(Before you read this review, please read this comment I left in the comments section of the preceding episode, regarding political discussion in the comments section of this site, if you haven’t already. And also please read this follow-up comment I left in response to someone’s reply. Thank you.)
Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
TRUMP NATIONAL GOLF CLUB
Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) drops promises & spurns Mitt Romney (JAS)
— (*sigh*) It’s after the election, and Alec Baldwin is STILL playing Donald Trump. I think this is where my slow burn towards Alec’s Trump impression might begin in my reviews. I was tolerant of that impression when reviewing the pre-election portion of this season, but there’s no way Alec’s Trump was ever meant to last beyond that portion, nor should it have. SNL should’ve had a back-up plan for an ACTUAL CAST MEMBER to officially take over the Trump role, if not by this point of the season (since I understand that SNL, given how sure they were that Trump would lose the election, may not have had enough time between Trump’s election win and this episode to re-cast the role), then AT LEAST by Trump’s inauguration two months later. Plus, I can’t help but feel that the Alec/Kate Times Square pre-tape from two episodes prior to this would’ve been a very fitting final appearance for Alec’s Trump, and I get the feeling that was SNL’s intention at the time. Maybe I’ll wait until the Trump inauguration point of this season before I slowly start unleashing my saltiness towards Alec’s Trump performances.
— A huge laugh from Alec’s Trump panickedly Googling “What is ISIS?”
— Bobby’s role here reminds me of the one he would soon play in the Through Donald’s Eyes pre-tape from this season’s John Cena episode.
— The briefness of the Trump/Mitt Romney meeting was very funny.
— Alec’s Trump, to Beck’s Mike Pence: “I love you, Mike. You’re the reason I’ll never get impeached.” Well…….
— Overall, not bad, and it turns out that my goodwill towards Alec’s Trump is still somewhat here by this point.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
Thanksgiving song of KRW, WLF, Steve Martin [real] has some inaccuracies
— So far, some funny oddball one-liners from Kristen Wiig, who’s delivering them in a comically deadpan manner. This is the RIGHT use of her talents, unlike the way SNL usually utilized her talents in her later seasons in the cast.
— A cute appearance from Melissa.
— A nice way to use what appears to be the entire cast (and more, including who I’m assuming are writers).
— Kristen’s song is solid, has a lot of funny silly lyrics, and the melody is damn catchy.
— Will Forte! I don’t know if it’s wrong that I’m more excited to see him than I am to see Steve Martin (not that I have a problem with Steve, but it’s more rare to see a Forte cameo, and I’m such a huge champion of him), but I am. Also very nice to hear a well-deserved big round of audience applause for Will, even if he followed it with a scripted-though-very-funny “Huh. Less applause than Steve Martin, gonna remember that.”
— The cutaway to an audience member’s head exploding (in reaction to a mind-blowing fact Kristen shared about Thanksgiving) cracked me up, due to how out-of-nowhere it came.
STARS: ****
THE BUBBLE
exclusive community The Bubble contains those avoiding Donald Trump’s USA
— I strangely have no memory of this, but from all of the glowing things I’ve heard some SNL fans say about it recently, I should remember this.
— Nice pairing of Kyle and Sasheer in rare spokesperson roles.
— So far, 1) a very solid and smart premise, 2) an instance of SNL actually spoofing liberals, and 3) the execution is excellent.
— A great grimace that Melissa makes when drinking the raw milk.
— A big laugh from the dollar bill with Bernie Sanders’ face on it.
— A hilarious facial expression from Sasheer after Kyle says “We don’t see color here…but we celebrate it”.
STARS: *****
SECRET WORD
Mindy Grayson & Italian bombshell (CES) flub the clues
— OH. NO. The return of…this. Boy, I didn’t realize how good I had it not having to regularly review this wretched recurring sketch anymore after season 37.
— Ugh at that “Choad” gag, regarding the surname of Kenan’s character. It’s also the second time that writer James Anderson used the term “Choad” (I’d really rather not explain what it means) as a character’s surname (the previous instance was in the Los Angeles Face sketch from the season 30 Hilary Swank episode).
— A funny taped message from Bill Hader’s Lyle Round character, giving a comically brief, blunt explanation for why he’s not hosting this show anymore.
— Oh, I hate seeing poor Melissa stuck playing this dreaded straight man role to Kristen’s Mindy Grayson character.
— (*groan*) Cue all of the “blurting out the secret word” gags. At this point of SNL’s run, it had been 7 years since this recurring sketch debuted, and they NEVER changed the main gag of these damn sketches. I didn’t laugh at the “blurting out the secret word” gag the first time, so how am I supposed to laugh at it in the bazillionth rendition of it?
— Kenan is at least doing a very good job in this role of the new Secret Word host.
— (*groans louder*) And now cue all of the songs that Mindy Grayson breaks out into.
STARS: *½
ANDERSON COOPER 360
pundits get caught in loops a la Westworld
— Alex’s Anderson Cooper, during his intros of the panelists: “CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash.” Kristen’s Dana Bash: “It’s ‘Danna’…for some reason.”
