Tag: paula pell
‘The Bachelorette’s’ first Asian lead has appallingly few Asian contestants on her season
Hope you weren’t too excited about that ‘Modern Family’ ‘reunion’
Kristen Wiig receives a star-studded induction into ‘Saturday Night Live’s’ Five-Timer’s Club
Saturday Night Live
Kristen Wiig & Raye
April 6, 2024
Kristen Wiig is arguably one of Saturday Night Live‘s greatest former cast members — which is why it is no surprise that she is one of only five cast members who has hosted enough times to be inducted into the Five-Timers Club. (Can you name the other four?)
But despite her greatness as a cast member and her success off the show, Wiig has not had the most successful run with hosting the show. In 2016, I said the episode “was the equivalent of putting on an old sweatshirt: comfortable, familiar and warm, but not something you’ll remember even two days from now”; in May 2020 — which was in the middle of the pandemic and one of those difficult at-home episodes — Wiig only appeared in two bits, one of which was a “weird-and-not-weird-in-a-funny-way-just-weird monologue”; and in December 2020, I found the material to be “mediocre” and gave it a B-. (I don’t have her first episode from 2013 here in the Foolish archives, unfortunately.)
So I am happy to report that for this momentous occasion, the writers gave Wiig some good material to work with and supported her with a bevy of superstars, and as a result, Wiig finally hosted the Saturday Night Live episode that her talents deserved.
Kate McKinnon comes home for Christmas on ‘Saturday Night Live’
Saturday Night Live
Kate McKinnon & Billie Eilish
December 16, 2023
In my mind, the pre-Christmas episode of Saturday Night Live has traditionally been hosted by a former cast member — the perfect episode for some nostalgia and a homecoming. However, I did the math, and it turns out that over 49 seasons of SNL, only 10 of the Christmas episodes have been hosted by previous cast members, so go figure!
In any event, it’s the wonderful Kate McKinnon’s first trip back to SNL after having left the show in 2022 after 10 seasons. McKinnon is one of the best SNL performers of the past 20 years, a solid comedian who prefers to go full weird, and who has been the savior of many a sketch. And so I had high hopes for this episode, hopes that I’m afraid were unmet. It wasn’t a bad episode — McKinnon is always fun, she was joined by two other SNL greats, and the annual Christmas Joke Off is one for the ages — but overall, it feels like it could have been so much more.
Continue reading “Kate McKinnon comes home for Christmas on ‘Saturday Night Live’”
The ‘Love is Blind’ reunion raises a lot of questions about the Houston bar scene
Chris Licht is out at CNN and somewhere Don Lemon is popping champagne
Finally some good TV news: 9 of your favorite shows have just been renewed
Three celebrity scandals, one reality show. What’s going on here?
