Ariana Grande made a fairly impressive debut on SNL last night, showing off an ability to do a range of musical impressions and one killer Jennifer Lawrence voice that will be the thing most remembered about this episode, probably. I admit it- she has my attention.
COLD OPEN: Another CNN round-up that gives us Trump being endorsed by Jay's Ben Carson (and having his supporters punch him in the face when he's mistaken for a protester), but most importantly, Larry David returns as Bernie Sanders, mocking his supporters' annoying facebook posts about him (SO true!!!), and wearing his pajamas under his suits (that's why they're so baggy, lol). Funny. I guess Larry should just join the cast for the remainder of the season, huh?
MONOLOGUE: Ariana comes down and reminisces with Kenan about coming from Nickelodeon, and then sings about wanting to have her own adult scandal to launch her grown-up career (something besides the donut-licking thing, which was literally all I knew her from before tonight). It's not bad.
HILLARY AD: An ad by Hillary trying to appeal to millennials by physically transforming herself into Bernie Sanders. Kate's hilarious as always.
KIDS CHOICE AWARDS: Taran, Vanessa and Ariana are hosts on the KCA's orange carpet who keep thinking the show is supposed to start and missing the countdown clock. This is funny because it reminds me of the guy on ABC who kept having to helplessly delay over and over again before the Oscars show.
FEMINIST SONG: All the women on the show sing a "feminist anthem" whose lyrics are all about having no lyrics for a feminist anthem and getting a bunch of reactions and angry questions about it anyway. This is pretty decent too, actually, and ends up just showing a bunch of women running on the beach.
TALES FROM THE SEA: Vanessa and Ariana are mermaids who rescue some sailors, but Kate is a gross "blobfish" who saves Beck and insists on him cozying up to her. This is kinda weird and random, but Kate does what she can with it, as usual. I'd call this one a miss, though.
UPDATE: Colin and Michael poke fun at, what else, Trump and his latest violence fueled rallies, including the one in Chicago he called off, then Cecily appears as the drunken Bachelor contestant who lost, and finally Riblet shows up for the first time in a while to steal Che's thunder again. It's an okay update, shorter than usual.
TIDAL: Ariana rescues the glitches in Tidal streaming by impersonating Britney Spears, Shakira, Rihanna, Celine Dion and Whitney Houston, and pretty much nails all of them while doing it. Color me impressed.
FAMILY FEUD: A range of celebrity impressions in Kenan's skit, but Ariana again steals with an eerily perfect impression of Jennifer Lawrence, making fun of how she's constantly calling herself a "regular" person. Too perfect.
SOUND OF MUSIC: Final skit of the night is a spoof of the nuns singing about Maria behind her back, and then Ariana's Maria comes in and reads them the riot act, complete with claps and head tilts. It's only alright, but Ariana has done well enough tonight to overlook it.
So that was March, guys! A better episode than last week with a very able hosting gig by Ariana, who should call some attention to her voices and impressions. Plus it had Bernie and the HIllary ad, so I give this one a solid B. The show returns on April 2nd with first time host Peter Dinklage (yay!) and Gwen Stefani, so I'll see everybody then!