— I’m liking the progression to this, with how the panelists are repeating the same conversation in an endless loop in an increasingly frenzied manner. This reminds me of that underrated, forgotten sketch from the season 30 Luke Wilson episode, where Wilson, Seth Meyers, and Kenan played businessmen repeating a conversation on an endless loop while getting increasingly drunk, with the wording of that conversation being increasingly boorish and inappropriate in each round. I liked that sketch better than this Anderson Cooper one, but this is still fine.
— Just like the previous time he played Anderson Cooper earlier this season, Alex is rather stumbly, flubbing a few lines lines. [ADDENDUM: Oh, the irony of me flubbing that of all sentences.]
— A funny reveal of the panelists and Alex’s Cooper all being malfunctioning robots.
— The Westworld twist at the end reminds me of the X-Files twist at the end of the Totino’s Pizza Rolls commercial from the preceding season’s Larry David episode.
STARS: ***½
TARGET
Target offers a respite from your family during the holiday season
— A very good premise, with the comically upbeat presentation of the simple-but-relatable concept of going to a Target parking lot just to unwind from holiday stress. Feels like a companion piece to that Your Hometown commercial from season 38.
— Given the host of tonight’s episode, it’s funny that a Target segment is appearing in this episode and DOESN’T feature a certain odd-voiced clerk from the host’s repertoire of recurring characters.
STARS: ****
QVC AUDITIONS
rival neighbors (CES) & (KRW) make competing audition tapes to be on QVC
— The Wiig/Strong ham-off sketch that I’m sure writers James Anderson and/or Kent Sublette were eagerly waiting YEARS to do. That’s not me automatically dismissing this sketch, though.
— Interesting structure to this sketch.
— I’m actually enjoying the escalation to this, and, while it had the potential to be annoying, the hammy, back-and-forth shoutfest between Cecily and Kristen during their confrontation is strangely fun. Even their goofy southern accents, a staple of bad Anderson/Sublette-written sketches, aren’t bothering me in this.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “On Hold”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Thanksgiving will be PED’s venue to release anger induced by Donald Trump
Willie fondly recalls atrocious occurrences from Thanksgivings past
— So many great points that Colin and Michael are making about president-elect Trump.
— The usual good commentary from Pete, even if some of the points he’s making here seem like clapter-bait.
— Good ending to Pete’s commentary, in regards to making political remarks at the Thanksgiving table.
— Kenan’s Willie character is as hilarious as always, even if he doesn’t have any lines tonight that I feel like quoting in my review.
STARS: ****
THANKSGIVING PARADE
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons crowd penthouse apartment window
— Funny visual of the performers as giant balloons outside of the window.
— A pretty good laugh from how unsettlingly close the creepy balloons are getting to the main characters’ window.
— This sketch now gets even funnier with Bobby popping up as a scary-looking clown.
— A good dark bit regarding Kristen Chenowith.
STARS: ***½
WHISKERS R’ WE
Barbara & new bae (KRW) promote Thanksgiving Catacopia
— (*sigh*) You know how tired I am of this recurring sketch, blah blah blah.
— Is it intentional for Kristen to be speaking in the exact same voice Kate is?
— I did laugh at one line about the ghost cat: “If she appears in your mirror, it’s over.”
— For once this season, Bobby is actually making a lot of appearances. This is also the second consecutive sketch that he steals.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Dare You”
SURPRISE
surprise-loving Sue can’t wait to see unannounced military homecoming
— Oh, no. But at least, unlike Secret Word, this sketch was never overused back in the day. (I think I remember pointing out that this sketch seemed to only appear once a season after it debuted, plus it completely skipped season 36). Still not looking forward to sitting through another installment of this sketch, though, given how I’ve never been a fan of it.
— Wait, Leslie’s in this? Heh, oh, you just KNOW she’s gonna crack up at Kristen at some point of this sketch.
— As expected, this sketch is hitting all of its old beats from back in the day. Yawn. If it weren’t for the newer cast members being in this, I’d swear I’m watching a repeat of an earlier installment of this sketch.
— Yep, as predicted, there’s Leslie fighting to keep a straight face. It is kind of a novelty seeing a former cast member who Leslie was never in the cast with (though they did work together in Ghostbusters) be the one who makes Leslie break, instead of it being someone like Kate as usual.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode, and a big improvement over the previous episode that Kristen Wiig hosted. Despite some weak recurring sketches tonight and the fact that the show ended on kind of a bummer note with two sketches that I didn’t care for, this episode gave us a lot of good material, some very strong pre-tapes, and a better use of Kristen than her previous episode had.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Bubble
Target
Monologue
Weekend Update
Anderson Cooper 360
QVC Auditions
Thanksgiving Parade
Trump National Golf Club
Whiskers R’ We
Surprise
Secret Word
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dave Chappelle)
a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Emma Stone