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
We all know the Access Hollywood tape should’ve sunk Trump. We just didn’t know so many people would accept it. Or the presence of rampant voter suppression in this country that hadn’t been addressed. The disinformation campaigns.
Also, clean shaven LMM is just……not acceptable?
Gotta be honest, the Bill Clinton presidency kind of turned me off to caring about political sex scandals. Not saying it’s right, but it all kind of become meaningless after the Monica Lewinsky saga. It wouldn’t surprise me if Bill watched the Access Hollywood tape and said, “Hold my beer.”
Kellyanne’s Day Off is a stone-cold classic.
I don’t remember too much from this episode when it originally aired outside of the Stranger Things sketch. What I do remember is the fact that I had no idea who Lin-Manuel was, but I did know about Twenty One Pilots. Of course, now, I’m way too familiar with Hamilton, as well as his brief time with the Electric Company, so that’s cool, I guess.
As for tomorrow’s episode, the only thing I’m looking forward to is your thoughts on Alex Moffat’s portrayal of Anderson Cooper, considering how much you hated Jon’s portrayal. Wait, I just remembered two other moments from that episode: the film festival sketch and the Chonk sketch. There was also Bruno Mars’ performance of 24K Magic, which was epic. Anyway, can’t wait.
Fallon-Fey not so random.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/09/jimmy-fallons-shot-at-redemption-on-saturday-night-live-i-dont-like-trump/
Also, surprised you didn’t mention Melissa’s high note at the end of the Crucible Cast Party sketch. To me, that’s just one of the many signs of how great a singer she is.
I both remember when this aired and completely forgot about it.
Did like the musical performances, though. 21P brought their A game.
While I think Kellyanne was one of Kate’s better impressions around this time (even though the impression was used way too much–I can think of like three, four short films focusing on her alone!), I felt even at the time that turning her into a quasi-sympathetic figure was somewhat too much for me. The depiction of her semi-normal home life ALSO has not aged well, considering the revelations about Kellyanne’s relationship with both her husband and daughter.
I liked the Wells Fargo sketch way more than you, but perhaps that’s because I’m a huge Music Man fan. As to be expected, Lin is really funny in his role, but almost everyone has one amusing line delivery.
I’m mildly disappointed that Tim Kaine’s failure to become VP means that impression of Mikey’s became irrelevant fast–I thought he did a solid, underrated job as Kaine. I get a huge laugh out of his Kaine in the post-election “The Dems Are Back” short (when he keeps talking in Spanish).
“Dems Are Back” was great and should have given SNL a big hint that satirizing the left could sometimes possibly be funnier and more interesting than parodying Trump, who was already a walking punchline. My only criticism of “Dems Are Back” is that SNL hedged at the end by calling it an attack ad by some Republican (I forget the name), when the ad could easily have stood alone.
It’s a pretty sad state that the best piece of political parody of the season and possibly of the entire era, is a pointed dig at Democrats. SNL kept having to recalibrate their approach to the GOP ghouls, with this episode’s Kellyanne Conway piece being a prime example of the show completely misreading the situation. The piece, like so many filmed bits, is generally well-executed, but they absolutely misfired too many times with the Conway portrayal. This happens over and over through the era, with dubious takes on Mueller, Pence and, oh good God, Lindsay Graham. The season felt pretty impressive at the time, but I remember that, after the Trump win, I was afraid to go back and watch any of the pre-election episodes. They were sometimes good pieces in the moment, but they were curdled on impact.
Of course the problem with modern SNL in terms of politics is that everyone will think the show is against them, as shown during the primary and election last year, where you would simultaneously hear people saying the show was out to get Bernie/progressives, out to get Biden, and out to get Trump. So when you write out of fear even though you have nothing to lose, you just end up getting the worst of both worlds. (they did get a ratings boost this season in spite of some pretty mediocre political material, but you can’t count on that, and that doesn’t make choices like the endless, bloated primary debate pieces last season any more logical to me)
It doesn’t help that no one at the show now seems to have a passion for politics or an ability to translate it (even that Democrats Are Back ad is overlong, clunky and unfocused). I don’t really want to go back to the Seth Meyers assembly line era, but I hope they will eventually be able to get back to looking at a piece and saying to themselves, “What is this meant to be, and how do we get that across?” (not in a way that involves a character literally telling us this, in a loud voice)
To balance out my negativity above, I will say that this piece (cut from John Mulaney’s second episode – if it had stayed in place of the lawyers sketch that episode would be just about perfect) with Cecily as Dianne Feinstein is tough, funny and wonderfully tight and shows that modern SNL can still have what it takes – it reminds me of something that might have been snuck into 84-85 (just imagine Mary Gross in full “spittin’ mad” mode).
