And very often the first show of the season is not one of the better ones—it takes them a while to find their groove.
We British are known for our stoicism. I sat through it - that’s about the nicest thing I can say about it. I’ll probably watch the second show, for one specific reason.
Ania Magliano is one of those stand-ups who seems to have appeared from nowhere fully formed. A month ago I hadn’t heard of her (Taskmaster annoys me). There was a one hour TV special of one of her shows, we watched it, we were blown away. Desperate to catch her live now. If anyone can rescue SNL(UK) it’s her. But that’s quite an ask.
j
I read this Guardian review of the first episode and I’m still puzzled about something:
The general feeling, I think, will be that the inaugural episode of Saturday Night Live UK – Sky’s version of the famous 51-year-old American original founded and still overseen by the infamous Lorne Michaels – did work.
Infamous Lorne Michaels?
I did some searching to figure out why anyone would consider Michaels infamous. He has ultimate power at SNL. He has made some some ruthless decisions in not hiring or firing some cast members and writers. He has decided that certain guest hosts and musical guests can never come back. I don’t personally see that he has been that much more dictatorial than most people who have been in charge of a long-running show.
I guess the writer might simply having been playing off the word ‘famous’ used earlier in the sentence, but it doesn’t really work. Michaels has a pretty good reputation overall.
Thanks for posting this, I had no idea there had been a German SNL. I watched some of the sketches and they were terrible, but I’m still going through them.