Saturday Night Live Season Premiere Review
Also published on BlogCritics.
Saturday Night Live kicked off its 34th season on Saturday night, with eight time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps as host. The cast remained pretty much the same as last year. In fact they have been using the same opening credits sequence for the past three seasons. The only significant change is the addition of Bobby Moynihan as a featured player. Casey Wilson, who was added (presumably as a replacement for the departed Maya Rudolph) when the show returned after the writers' strike last season, is also back as a featured player.
I have to wonder — is there no female talent out there? Surely there must be funny women out there. Currently the cast is comprised of nine guys and three women. Amy Poehler, who has already been on the show for seven seasons, is pregnant and will presumably be gone sometime in the near (very near from the looks of things) future. Fortunately Kristen Wiig, who joined the cast in 2005, has been a breath of fresh air. She is funny and has brought several good characters to the show, most notably the one-upping Penelope.
Sports figures who have hosted have always been a mixed bag for the show. Unfamiliar with the format they often come across as a bit stiff (though well-respected actors like Robert De Niro have come across the same way). Michael Phelps is no exception, though I would not say he was terrible. Phelps mostly stuck to lower-key parts, even playing himself in more than one sketch. Overall the episode was okay, but not great. I will give them some bonus points for not getting too political. Aside from the cold open and a few jokes during "Weekend Update" the show stayed away from the political scene. I'm fine with them covering politics. It wouldn't be SNL without some political commentary, but for a while the show seemed to revolve around it, and that was tiring.
The Cold Open - "A Non-Partisan Message From Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton" (Grade: A-)
As soon as Sarah Palin was announced as John McCain's running mate, I wondered if Tina Fey would be back. She was, and she turned out to be very good as Palin. She nailed the voice, the look, and Palin's facial expression. Amy Poehler has never gotten Hillary Clinton's voice quite right, but in this sketch she does convincingly convey Clinton's persona. The non-partisan message is about sexism towards female politicians by the media. The sketch is clever and funny, with the two ladies trading opposite takes on sexist comments. Palin complains that she is called beautiful, while Clinton doesn't want to called a wombat. This was definitely a high point of the show.
Michael Phelps' Opening Monologue (Grade: B-)
Phelps, understandably, lacks a little charisma, but he held his own in the monologue. This sketch gets bonus points for the funny cameo from William Shatner. Shatner coaches Phelps on maintaining integrity in product endorsements, while at the same time plugging Priceline. Phelps' mom also makes an appearance at the end, which was a nice touch.
"Quiz Bowl" (Grade: C+)
This sketch was a quiz show with public high school kids pitted against home-schooled, extremely religious kids. This was a good idea but the execution was only mediocre. The point was that both groups of kids were equally uneducated, but unfortunately the jokes were not all that funny. After a good start with the home-schooled kids not knowing anything about biology - they thought cells inside the body were made of magical spirits - the jokes became a little over the top and lost their zing.
Commercial - "The Jar Glove" (Grade: F)
We've all seen the commercial where they go a little overboard in saying how bad life is without their product - the person has to clean for hours and hours if they don't have the all-in-one kitchen gadget, or something like that. "The Jar Glove" spoofs that idea, but takes it so far out of relateability that anything humorous is lost. Basically if you don't have the jar opener, you kill your husband, go to prison, and then mastermind a great escape. Some subtlety might have made this a good idea.
"Big Kids" (Grade: C)
We first saw these characters in the Seth Rogen episode from last season. Basically the parents (Bill Hader and Amy Poehler) are hosting a party and their extremely strange kids are a constant interruption. It is funny that the parents heap praise all over their kids' weirdness, but the sketch grew pretty tiresome by the end. The kids were played by Kristen Wiig and Michael Phelps. At the very least Phelps looked funny in his enormous head-gear.
"Weekend Update" (Grade: C-)
With the competition of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, "Weekend Update" has lost a lot of its edge. Personally I'm not a fan of Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers as the anchors. Poehler seems to have a hard time letting someone else get a laugh without trying to get in on it. Meyers is okay, but hasn't left a big impression. The two managed to get in quite a few Sarah Palin jokes, and they brought out three commentators. Fred Armisen as the college student who thinks he has the world figured but isn't actually able to say anything, is a pretty good piece of observational humor. Will Forte's Alaska Pete, Sarah Palin's biggest supporter, was a fairly obvious send-up of mindless "rednecks" who only care about hunting and small town values. The low point was Andy Samberg doing Cathy from the comic strip. His bit was pointless and not funny in any way. He relied completely on doing a funny voice, and didn't actually say anything funny.