Some of these Trump/Hillary sketches could have aged better if SNL had reduced its smugness level by about half.
@algar Yeah. It might be hindsight bias but I think even at the time the amount of gloating in these cold opens came off as a bad omen to me.
And getting ahead of myself here, but that made it mildly infuriating when they still preemptively gloated about the whole Mueller investigation when that became a thing. Didn’t learn their lesson at all.
Man, feel like a lot of things that happened during this period for SNL has not aged well. Granted I (along with millions) assumed the “PussyGrab” comment was going to shut the door on Trump presidency. However that was just one of about 1000 things that happened leading up to and during his Presidency that normally would have halted or ended that error…but didn’t.
Kate singing Halleluyah in the cold open with the seriousness of the first 9/11 show and then the “To sir with love” performance still are at the very top of the douschechills for me.
Fun trivia: Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda ended up starring in Mary Poppins Returns the following year. I think they each hosted after their castings were announced but before they started filming.
Saturday Night Taped (Episodes from S39 on where the top 2 or more highest ranked sketches are pre-taped): 14
Diego Calls His Mom is, probably along with the pieces he wrote for Natalie Portman and Emma Stone, what I would choose if someone asked me to name an example of how important Julio Torres was to SNL. It’s such a painfully beautiful piece, full of ache and wonder. It also best showcases the odd juxtaposition of Julio’s presence at SNL – for many, many years, he simply never would have been hired, yet pieces like this are a modern version of so many of the sublime, intelligent works that peppered the show’s first 20-25 years. Something else Torres understood was the power of economy in screentime – he gets the points across just enough to leave you wanting more,
This is also the one piece of the night that effectively uses LMM (the monologue could have if not for one particular infamous moment), as it tapes into his particular earnestness in a way the live sketches (which are almost all “off” in that unique way of the last 10-15 years) do not.
It’s ironic that this episode has Melissa making the meta comment about being the only Hispanic cast member and therefore playing that part, as Lin-Manuel makes a brief cameo 3 seasons later due to very loud backlash on Twitter over no one being there to play Julian Castro in the debate sketches (just another reason why having 6-7-8 debate sketches in one season, 10-15 minutes long each time, is such a bad idea, as such painstaking efforts made the show’s diversity issues more glaring).
I am one of the people who does not like LMM’s rap break in the Crucible Cast Party pre-tape. Tonally it just feels way off to me – we go from the start of the video telling us that girls are feigning talk about sex but are actually very wholesome, then suddenly we get a full minute of tacked-on material from his point of view that feels much crasser and also seems to be trying to go oddly hard. It’s too bad, because the rest has some great moments – I especially love Kate trying to be bad by smoking the cigarette, only to call her parents sobbing, and Aidy being oblivious to all the boys being gay.
Melissa and Vanessa both feel out of place in this for me, for very different reasons. If this review had been posted a week ago I would have said that from this point on, the handful of musical pre-tapes focusing on the female cast members would put her outside of the group (like “Welcome to Hell”), but she finally got another one in the most recent episode.
I have no memory of that Vanessa and Kyle sketch, even though they are one of my favorite rare teamups. It sounds like my memory is doing me a favor.
It was nice of Tina to come on and try to help Jimmy (who did take a big career hit – his career has never quite recovered), but that appearance just feels endless. Sadly, not the worst Tina Update piece around this era…
Much of the criticism of Leslie is alienating, as it’s so aggressive and never seemed to give her a chance, but that classroom sketch is one of the more grating justifications of the “just yells” commentary thrown around about her. It’s really hard to watch (the sketch itself has potential as lampooning exactly what many seem to dislike about LMM, but it is too long and has too much of the students reacting and making sarcastic comments). That side of Leslie is put to better use in the Stranger Things sketch.
