From my perspective, it was little more than swagger and attitude. While the color scheme, attire, and movements caught my attention, it did little to hold it.
I guess if I had perceived them as billed as a dance troupe or performance artists, I might have responded differently. When I assess a performance, I look for something that impresses me as “talent.” The talent might be limited to the concept and staging, but generally would also involve vocal, or movement or instrument playing skills. But for me, a purported singer who is clearly lipsynching is an immediate turn-off.
The dancers were all obviously aerobically fit and well rehearsed, but I did not see much to their movements other than displays of their crotches and backsides.
A lot of what passes for popular music in every era impresses me as far more attitude over substance. In certain situations at certain times, a performer might be innovative enough that their attitude - and even their promotional skills - might largely make up for a lack of artistic ability. I dunn - maybe the Sex Pistols? But then when the countless imitators line up, IMO they had better bring something unique and additional to the table, instead of simply aping/tweaking a predecessor’s style and attitude.
I’m very happy to see energy and instrumentation beyond a solo singer songwriter - although IMO it is harder for such a person to hide behind tech effects. And I tend to prefer at least SOME element of spontaneity - of which I saw none in these lipsynch displays.
Welp, if every musical performance fit exactly into your tastes then the world would be a pretty boring place. There’s a new performance each week and they tend to run the gamut over a season. Hope you run into something you enjoy down the line!
I thought it was, on the whole, a pretty solid episode. There were some obvious timing mistakes, but I chalk that up to this being the first show after a months-long break. The name-changing bit had me in stitches, especially Pete Davidson trying valiantly not to laugh while standing behind Chris Rock.
Cold Open was the VP debate, with Maya Rudolph as Kamala and Beck Bennett as Pence. It was ok. It was more exciting than the debate itself, at least!
Burr’s monologue was OK. It seemed a little “shock jock” for me but if I’m not mistaken it’s 100% what he usually does. I guess it caused some controversy, calling out white women for being “woke” and saying Pride Month is too long “for people who were never enslaved.” Kinda like he took a crayon and wrote down “people I’d like to offend” in a plot graph and filled in the gaps between while slowly getting drunk. Yay for Bill Burr.
The ESPN bit was pretty funny, with Burr playing a sportscaster who was focused on winning a bet on a Bears win, and the other, black sportscasters making a point about another black American killed by police. I think the acting and timing on this one was pretty good.
Man, I just watched this last night and can’t remember half the sketches…
Weekend update was good as usual. It was very interesting to see Kate McKinnon play a fairly silly character then break character and talk about how she’s bored!
The Sam Adams commercial made me laugh but it was fairly predictable. I dunno why but I always laugh when I see random sad-sack characters with a cast on their arm. It’s always just the extra gut punch to make them that much more sad. Kudos to the props dept for that one.
I always like Jack White. He didn’t have anything to promote (he came on when the regular guest blew covid protocols) so he just rocked out on two Jack White songs. Bang!
What else? There was another sketch I thought was funny but my morning brain is not recalling.
They’ve done the “people who say words wrong” bit a few times over the years. But folding that in with the fact that everybody is stressed out and on edge these days gave it a fresher edge and kept it from being a complete re-hash of an old idea. Burr and McKinnon both sold it hard. I laughed.
They have to get rid of Carrey as Biden. He’s just clowning around, he doesn’t evoke any sense of Biden’s personality or politics, and the minimal physical resemblance is quite bizarre.
The show was better than last week’s, but not by much. If the writers and cast are mostly working remotely then they may have lost something that held the show together. SNL may end up another victim of 2020.
I hope Carey as Biden doesn’t lose him votes! Nobody wants 4 more years of this!
But yeah I totally agree. Didn’t like him last week and I wasn’t won over any further this week. The good thing is they have had several dudes play him over the years, so hopefully Loren is not scared to change when they realize Carey isn’t working.
As Exapno said up there a few posts, playing Biden as a manic guy makes no sense. ‘Being manic’ is nothing to do with Biden. (Jason Sudeikis plays him as an overly-friendly dog, and that’s closer to Biden’s personality.)
I always thought Sudeikis played it too manic himself. Too overly aggressive - Biden goes from soft to loud and aggressive and back randomly (which can be hilarious if parodied right). Harrelson was far better imo.
Those were probably the best Beiber songs I’ve heard. Quite vulnerable in both of them.
Prior to that, he is just your normal teenybopper pop act. Nothing too much to explain there.
I really like Issa Rae and I thought a few of the sketches were quite good. I like the date one and the political show picking between candidates. The cold open was pretty bad.
I would argue that writing a song about how being a child star can be very lonely is quite vulnerable. Though I guess if people perceive such as whiney, most singers may be far more wary of being open and vulnerable.
IMO, they don’t have enough to keep all the regular cast members busy, and yet they hired three new featured players this season. And one of them, Lauren Holt, looks just like Aidy Bryant to me (well, sort of).
I don’t think Melissa Villaseñor appeared in the first two episodes at all.
I really like Issa Rae and I think she nailed her performance. I think she was smooth and didn’t flub anything. That being said I think it was a pretty boring episode.
Still don’t like Carey as Biden. Baldwin and Rudolph continue to nail it as Trump and Harris. Although they REALLY shoehorned Harris into this town hall sketch.
I never tire of Alex Moffet and Mikey Day as the Trump brothers on Weekend Update! They do such a good job! And it was REALLY funny to have someone playing Tiffany and Eric never having met her!
Jack Flatts was kinda funny. Those dudes getting so mad over that cheesy restaurant being closed.
The dance sketch with Issa and Kyle Mooney went right over my head. Zzzz.
Not a Justin Bieber fan. I’d heard the first song before (I’m a big Chance the Rapper fan so I checked it out when it came out). His music seems about the same as it’s always been (you know “Yummy yummy yummy” and “holy holy holy”…) but now he’s married (to Alex Baldwin’s niece) so his new stuff is about getting married. Same as Chance’s latest stuff. Second song was laying it on pretty thick. Yawn. They can’t all be bangers!
Last night Adele hosted and she lost a lot of weight and yet she wears an outfit that sticks out around her waist. Think it is a peplum. Strange outfit choice for sure.
I disagree. The Bachelor sketch had one joke (not a particularly good one) that it ran into the ground. The 2019 palm reader sketch was okay, but I thought they could have done more with the premise than they did.
Overall, a below-average episode. The only things I really liked were the political ad and Weekend Update. And I always like Chad, but this wasn’t as funny as some of the others.
Adele didn’t suck, but she wasn’t very funny; I’m in no hurry to have her back. (And what kind of accent is that, where she can’t say the letter T?)