"The Charles Barkley Show" (Grade: D)
The talk show has been a long time standby for SNL. "Wayne's World," "Coffee Talk," "The Church Lady," "Black Perspective, "Pretty Living," " Jarret's Room," and "The Prince Show" are all just a few in a long line of SNL talk shows. This one just does not work all that well. The main problem is that there is not really any reason why a Charles Barkley talk show would be funny, and Kenan Thompson (as Barkley) gives the audience no reason to think otherwise. This is a fairly mundane sketch that completely relies on the strength of the guests. In this case Darrell Hammond did a decent Bela Karolyi. Michael Phelps appeared as himself.
"T-Mobile" (Grade: B-)
This sketch gives us a glimpse of what happens next in the already funny T-Mobile commercial where the sister is mad because her brother put all her friends in his cell phone "top five." When the girl complains to her parents, her dad replies "maybe you shouldn't have such hot friends." That is where the real commercial ends. In this sketch the wife is angry that the husband thinks the friends are hot, and long story short, the sketch ends with the husband moving out of the house. There is some funny dialogue between the husband and wife. This was a good sketch idea, it worked pretty well.
SNL Digital Short - "Space Olympics" (Grade: B-)
I have to admit that I've never been a huge fan of the digital shorts. Aside from the original "Lazy Sunday," I haven't found them to be all that funny. I do like that Andy Samberg (the primary force behind the shorts) tries to come up with absurd ideas and they do bring something different to the show. In this one it is the future and the Olympics apparently take place on some other planet. Samberg sings the Space Olympics theme song throughout the short film. The joke is that despite the elaborate theme song, nothing about the Olympics goes right. Everything is a complete disaster.
"Uno's" (Grade: F)
This sketch was pretty much a non-idea. Basically some people are ordering food and the waiter - played by newcomer Bobby Moynihan - keeps saying he smells peppers. That's it. Not much else happened.
"The Charles Barkley Show" (Grade: D)
The talk show has been a long time standby for SNL. "Wayne's World," "Coffee Talk," "The Church Lady," "Black Perspective, "Pretty Living," " Jarret's Room," and "The Prince Show" are all just a few in a long line of SNL talk shows. This one just does not work all that well. The main problem is that there is not really any reason why a Charles Barkley talk show would be funny, and Kenan Thompson (as Barkley) gives the audience no reason to think otherwise. This is a fairly mundane sketch that completely relies on the strength of the guests. In this case Darrell Hammond did a decent Bela Karolyi. Michael Phelps appeared as himself.
"T-Mobile" (Grade: B-)
This sketch gives us a glimpse of what happens next in the already funny T-Mobile commercial where the sister is mad because her brother put all her friends in his cell phone "top five." When the girl complains to her parents, her dad replies "maybe you shouldn't have such hot friends." That is where the real commercial ends. In this sketch the wife is angry that the husband thinks the friends are hot, and long story short, the sketch ends with the husband moving out of the house. There is some funny dialogue between the husband and wife. This was a good sketch idea, it worked pretty well.
SNL Digital Short - "Space Olympics" (Grade: B-)
I have to admit that I've never been a huge fan of the digital shorts. Aside from the original "Lazy Sunday," I haven't found them to be all that funny. I do like that Andy Samberg (the primary force behind the shorts) tries to come up with absurd ideas and they do bring something different to the show. In this one it is the future and the Olympics apparently take place on some other planet. Samberg sings the Space Olympics theme song throughout the short film. The joke is that despite the elaborate theme song, nothing about the Olympics goes right. Everything is a complete disaster.
"The Michael Phelps Diet" (Grade: C)
On the Michael Phelps diet you can eat 12,000 calories a day, and you won't look like Michael Phelps. Actually you'll die. There is a cameo from Jared Fogle of Subway diet fame at the end.
Overall this episode was okay, but I really think the show needs some changes. It just needs something to give it an extra spark. It's become too predictable and that is not what the show is supposed to be about.
