Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Elaine Benes (JLD) questions Bernie Sanders (Larry David) at debate
— Despite still being on the show, Jon has been replaced by Beck in the role of Wolf Blitzer. Yep, it’s official: SNL has undeniably given up on Jon as a cast member by this point of the season. Making that even more official is the fact that Jon’s ONLY appearances in this episode will be two roles buried in the last two segments of the night, and he has little-to-no lines in them.
— Beck (looking almost exactly like Jason Sudeikis did when he used to play Blitzer) is doing a better attempt at a Blitzer impression than Jon did.
— I got a good laugh from Kate’s Hillary Clinton claiming she agreed on a debate date of “Mapril 33rd at bloop blorp o’clock”.
— The usual fun chemistry between Kate and Larry David in these Hillary/Bernie cold openings.
— A funny “cool” entrance from Kenan as “black moderator” (as he’s referred to here) Errol Louis.
— Kate’s delivery of the Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air theme song lyrics that her Hillary breaks out into cracked me up.
— I absolutely love the turn with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Elaine Benes being the next person who asks the candidates questions, and I also love how the conversation between her and Larry’s Bernie Sanders turns into a whole bunch of Seinfeld-isms. Very fun.
— Hmm, having Vanessa’s Rachel Green now ask the candidates a question feels way too needlessly shoehorned in (despite it fitting enough with the “90s sitcom” aspect of this cold opening’s Seinfeld premise), though I can never complain about seeing this spot-on impression of Vanessa’s. It deserves better writing here, though.
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— Oddly, Darrell Hammond announces Sasheer Zamata as just “Sheer Zamata”. Maybe Darrell’s microphone briefly cut out when he said the “Sa” part of Sasheer’s first name.
MONOLOGUE
JLD recaps her career arc from SNL to present; Tony Hale cameo
— I love Julia’s self-deprecation when mentioning her “memorable” run as an SNL cast member, and showing a clip of her small non-comedic role in an Ed Grimley sketch as an example of one of her “well-known big characters”.
— Hey, a Brad Hall sighting! (the third above screencap for this monologue) Granted, it’s just an old clip from the movie Troll, but still, it’s a shocking novelty to see a close-up shot of a former cast member as forgotten as him in a new SNL episode from 2016. I’d like to think Julia threw that clip in as an excuse to work her husband back into SNL. (Julia and Brad are married, for any readers who didn’t know.)
— Some good talk from Julia throughout this monologue, including what she says about the blackface movie Soul Man.
— A nice Tony Hale cameo.
STARS: ***½
HEROIN AM
inclusion of caffeine & cocaine helps users remain productive
— A very funny concept.
— I like how Julia being among the performers in this timeless-feeling pre-taped commercial makes her blend back into the cast just like the old days.
— Cecily as the voice-over: “Side effects include: it’s heroin….so…all THAT stuff.”
— A good laugh from Julia hallucinating her husband and son as horrifying monsters.
— Hilarious dark reveal of Julia’s heroin-taking character being a school bus driver.
STARS: ****
HUGE JEWELRY
Long Island sisters’ (JLD) & (KAM) kids model their line of Huge Jewelry
— I sometimes find this type of Italian stereotype sketch in recent seasons to be lazy and dull, but Julia and Kate are at least pretty fun here in their characterizations and chemistry. That being said, this is a questionable choice for a post-monologue lead-off sketch. This feels more like a sketch that would be more fitting near the 10-to-1 slot.
— The gag of the increasing size of the jewelry is a bit ehh for me.
— Wasn’t too crazy about the ending with Nick Jonas appearing as a character who just gets fawned over, though he himself performed pretty well here.
STARS: **½
THE POOL BOY
housewife (JLD) is more invested in tryst than is pool boy Chad (PED)
— The debut of Pete’s Chad character.
— I recall getting tired of the Chad shorts when they became recurring back when these episodes originally aired, but judging this debut on its own merits right now, I’m currently finding Chad’s slow-witted, monotone, one-or-two-word sentences to be funny, especially in how they comically contrast against Julia’s very lengthy, dramatic lines.
— Pretty funny running gag with how Chad keeps appearing back to work at the pool every time Julia keeps turning around to him in the middle of her dramatic speech to him.
— Another Nick Jonas sketch appearance where he shows up just to be fawned over by a Julia Louis-Dreyfus character.
— Great delivery from Julia of her ending line: “I’m gonna f(*bleep*)k that kid.”
STARS: ***½
CINEMA CLASSICS
actress (JLD) relied on line cues written on props
— A very strong use of Julia’s comedic skills. This sketch has the feel of the type of legendary material that you would’ve seen being given to highly-esteemed classic female comedians in the past, such as Carol Burnett or Lucille Ball, and it feels great that Julia has gotten to the point of her acclaimed career where she’s considered to be worthy of performing a big Burnett/Ball-esque piece. And Julia’s proving with her performance in this sketch that she’s fully deserving of that honor.
