Lin-Manuel Miranda, of Hamilton fame, comes over to SNL to host a subpar, kinda hit and miss episode, which is on the better side of things for this show, so, whatever. He’s a good performer anyway, and perfect for this kind of live, Broadway-esque stage show stuff, so if anything it’s cool that more people may actually get to know who he is because of this.
COLD OPEN: We start off with the VP debate that’s interrupted by breaking news of the infamous Trump Tape, the leaked video of Trump with Billy Bush behind the scenes of an Access Hollywood bus. I think we all know what was said on the tape by now, so we get to see Alec Baldwin’s Trump stammer and gross out Cecily as a CNN reporter, before cutting to Kate’s Hillary having a victory party and dancing to “Celebration,” which was predictable, but funny anyway. Baldwin’s Trump remains spot on while Hillary’s glee is contagious, so this one was a hit. SNL happened to be the first comedy show to get a crack at the tape, since it broke on a Friday afternoon, and they were obviously thrilled.
MONOLOGUE: Lin comes bounding down to break into a rendition of “My Shot” as he glides around backstage, which is very cool, as he takes his shot at Trump as well when coasting past the picture of him on the wall of past hosts (shudder).
CAMPGROUND: This one sucks, as Lin and Cecily are a couple who are faced with Kyle and Vanessa as another couple who keeps annoying them by breaking into terrible songs, like Footloose. It’s really, really bad, although Lin commits to it, as he does all night. Why was this the first sketch of the episode? That’s a bad sign.
CAST PARTY: A music video from the female cast members who are high schoolers flirting with the boys at an afterparty for their play, The Crucible. Eh. This one isn’t good either, but Lin’s little cameo kindamade me smile. The rest of it is crap.
SUBSTITUTE: Lin once again goes for it as hipster, wannabe cool substitute teacher for a bunch of high school kids who are over it and have seen all the cliches. It’s lame.
A DAY OFF WITH KELLYANNE CONWAY: A digital short with Kate as Trump’s psycho campaign manager, who keeps getting interrupted by having to constantly go on cable news to defend some new, ridiculous thing Trump said. Kate is funny here, so this one hits.
UPDATE: Pussy-gate continues unabated, as Colin and Michael go after Trump on the tape comments, again seizing on SNL’s chance to be the first to weigh in on this explosive story. Then Pete comes on and does one of his stand-up bits on balding, which is alright, and Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon show up as two “undecided” PA voters. This was obviously done to try to get Jimmy off the hook for his pathetic slobbering over Trump on the Tonight Show, and he doesn’t even do himself any favors by forgetting his lines and breaking through the whole skit. Dude, Tina tries to bail you out and you blow it? Whatever, The Tonight Show is dead to me after that anyway.
THE MUSIC MAN: A spoof of the musical that is trying to be some kind of commentary on the Wells Fargo situation with Lin as the con man banker. I appreciate the point, but the joke is a bit off in this one. Seems mostly like a chance to let everybody sing.
DIEGO CALLS HIS MOM: Pre-taped bit of Lin, who seems to be an exchange student who calls his mom from a pay phone in North Dakota, relaying the sights and sounds of the town he’s in, and how he appeared to fall in love with a guy. I don’t know if this one was even supposed to funny. Mostly odd.
STRANGER THINGS: A spoof of the Netflix hit that shows Lucas’s parents, who are horrified by their son hanging around with a sheriff and some weird white kids and weirder parents. What strikes me about this one is that because they got rid of Jay, Sasheer of all people has to play Lucas. This on top of using their new Hispanic cast member in the cold open to play a woman who was Asian, and once again the show is struggling with their way too white cast. And in response to this, Lorne of course hired two more white guys. Sigh. The more things change…
MELANIA MOMENTS: This looks like a weekly bit now, as Cecily’s Melania wakes up in fear of her replacement having been born somewhere in another country. Funny.
DEGREE OF VALOR: An old black and white war movie that sees Pete dying in Lin’s arms as he begs him to find his butt-plug in his house and hide it. Okay, this is kinda stupid but for some reason it made me chuckle a tiny bit.
So, that episode was very uneven, but I can count the stuff that made me smile at least. There was the opening, the monologue, the KellyAnne Conway skit, most of the beginning of Update for once, and the second Melania moment. Still, even though Lin wasn’t a bad host, there wasn’t anything that he shined in either, thanks to the writing. This episode frankly, owes the Trump implosion for anything in it working. I’ll give it a C. Next up we have Emily Blunt, as election season rolls interminably on.
