Oh sigh. Saturday Night Live, even with Alec Baldwin hosting, you sure did stink this weekend. What the hell happened? Just last week, your Betty White episode was pretty swell. It wasn't perfect, but for this season, it was pretty damn good.
But Saturday's episode? What a god damn train wreck. By my count, there were three funny moments - Meyers' jokes during Weekend Update, the appearance of Stefan in Update, and Baldwin as an abusive swim coach. None of these were original features, and only one used the considerable talents of Baldwin, who seemed on autopilot the majority of the night.
Dear Saturday Night Live, PLEASE stop making Kristen Wiig play some awkward, horrible shrew in every god damn sketch. If you don't have faith in Jenny Slate or Abby Elliott to do anything, then please, just do all-male sketches or something. Heck, you haven't even done "What's up with that?" lately, which is normally a guaranteed way to kill six to eight minutes.
Grade: D
Other than the writing staff problems, it's funny that Betty White is pretty much the opposite of everything they tried to do this year. They kicked out Michaela Watkins - who was pretty talented but in her late-30's for three good looking female early-20's hipster improv comics to try to get younger. On the other hand, you have Betty White who is a raunchy aging sitcom actress.
ReplyDeleteAny bets on which cast members return? I can't see Slate or Elliot back.
I agree with you about the cast - They shouldn't have ever let Watkins or Casey Wilson go. I think both of them were really solid, and Elliott and Slate either haven't been able to fill the roles, or Lorne Michaels has so little confidence in them to do so that they haven't gotten the chance.
ReplyDeleteI think Slate has been ticketed for dismissal since she swore on the first broadcast. It's a shame, because she has been growing on me. I think Elliott is safe because of her bloodlines, but it wouldn't surprise me to see one of the male cast members booted.
The digital short was good too. The episode was a let down though.
ReplyDeleteThey need to bring Justin Timberlake back to host again. Taylor Swift too, that episode was really good.
I had forgotten about the digital short, but yeah, that was OK. The odd thing is that it would have been even better without all the drug references, haha. Like if Samburg was just playing as some wicked nutty guy.
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