The Kellyanne Conway pre-tape would have worked far better if they had just invented a female Trump flack and put Kate in the role. It also would have justified Alex’s casting, as he looks NOTHING like George, even with a shaggy Beatles wig. Around this time someone at SNL seemed vested in the idea that Kellyanne was a voice of sanity (there’s a very very annoying moment in a post-election cold open along these lines) and it baffling to even begin to guess why. This pre-tape is somewhat rectified in season 45, when they have a George and Kellyane pre-tape that calls them both out as grifters.
Promos (including a funny Sex and the City joke) and a brief clip of LMM on Fallon around this time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmRw7mJuB0c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp1U13pLN_w
Melissa was doing a impression of Winona’s crazy acting in Stranger Things. Haven’t seen the sketch since it aired, but I recall it being pretty accurate.
I’ve seen this episode, but I don’t remember it too well, minus the pre-tapes. (Starting to realize that’s par for the course for me.) Crucible Cast Party is very popular among its targeted demographic- theater kids- and fans of Lin Manuel-Miranda seem to love it too. Diego Calls His Mom is very sweet. I like when sentimental pieces are done right. My favorite is probably the Kellyanne Conway bit though- the sympathetic tone is unfortunate, but it’s done so well and I love Kate’s performance.
I remember being disappointed with the cold open because I would have preferred it to focus on the VP debate instead of getting sidetracked by Trump. Mikey does a good Tim Kaine.
Interesting to have a host who was primarily known for a Broadway show at the time. (I can’t remember if he’d done any screen acting at this point.) Has that happened before? Goes to show how much of a Thing Hamilton became.
Worse than I remember, but still a fine episode. I really do credit the quality of last and this season to Rob Klein, Bryan Tucker, Chris Kelly, and Sarah Schneider. Fantastic head writers who should have stayed in that position longer, especially Klein. They seemed to favor broader ideas than the current Jost/Che era.
Also, you forgot to mention that even though the last episode changed the host/MG introductions to video clips, LMM’s was a picture in this episode, even though TØP had a video clip.
“Also, you forgot to mention that even though the last episode changed the host/MG introductions to video clips, LMM’s was a picture in this episode, even though TØP had a video clip.”
No, LMM’s shot was a video clip. Watch it again, the clip has him smiling in very slow motion.
Ok, just watched the live version and you’re right. My copy is a repeat and they changed it to the bumper of him in a trench coat for some reason. Don’t know why they would do that for repeats.
Ah, the infamous “Grab ’em by the —–” episode. I asked this elsewhere when it initially aired, but I didn’t get a good answer: was Cecily’s reaction genuine or scripted? This is before Colin and Michael pulled their stunt on air. Obviously nothing bad happened since Alec continued to play Trump for the remainder of Trump’s run.
If memory serves, this week various news outlets did decide to just say the word, so I guess NBC probably told them they could do it.
I think the smugness was a reflection on how Democrats saw the campaign going at that point.
In hindsight, I think the smugness was also a form of denial against the possibility of the worst possible scenario coming true. This wasn’t unique to SNL, but much of pop culture and the MSM seemed to suffer from this. As far as the show is concerned, I agree with others here who thought Baldwin as Trump was initially fresh and funny and was later (predictably) driven into the ground.
I think one of the other reasons for the smug tone of the writing is that in the last decade, SNL has increasingly leaned toward that yas kween type of crutch in their political content. With Hillary, you got the smugness, but also the acknowledgment of her liabilities. After Hillary’s loss, and the seeming remorse that some at the show felt over their part in said loss, you start to get versions of the same with women who are written in a much rosier light, with only brief attempts at addressing political weaknesses (Theresa May, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, etc.).
IIRC, The Vice President Debate, penned by Kelly and Schneider, was intended as the CO before the Access Hollywood tape controversy broke sometime late on Friday. I cannot recall everything but I remember an article about the hours between the tape breaking and airtime where they rewrote the opening. A producer or a censor ran to the office and proclaimed they could say “pussy” on air. Too bad the material felt shoehorned,
I was in The Crucible in high school and so was my best friend, so CRUCIBLE CAST PARTY forever!
Its interesting that the only live appearances Lorne has made post-SNL40 were in episodes where Lin-Manuel was in the building (This and David Harbour).
I didn’t think the Kellyanne piece showed her as sympathetic. To me, it more showed how she sold her soul and this was her punishment. Also, I really liked the campground sketch. Vanessa and Kyle are a fun pair.