S39.E21: Andy Samberg/St. Vincent

[formerlyfreedom]

Host Andy Samberg; St. Vincent performs.

[Tara Ariano]

Sketch Predictions by me!

[fastiller]

Terry Crewes showing up would be proof of a higher power.

[formerlyfreedom]

Promos!

 

http://www.hulu.com/watch/635889

[Galileo908]

Cold Open: Yes, Solange and Jay-Z sketch. Hell, I laughed at this. "THE SPIDER'S BACK!" Whoever called Maya showing up as Beyonce earlier, collect your winnings.

 

Monologue: I like Andy. I even liked him rattling off terrible impressions (the Smokey/Pharrell bit got me). Seth Meyers coming back was expected (he works down the hall), but enjoyed Bill Hader and Martin Short popping in, too.

 

Camp: This...was a talk show sketch, wasn't it? But any way, I liked it. Went into uncomfortable territory, though. Mostly enjoyed Andy and Kate in this, and being the cool kid a camp really seemed tailor made for Andy.

 

Digital Short (Drop The Bass): Loved this so much. Hey, anyone else notice Beck and Mike were the ones handing Andy bags of money? I was hoping for more of a Lonely Island/Good Neighbor crossover, but this'll do for me.

 

Confident Hunchback: Again, this was totally a character that seemed to be tailored for Andy. God, this was one of those "so stupid, it became hilarious" sketches for me.

 

WU: Damn do I hate that we were baited into thinking Stefon was gonna show up, and instead we got a lame New York stand-up. But I liked Andy's Nic Cage showing up again, but really that bit should've been retired once the real Nic Cage showed up.

 

Kissing Family: Speaking of sketches that should've been retired... Hell, they brought back EVERYONE for this sketch: Fred, Wiig, Bill, Paul Rudd. Liked Maya showing up at the end, though.

 

Kimye Talk Show: Taran as Bruce Jenner cracked me up so much. I want more of THAT, he was easily my favorite part of the episode.

 

Digital Short (Hugs): This was great. I need to pick up the Lonely Island's latest album, I never got around to doing that. Also loved Maya cameoing as Oprah one more time.

 

Legolas Tries To Order at Taco Bell: Silly.

 

Blizzard Man: Man, they really saved the recurring stuff for post Update, didn't they? I missed Blizzard Man, he really grew on me every time they did this sketch. Again, a sketch that's stupid but makes me laugh. And for some reason I liked 2 Chainz dancing as hard as he could to sell it.

 

Watches: Yay, love the Porn Stars hawking stuff sketches! "Santa came down my chimney and so did 3 other guys."

 

So, this ep was better than the last two, so there was that. Interesting that all the recurring sketches were saved for after Update. REALLY wish Martin Short's cameo wasn't wasted, but loved seeing Bill and Maya again.

[vb68]

So that happened.

It was more class reunion than an actual episode.  I really didn't like much up until Get in the Cage.  That always works for me.  And yeah, Taran as Bruce Jenner.

I'm shocked they didn't go for another The Californians, but YAY for small miracles.

What the hell was that first digital short?  What a letdown.  I thought it was terrible.

For me, I think the last sketch or maybe the last couple of sketches in the season finale should somehow wrap up the season, like last year with Fred, Bill, and Jason in the punk rock band.

Why do I have this feeling that it's going to be a long, long time before Jason is on the show again if ever?

[Bees]

Copypasta what I wrote in TWoP

 

There's four episodes I've realized you always need to watch out for a crapload of cameos -- Season Premiere, Alum Hosted Episode, Christmas Episode, and Season Finales. I believe we got 2 of the 4 here.

They should just skip the pretenses and just treat alum-hosted episodes as cast reunion episodes. Do one every year around April Fool's Day or something. It gets really tedious when like 80% of them come back.

This episode just....ugh. If they were holding back to do their best in this episode then their best is an idiot.

This also got me thinking, I wonder if current cast members get pissed off when former cast members host and they bring back half of their cast with them which in essence takes over the show. I mean that Vogelcheck sketch had only 2 regular cast members in it -- Killam and McKinnon.

The Camp sketch was amusing, I liked Hugs, Legolas (it was just so silly and Jay's little punchline at the end was amusing), and some of the Porn Stars. Everything else I hated, especially the Vogelchecks. God do I hate that sketch so much. And that iteration was a perfect summation of why I hated the 2005-2011 era of SNL. There's the breaking during sketches (fine when rare, but really annoying and tedious if regularly), the fact that it goes on and on, Kristen Wiig, Fred Armisen, too many cameos, takes up too much time during the show.

So overall, what'd you guys think of this season? I thought it was alright. I don't think there was one show that was absolutely coherent, but there were a lot of positives this season. The cast they have is a decent cast but it needs some trimming. I absolutely adore the addition of Beck Bennett and I love Sasheer Zamata. I like Mike O'Brien's writing but he just doesn't cut it for me as a performer. And I think that Killam and McKinnon are excellent anchors to the show and really should take the reigns as the leaders. What this cast really needs is just some trimming and better writing. The writing has some spark to it in a lot of places, but it really needs to be more clever.

All in all, subpar episode in a strangely promising season.

[possibilities]

Tatiana Maslany needs to host!

 

I was disappointed that no Brooklyn Nine-Nine cast made any appearances, but maybe the show doesn't have enough of a base that folks would recognize them. Or maybe it's just because B99 is not an NBC show.

 

I always thought the Ex-Porn Star sketch was funny before, but tonight the whole thing just seemed sad. Much like the show itself, to be  honest.

[DowntonStabby]

I think the problem with this season is they cast a bunch of new people and maybe used about half at most. (Has anyone located John Milhiser? Anyone? Bueller? Also, rarely seen Noel Wells, outside her Lena Dunham and Zooey Deschenel impressions, plus as that social media guru in that one White House sketch. And that Family Feud bit about Brooks Wheelan barely being on the show...also sadly true, aside from that and those 2 WU spots that I can recall.) And I feel like if they were going to address the NFL draft/Michael Sam the way they did (and a week later at that--couldn't they have just done a last-minute re-write for Weekend Update last week or something? Seriously, it's old news at this point), they shouldn't have bothered to mention it, period. (Plus, a) the surrounding sketch wasn't funny, and b) I didn't realize it had been a recurring sketch long ago to begin with, so that shows you how much I was watching SNL, what, 3 years ago?) And when they do shows like this, where you might as well just tell half the cast to hang out at the bar until goodbyes (or get a beer out of the minibar and watch Netflix until goodbyes, whatever they want to do), I'm sure it's got to be frustrating. It'll be interesting (though, mostly, unsurprising--with Mulaney having been picked up for 10 more episodes, I don't see Nasim Pedrad sticking around, for one) who ends up departing over the summer.

[A Boston Gal]

I was very disappointed this season in WU, specifically after Seth left. I hope there's a major overhaul before next season; at least in the writing if not the actual anchors.