Category: saturday night live: season 42

‘Saturday Night Live’ ends its season on a high note with Dwayne Johnson

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 42

Saturday Night Live
Dwayne Johnson & Katy Perry
May 20, 2017

Saturday Night Live ended this rollercoaster of a season in the capable hands of the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as host, welcoming him into the increasingly less exclusive Five-Timers club, and saying goodbye to two long-standing cast members, Bobby Moynihan and Vanessa Bayer. And aside from a couple of wild misses (what even was that bar sketch, guys?), the show did right by everyone: Johnson was given material that suits his disarmingly charming nature, and Bayer and Moynihan were in practically every sketch (one or both of them were in 10 of the 15 sketches below). It was a fitting farewell to two of the show’s most dependable performers; it’s just a shame they didn’t receive more recognition in the final credits, Lorne.

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‘Saturday Night Live’: Melissa McCarthy rides again as Sean Spicer, maybe for the last time?

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 42

Saturday Night Live
Melissa McCarthy & Haim
May 13, 2017

What can be said about Melissa McCarthy and Saturday Night Live that I haven’t already said in her other four appearances as host? Melissa McCarthy is a comedy genius and such a natural fit on Saturday Night Live and last night was no exception and even my husband who harbors an unreasonable hatred for Melissa McCarthy agrees that the Sean Spicer bits are pretty hilarious and it is patently absurd that she has hosted the show exactly as many times as Scarlett Johansson what is that even about.

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For reasons that are unclear, Chris Pine sings his way through a thoroughly terrible ‘Saturday Night Live’

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 42

Saturday Night Live
Chris Pine & LCD Soundsystem
May 6, 2017

Hey, did you guys know that Chris Pine, that guy from Star Trek, can sing? Because Chris Pine REALLY REALLY REALLY wants you to know he can sing. If we count Weekend Update as one sketch (which, let’s just) there were 12 sketches on last night’s Saturday Night Live, and Chris Pine sang in 5 of them. The thing is, Chris Pine? Is not that great of a singer. So, what is even happening here? Who asked this guy to sing?

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‘Saturday Night Live’: A Spicey Easter

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 42

 Saturday Night Live
Jimmy Fallon & Harry Styles
April 15, 2017

Let me be upfront with you: I am probably grading this episode of Saturday Night Live harsher than it deserves, but Jimmy Fallon, ugh. I don’t dislike the guy, but I do wish I could go back to when I looked forward to him hosting Saturday Night Live because he was such a reliable professional. However, in the wake of everything that has happened in the past 18 months or so, Fallon hosting SNL forces us all to pretend for an hour and a half that he and the show didn’t do their damnedest to normalize Trump. He didn’t need to have Trump on as a guest and floof his hair and Saturday Night Live didn’t need to have Trump on as a host and try to make him look like he could take a joke — but they did because they couldn’t resist the ratings gold and now he’s President and I still blame them both a little bit so, you know, fuck fairness.

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Soon Alec Baldwin will be playing all of the roles on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ (And that’ll probably be fine.)

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live, saturday night live: season 42

 Saturday Night Live
Louis CK & The Chainsmokers
April 8, 2017

After a strong first half , the back half of Saturday Night Live‘s season has not been terrific, despite a wealth of material to work with. I mean, Devin Nunes? Obamacare? Mar-a-Lago? Kushner v. Bannon? How are you guys whiffing with everything the Trump Administration has had to offer?

And so, after a month-long break, the show was back this week with Louis C.K., the closest this show gets to a “sure thing” for a host. So did the show finally deliver or did it disappoint yet again?

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Scarlett Johansson is complicit in a terrible episode of ‘Saturday Night Live’

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 42

 Saturday Night Live
Scarlett Johansson & Lorde
March 12, 2017

What is going on, guys? Are you fatigued? Just so very tired of Donald Trump? Running out of ideas? Did you hit your heads and forget how comedy works? Because this is the second week in a row in which Saturday Night Live was not just mediocre, but downright terrible. Terrible!

Now, some, like my husband, will argue that Saturday Night Live has been downright terrible for a long time now, but that’s not true! Remember the Dave Chappelle episode? Lin-Manuel Miranda’s? Aziz Ansari’s?  These were good episodes — great even! — and they aired not all that long ago.

And here’s the place where I usually excuse the host, training my disapproving eye squarely on the writers’ room. But not this week. Scarlett Johannson, you are literally a member of the Five-Timers Club! You’re practically a member of the cast now! You don’t get to be this Not Good, girl! EVERYBODY NEEDS TO DO BETTER.

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‘Saturday Night Live’ wastes Octavia Spencer’s gifts

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 42

 Saturday Night Live
Octavia Spencer & Father John Misty
March 4, 2017

I’m not here to criticize Octavia Spencer. She’s great, she did her best with the material she was given, and she clearly has a sense of humor. So it’s not her fault last night’s Saturday Night Live was a steaming pile of meh. No, all the blame lies with the writers who had all the material in the world they could have possibly asked for, and in turn they gave us … Spencer’s Gift jokes.

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‘Saturday Night Live’: Alec Baldwin takes his time making fun of Trump

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 42

Saturday Night Live
Alec Baldwin & Ed Sheeran
February 12, 2017

As I’m sure you know by now, Alec Baldwin’s appearance as host of Saturday Night Live was his 17th, thereby setting a hosting record. What you might not have known is that it gave Saturday Night Live its highest ratings in six years, besting even Donald Trump’s appearance in 2015. I can’t wait to see our President’s tweet about how he got “swamped” in the ratings by the guy who impersonates him. In fact, I am going to sit here and hold my breath until that happens.

~inhales~

While we all wait for that tweet, let’s discuss the fact that even though one of the reasons so many people tuned in last night was to watch Trump be skewered, Saturday Night Live buried their only Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump sketch in the back end of the episode. It wasn’t a bad sketch — playing off a joke set up in the cold open that Trump would see the 9th Circuit Judges in People’s Court, the bit was as funny if not funnier than a lot of the Baldwin as Trump cold opens. So why put the one thing that everyone tuned in for so late in the episo– oh, wait. I just answered my own question.

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‘Saturday Night Live’ needs to hire Melissa McCarthy to join the cast full time. Immediately.

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live, saturday night live: season 42

Saturday Night Live
Kristen Stewart & Alessia Cara
February 4, 2017

Kristen Stewart, blah blah blah, let’s get to what everyone is talking about already:

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‘Saturday Night Live’: In which Aziz Ansari delivers the inaugural address we all needed

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 42

Saturday Night Live
Aziz Ansari & Big Sean
January 21, 2016

It’s been an emotionally tumultuous weekend, what between inaugurating a walking definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorder as our 45th President, followed by millions of people taking to the streets to stand for all of the rights that they are terrified said walking definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorder will strip them of, and then being taught a fun new phrase: “alternative facts,” when the walking definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorder wanted to pretend he had more people at his swearing-in than he actually did because the mean ladies protesting against him hurt his fee-fees.

Against this nausea-inducing backdrop, Saturday Night Live had the foresight to recreate their wonderful post-election episode by once again inviting a seasoned stand-up comedian and actor to helm this episode, and Aziz Ansari, he stood up to the occasion. His opening monologue is a sensitive tight-rope walk, taking on the country’s racial anxieties without demonizing Trump himself, and I am certain it will be remembered as one of the best moments of an excellent season.

That said, not everything in this relatively very strong episode made me happy — more on that — LOTS more on that — below.

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