Saturday Night Live kicked off its 34th season on Saturday night, with eight time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps as host. The cast remained pretty much the same as last year. In fact they have been using the same opening credits sequence for the past three seasons. The only significant change is the addition of Bobby Moynihan as a featured player. Casey Wilson, who was added (presumably as a replacement for the departed Maya Rudolph) when the show returned after the writers' strike last season, is also back as a featured player.
I have to wonder — is there no female talent out there? Surely there must be funny women out there. Currently the cast is comprised of nine guys and three women. Amy Poehler, who has already been on the show for seven seasons, is pregnant and will presumably be gone sometime in the near (very near from the looks of things) future. Fortunately Kristen Wiig, who joined the cast in 2005, has been a breath of fresh air. She is funny and has brought several good characters to the show, most notably the one-upping Penelope.
Sports figures who have hosted have always been a mixed bag for the show. Unfamiliar with the format they often come across as a bit stiff (though well-respected actors like Robert De Niro have come across the same way). Michael Phelps is no exception, though I would not say he was terrible. Phelps mostly stuck to lower-key parts, even playing himself in more than one sketch. Overall the episode was okay, but not great. I will give them some bonus points for not getting too political. Aside from the cold open and a few jokes during "Weekend Update" the show stayed away from the political scene. I'm fine with them covering politics. It wouldn't be SNL without some political commentary, but for a while the show seemed to revolve around it, and that was tiring.
The Cold Open - "A Non-Partisan Message From Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton" (Grade: A-)
As soon as Sarah Palin was announced as John McCain's running mate, I wondered if Tina Fey would be back. She was, and she turned out to be very good as Palin. She nailed the voice, the look, and Palin's facial expression. Amy Poehler has never gotten Hillary Clinton's voice quite right, but in this sketch she does convincingly convey Clinton's persona. The non-partisan message is about sexism towards female politicians by the media. The sketch is clever and funny, with the two ladies trading opposite takes on sexist comments. Palin complains that she is called beautiful, while Clinton doesn't want to called a wombat. This was definitely a high point of the show.
Michael Phelps' Opening Monologue (Grade: B-)
Phelps, understandably, lacks a little charisma, but he held his own in the monologue. This sketch gets bonus points for the funny cameo from William Shatner. Shatner coaches Phelps on maintaining integrity in product endorsements, while at the same time plugging Priceline. Phelps' mom also makes an appearance at the end, which was a nice touch.
"Quiz Bowl" (Grade: C+)
This sketch was a quiz show with public high school kids pitted against home-schooled, extremely religious kids. This was a good idea but the execution was only mediocre. The point was that both groups of kids were equally uneducated, but unfortunately the jokes were not all that funny. After a good start with the home-schooled kids not knowing anything about biology - they thought cells inside the body were made of magical spirits - the jokes became a little over the top and lost their zing.
Commercial - "The Jar Glove" (Grade: F)
We've all seen the commercial where they go a little overboard in saying how bad life is without their product - the person has to clean for hours and hours if they don't have the all-in-one kitchen gadget, or something like that. "The Jar Glove" spoofs that idea, but takes it so far out of relateability that anything humorous is lost. Basically if you don't have the jar opener, you kill your husband, go to prison, and then mastermind a great escape. Some subtlety might have made this a good idea.
"Big Kids" (Grade: C)
We first saw these characters in the Seth Rogen episode from last season. Basically the parents (Bill Hader and Amy Poehler) are hosting a party and their extremely strange kids are a constant interruption. It is funny that the parents heap praise all over their kids' weirdness, but the sketch grew pretty tiresome by the end. The kids were played by Kristen Wiig and Michael Phelps. At the very least Phelps looked funny in his enormous head-gear.
"Weekend Update" (Grade: C-)
With the competition of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, "Weekend Update" has lost a lot of its edge. Personally I'm not a fan of Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers as the anchors. Poehler seems to have a hard time letting someone else get a laugh without trying to get in on it. Meyers is okay, but hasn't left a big impression. The two managed to get in quite a few Sarah Palin jokes, and they brought out three commentators. Fred Armisen as the college student who thinks he has the world figured but isn't actually able to say anything, is a pretty good piece of observational humor. Will Forte's Alaska Pete, Sarah Palin's biggest supporter, was a fairly obvious send-up of mindless "rednecks" who only care about hunting and small town values. The low point was Andy Samberg doing Cathy from the comic strip. His bit was pointless and not funny in any way. He relied completely on doing a funny voice, and didn't actually say anything funny.
