Sweet relief! After the unbearably bad run of recent SNL episodes, I'm more than happy to say that tonight was at last tolerable. Of course, my standards could not possibly be any lower at this point (I'd been growing to slowly despise this cast, so it's a good thing tonight was decent) therefore I'm not sure that it qualifies as good. But maybe it's a start? But there's now just two episodes left in the season, so if it is a start it's pretty late.
COLD OPEN: Taran starts off as NBA commissioner Adam Silver talking about the Donald Sterling scandal, and we get Bobby as Sterling, Sasheer (in her only appearance tonight) as his new mistress, Jay as Dennis Rodman and Kenan as the outgoing head of the NAACP. It's ok, they had to address this of course, but it's pretty mild overall.
MONOLOGUE: Andrew Garfield comes out very excited and brings on Emma Stone (who's a great host herself) to make him even more flustered, and right away they're cute and adorable together just like in the Spider-Man movies. Makes me want to see them in something else, like a romantic comedy.
STANX: An ad for an underwear that acts as spanx for men with Beck doing most of the honors. It's ok. At least the end was chuckle-worthy.
FAMILY FEUD: A so-so sketch that Kenan hosts as Steve Harvey, but mostly this showcases one of the major ongoing problems with the show right now. There are WAY too many people in this cast at the moment. Seriously, I think they need to cut the numbers by half. I know at least that many people are doing nothing week after week, and even in this skit, there are like ten people on the stage at once and most with no lines. The highlight is Andrew's pretty good Justin Timberlake.
OLIVER TWIST: Kind of a weird fake Masterpiece Classics that has Cecily showing up in the middle of the Dickens story as "Deirdre," the full grown woman who wants more. Sorry, but her character just didn't hit it here. Not funny, although both she and Andrew were trying.
BEYGENCY: Hey, I kinda liked this one! A pre-taped bit about a shadow agency who tracks Andrew to the ends of the earth after he dares to semi-diss Beyonce, but with cameos from Jack and Chloe from 24! Love seeing Kiefer and Mary-Lynn back in action.
WEEKEND UPDATE: After a lame last few Updates, it's actually good tonight! The jokes are solid and Kate shows up as her Russian village woman (she's funny as always- she's somebody they would feature a lot more if they'd slice this cast in half). We also get Taran as Jebediah on the Tony noms (always good) and a new person, "image consultant" Leslie Jones, who appears to be one of the writers they hired back when Sasheer first came on in January. She's a big presence, that's for sure and she seemed to be a hit with the crowd- I thought she was decent in her debut. Wonder if she'll be back.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2: Emma is back! Of course, you should always use her if you can. And, wait, could it be? A good sketch? Yes, I think it is! Emma and Andrew are great together as they can't figure out how to kiss while filming a scene from the movie and it's hilarious. Even better is the payoff when Chris Martin shows up. God, it's been so long since they had a genuinely good sketch, not just decent or passable. Bring Emma back more, she raised everything up a notch. Or better yet, have them co-host!
WEDDING TOAST: Amusing bit where Andrew gives the worst best man wedding toast in history, while the crowd is horrified. Andrew's really giving it his all tonight and you can tell. He may not be as naturally chameleon-like as Drake and Emma, but he's certainly energetic.
BIRD BIBLE: Final bit of the night is a rerun of that bird bible ad from a few weeks ago. Meh. It's always lame when they re-use stuff.
So that's it. Andrew was fun, Emma was better, and I really want to see the two of them do a comedy together. Maybe I'll get my wish, since they don't seem to be shy about appearing and doing things as a couple and they've got great chemistry and timing that shouldn't be wasted on the recycled Spidey franchise. I give tonight a B-, since even though it felt like an improvement, it wasn't exactly grade A material (I mean, one good sketch in a whole episode really shouldn't be the benchmark of quality, right?) Next week we have Charlize Theron and The Black Keys, so until we meet again everyone!
