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Tag: snl
Did you catch that recent ‘Good Place’ Easter egg in that Netflix series?
Charli xcx does her best to keep ‘Saturday Night Live’ from being a turkey
Saturday Night Live
Charli xcx
November 16, 2024
Here’s what I know about Charli xcx: She’s a pop star. She is British. She is responsible for the whole “Brat summer” thing. She’s friends with Troye Sivan who was on The Idol. She had a collaboration with Billie Eilish this summer that was kinda naughty and all over TikTok. What I didn’t know is that she’s been around for about a decade, she’s pretty funny, quite natural in sketches and in front of a live audience, and she’s very happy to make fun of herself and her entire persona.
Now, that said, she wasn’t given a lot of great material to work with this week as the host (and musical guest) of Saturday Night Live. It wasn’t a terrible episode — I can point to countless worse episodes (including last week’s) — but the writers gave her a combination of recurring sketches that are starting to feel a little worn around the edges, and mediocre bits that needed some punching up. The biggest shame, though, is one of the best sketches of the night, and the one where she best shone, was cut for time. I’ll never understand the decision-making process of Mr. Lorne Michaels.
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Bill Burr’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ matches the national mood: Terrible
Saturday Night Live
Bill Burr & Mk.gee
November 9, 2024
Let me just say before going into this recap that I am still furious about the election and the very last thing I needed to comfort me through it was a both-sides-are-stupid comedian talking down to women. Did this color my ability to enjoy this episode? ABSOLUTELY. But here we are, like it or not.
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‘Euphoria’ still hasn’t been canceled even though it sure seems like it’s been canceled
It’s Election Eve, SO WHO ELSE IS FREAKING OUT?
‘Yellowstone,’ ‘The Penguin’ finale, the election — so much election — and everything else you don’t want to miss on TV this week
John Mulaney and Kamala Harris deliver a ‘Saturday Night Live’ that is one for the ages
Saturday Night Live
John Mulaney & Chappell Roan
November 2, 2024
The wonderful John Mulaney has hosted Saturday Night Live six times in the past six years. In fact, since 2018, he’s become a staple, usually hosting once a season in what will be one of the strongest episodes of that particular season (if not THE strongest). But it’s not all laughs: Mulaney has been through some shit in those 6 years — a relapse into drugs and booze, a divorce, a stint in rehab, and all the humiliation associated with all of that happening in the public eye. But Mulaney also bounced back, and stronger than before: he’s now a father of two, newly married to a woman he stood by through a cancer scare, and with a career that withstood all of those stresses.
And that is why, even if Saturday Night Live didn’t intend it, Mulaney was the perfect person to host the show on this particular Election Eve — in some ways, he represents the country itself. Like John, 2020 and 2021 were rough years for our nation: a pandemic, an economic crisis, a volatile election, an attempted coup — there were times we weren’t sure we were going to make it out the other side. But we fought through and came out changed: and like Mulaney, better than before, with the strongest economy in decades, unemployment at the lowest rates in memory, and our country in (relative) peace times.
I’m not entirely sure where I’m going with this, except to say that I hope Mulaney and our country maintain that sense of optimism, that we keep making good decisions every day, and that we all stay on track. I guess our country, at least, will find out whether or not we choose to on Tuesday.
Oh, and also? This is just a fantastic episode, start to finish.
Do Not Obey in Advance.
Michael Keaton Beetlejuice’s his way into a so-so ‘Saturday Night Live’
Saturday Night Live
Michael Keaton and Billie Eilish
October 19, 2024
Michael Keaton is 73 years old, only a year or two younger than my own parents but that’s neither here nor there except to say that he’s one of our acting treasures and I’m glad he’s having a moment with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and he looks great for his age and that he was not the thing that dragged down this episode.
What I am saying is that SNL has run for four weeks in a row, which, at least in recent years, is not the norm (it’s usually 3 episodes on, 1 off); and maybe the writing staff needed a break. (I’m guessing the idea was to be off the week before Halloween so that they could be on both the week before and after Election Day.)
ANYWAY. Michael Keaton, who has hosted in 1982; 1992; 2015; and now in 2024, wasn’t the problem: he was nimble and funny and game. The problem lay more in the writing and the concepts of the sketches that fell short. Hopefully, everyone gets a nice week off and comes back refreshed ahead of the MOST TERRIFYING ELECTION SEASON OF OUR LIVES.
No pressure.
Continue reading “Michael Keaton Beetlejuice’s his way into a so-so ‘Saturday Night Live’”