"The Charles Barkley Show" (Grade: D)
The talk show has been a long time standby for SNL. "Wayne's World," "Coffee Talk," "The Church Lady," "Black Perspective, "Pretty Living," " Jarret's Room," and "The Prince Show" are all just a few in a long line of SNL talk shows. This one just does not work all that well. The main problem is that there is not really any reason why a Charles Barkley talk show would be funny, and Kenan Thompson (as Barkley) gives the audience no reason to think otherwise. This is a fairly mundane sketch that completely relies on the strength of the guests. In this case Darrell Hammond did a decent Bela Karolyi. Michael Phelps appeared as himself.
"T-Mobile" (Grade: B-)
This sketch gives us a glimpse of what happens next in the already funny T-Mobile commercial where the sister is mad because her brother put all her friends in his cell phone "top five." When the girl complains to her parents, her dad replies "maybe you shouldn't have such hot friends." That is where the real commercial ends. In this sketch the wife is angry that the husband thinks the friends are hot, and long story short, the sketch ends with the husband moving out of the house. There is some funny dialogue between the husband and wife. This was a good sketch idea, it worked pretty well.
SNL Digital Short - "Space Olympics" (Grade: B-)
I have to admit that I've never been a huge fan of the digital shorts. Aside from the original "Lazy Sunday," I haven't found them to be all that funny. I do like that Andy Samberg (the primary force behind the shorts) tries to come up with absurd ideas and they do bring something different to the show. In this one it is the future and the Olympics apparently take place on some other planet. Samberg sings the Space Olympics theme song throughout the short film. The joke is that despite the elaborate theme song, nothing about the Olympics goes right. Everything is a complete disaster.
"Uno's" (Grade: F)
This sketch was pretty much a non-idea. Basically some people are ordering food and the waiter - played by newcomer Bobby Moynihan - keeps saying he smells peppers. That's it. Not much else happened.
"The Charles Barkley Show" (Grade: D)
The talk show has been a long time standby for SNL. "Wayne's World," "Coffee Talk," "The Church Lady," "Black Perspective, "Pretty Living," " Jarret's Room," and "The Prince Show" are all just a few in a long line of SNL talk shows. This one just does not work all that well. The main problem is that there is not really any reason why a Charles Barkley talk show would be funny, and Kenan Thompson (as Barkley) gives the audience no reason to think otherwise. This is a fairly mundane sketch that completely relies on the strength of the guests. In this case Darrell Hammond did a decent Bela Karolyi. Michael Phelps appeared as himself.
"T-Mobile" (Grade: B-)
This sketch gives us a glimpse of what happens next in the already funny T-Mobile commercial where the sister is mad because her brother put all her friends in his cell phone "top five." When the girl complains to her parents, her dad replies "maybe you shouldn't have such hot friends." That is where the real commercial ends. In this sketch the wife is angry that the husband thinks the friends are hot, and long story short, the sketch ends with the husband moving out of the house. There is some funny dialogue between the husband and wife. This was a good sketch idea, it worked pretty well.
SNL Digital Short - "Space Olympics" (Grade: B-)
I have to admit that I've never been a huge fan of the digital shorts. Aside from the original "Lazy Sunday," I haven't found them to be all that funny. I do like that Andy Samberg (the primary force behind the shorts) tries to come up with absurd ideas and they do bring something different to the show. In this one it is the future and the Olympics apparently take place on some other planet. Samberg sings the Space Olympics theme song throughout the short film. The joke is that despite the elaborate theme song, nothing about the Olympics goes right. Everything is a complete disaster.
"The Michael Phelps Diet" (Grade: C)
On the Michael Phelps diet you can eat 12,000 calories a day, and you won't look like Michael Phelps. Actually you'll die. There is a cameo from Jared Fogle of Subway diet fame at the end.
Overall this episode was okay, but I really think the show needs some changes. It just needs something to give it an extra spark. It's become too predictable and that is not what the show is supposed to be about.
Labels: SNL Episode Review
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