— Pretty funny bit with Kenan’s Reese De’What realizing he’s alone in the studio.
— Love the bit with Julia reading “Made In China” off a prop as if it was one of her lines.
— A very funny visual of a wordy line of Julia’s being written on Taran’s bare chest.
— Is Kate doing the same voice and accent she did as Ingrid Bergman in the Casablanca spoof (which also happened to be a Cinema Classics sketch, like this one) from the preceding season?
— A particularly fantastic bit with Julia struggling for a long time through the fruit bowl to find one particular line. And her eventual delivery of said line, “I’ve been shoootttt!”, absolutely slayed me.
STARS: *****
MERCEDES AA CLASS
JLD endorses the car powered by 9,648 batteries
— Great to see so many pre-tapes tonight featuring Julia front-and-center. And she’s absolutely perfect in her performance here as the spokesperson.
— Another timeless-feeling commercial tonight.
— A priceless visual of all those batteries set in place under the car hood.
— The Battery Status report is hilarious.
— Another priceless visual, this time of the “Auto-Dump Feature” with two small hatches on opposite sides of the car dispensing ALL of the batteries for a very lengthy amount of time.
— Julia’s slyly-delivered “Batteries not included” line at the end was utter perfection, and was the best way to close this commercial.
— Overall, a forgotten (by me, at least) gem.
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Tove Lo [real] perform “Close”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Charles Barkley (KET) & Shaquille O’Neal (JAP) mull retirement from NBA
Animal Annie (AIB) has problems with humans, including herself
A One Dimensional Female Character From A Male Driven Comedy details her degrading comedic role
— Our final Barkley/Shaq duo commentary, given the fact that this ends up being one of Jay’s final episodes before getting fired that summer. Speaking of which, I just now realized that Jay wasn’t in the preceding episode (Russell Crowe) AT ALL. No wonder he looked so miserable during that episode’s goodnights.
— A very funny line from Kenan’s Barkley regarding him betting on number “twive”.
— The formula of these Barkley/Shaq Update commentaries is feeling very standard in tonight’s commentary, but it’s still working for me.
— An interesting smiling-on-the-outside-crying-on-the-inside tone to Aidy’s commentary.
— A huge laugh from a puzzled Michael questioning why Aidy said he’d love the iguanas-having-two-penises factoid she told.
— I like Michael’s acknowledgment of how lazy and predictable Colin’s Wiz Khalifa joke was.
— The final appearance of Cecily’s One Dimensional Female Character From A Male Driven Comedy.
— As usual in these One Dimensional Female commentaries, very solid delivery from Cecily, and spot-on satire of this character archetype in movies. In fact, the satire is coming off particularly biting tonight.
STARS: ***½
WHO WORKS HERE?
game show contestants try to identify CVS employees
— Decent concept for a game show sketch.
— A killer appearance from Bobby, who steals this entire sketch, and has one of the funniest moments of this entire episode.
— The “lighting” round is fun.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Champagne Problems”
MEET N’ MATCH
in a bar, aliens (JLD) & (KAM) are desperate to mate with human males
— A very promising oddball concept, and Kate and Julia (making another fun pairing tonight) are well-cast in these roles.
— I love the deep vocal modifier being used on Kate and Julia, which, along with the creepy contacts they’re wearing in their eyes, is adding perfectly to their odd, unsettling alien characters.
— Some minor glitches with Kate and Julia’s vocal modifier here and there, which is actually kinda adding a bit of a strange charm to this sketch.
— A funny casual visual of Kyle and Taran’s skeletons being left in the restroom.
STARS: ****
GOD IS A BOOB MAN
Christian (VAB) resists cultural rise of homosexuality
— I’ve never seen the type of religious movies that this pre-tape is spoofing, but I’m still enjoying this a lot and finding it to be very well-done.
— Yet another strong Vanessa Bayer performance in a season filled with standout Vanessa Bayer performances. (Seriously, you could almost make a full-length “Best Of” for her just out of this season alone, though she, of course, has great stuff from other seasons, too.)
— I love the detail of Kyle’s Jewish lawyer being named Schmool (not sure of the spelling).
— A lot of funny little parts all throughout this, such as Sasheer’s “Maaayybee” response to Vanessa’s statement about Christians being the most oppressed people in the world.
— A very funny reveal of the ridiculous movie title at the end.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid episode. And SNL finally got it right in regards to how to perfectly play to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ comedic strengths, unlike in her previous two hosting stints (where, while she had funny moments, I recall her being used in a lot of generic straight man roles) and her tenure as a cast member (where she was notoriously underutilized and overshadowed).
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Cinema Classics
Mercedes AA Class
Democratic Presidential Debate
God Is A Boob Man
Heroin AM
Meet N’ Match
Weekend Update
Who Works Here?
Monologue
The Pool Boy
Huge Jewelry
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Russell Crowe)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Brie Larson