
Kellyanne Conway (KAM) gets no break from spinning Trumpisms
— A good structure and progression to this short.
— I can look past this short’s apparent attempt to make us “sympathize” with Kellyanne Conway, and I can get laughs from how much Kate’s Kellyanne has to increasingly stretch her defending of increasingly ridiculous Trump controversies.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Heathens”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Propecia user PED is willing to choose diminished sex drive over baldness
suburban Philadelphia women (JIF) & (TIF) are in-demand undecided voters
— As expected, Colin and Michael are doing an excellent takedown of Trump’s Access Hollywood scandal.
— I like Pete riffing on Colin’s “wall of hair”.
— An overall surprisingly short but pretty good Pete commentary.
— The set-up of Colin’s Clown Lives Matter joke was funnier than the two actual punchlines Colin had for it. You can tell Colin himself is fully aware of that.
— Random Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon.
— Is the name of Tina’s character, Denise McDonough, supposed to be some kind of reference to the name of Rachel Dratch’s character (Denise McDenna) in the Boston Teens sketches from back in the day? Tina did co-write those Boston Teens sketches, so…
— Jimmy trying to milk extra laughs from the audience by pausing a long time after his Philly-accented pronunciation of “Benghazi”, I see.
— Jimmy’s trying to milk more laughs, this time by ad-libbing about how bad his attempt at a Philly accent is. That meta ad-lib is actually fun.
— Man, how freakin’ long is this Jimmy/Tina commentary going to go on?!? Tina has some good lines here, but this feels commentary feels ENDLESS, and is dragging down what was shaping up to be a near-perfect Update.
STARS: ****
THE MUSIC MAN
The Wells Fargo Wagon brings bad financial instruments
— Bobby is just now making his first appearance of the night. An early display of how little we’ll be seeing him this season, as he’s on his way out, kinda like Vanessa, though to a much larger extent in Bobby’s case.
— I got a laugh from Kyle’s lispy delivery of a stern “Say it to my face, bitch.”
— The general setting of this sketch so far, as well as the musical number, reminds me an awful lot of that weak Loveliest Kingdom sketch from the preceding season’s Tracy Morgan episode.
— At least the comedic conceit of this sketch is turning out to be more high-brow than the juvenile, unfunny turn the aforementioned Loveliest Kingdom sketch took. That being said, I’m still not all that crazy about this sketch. The performances are fine, but the material is meh for me.
— I did like the ending bit with Kyle.
STARS: **
DIEGO CALLS HIS MOM
immigrant Diego (host) relays North Dakota culture shock
— One of writer Julio Torres’ most notable pieces, and an excellent example of the refreshing style he brought to SNL.
— A lot of very funny odd cutaway visuals to accompany what Lin is saying over the phone.
— I love this short’s mix of tender melancholy and silly absurdity. This short is pulling that off absolutely beautifully.
— Even the cinematography and visual quality of this short is beautiful, and has some great choices for camera angles.
— The sweet ending actually almost made me tear up.
STARS: *****
STRANGER THINGS
Lucas’ (SAZ) parents (KET) & (LEJ) find the police scary
— Seeing Mikey and Alex playing twins here (the Duffer Brothers) reminds me that I had a hard time telling Mikey and Alex apart in their first episode when it originally aired. That sometimes happens with SNL fans when two or more cast members of the same gender and race join the show together. I remember how so many online SNL fans had such a hard time telling Seth Meyers and Jeff Richards apart when they joined at the beginning of season 27.
— Are lispy kids an intentional theme in tonight’s episode, between Kyle’s character in the Music Man sketch and Lin’s character in this sketch?
— Leslie making her second walk-on tonight playing an angry, yelling character. It’s still getting some laughs from me, though, so I guess I can’t complain.
— Melissa made me laugh out loud in her brief appearance, even if I have no familiarity with what she’s specifically making fun of, as I’ve never watched Stranger Things.
— A cheap laugh from Leslie and Kenan’s reaction to seeing a white cop.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ride”
MELANIA MOMENTS
Melania Trump (CES) is concerned about the next Mrs. Trump
— Good to see this become recurring.
— Again, I absolutely love how these Melania Moments segments feel like a spiritual successor to Jack Handey’s Deep Thoughts.
— Overall, even funnier than the previous Melania Moments piece from the season premiere. Writer Julio Torres has been having a very strong night, between Diego Calls His Mom and this.
STARS: ****½
A DEGREE OF VALOR
in WWII, wounded (PED) asks (host) to secrete embarrassing personal items
— A TCM and AMC sketch in the same night?
— Meh at the butt plug reveal.
— The further reveals about Pete’s secret belongings aren’t doing much for me either.
— At least this is utilizing Pete in a very different role from what he usually plays. In fact, this is the second consecutive episode where the 10-to-1 segment stars Pete playing against type. He’s done a good job in both roles.
— I did kinda laugh at Mikey’s mock-emotional “He died as he lived – sassy” line.
— The ending with the characters tenderly singing Pete’s jazz song in honor of him after his death was actually fairly charming, before the writers lazily and predictably decided to have Kenan get shot during it. Not needed.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average, nothing-special episode as a whole. A letdown after the very strong season premiere, but I still can’t complain too much, as this episode wasn’t too bad in and of itself.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Diego Calls His Mom
Melania Moments
Monologue
Weekend Update
Vice Presidential Debate
“A Day Off” with Kellyanne Conway
Crucible Cast Party
Stranger Things
Substitute Teacher
A Degree of Valor
The Music Man
Pine Ridge Campground
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Margot Robbie)
a pretty big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Emily Blunt