tragabigzanda wrote:Strat wrote:tragabigzanda wrote:Legitimately one of my favorite episodes of all time. The Pete Davidson videos were awful, everything else was awesome.
Look, maybe once the novelty of it wears off you'll see clear as day it as a standard SNL episode. Some good stuff, some horribly awful stuff.
I totally respect they made this happen and I hope they continue to do so.
Kudos to them for making it feel like an SNL episode. For me, the comedians that I dont care much for (you know who) really fell flat and their inadequacies were very on display.
Weekend update was great. Middle aged mutant turtles was great, zoom sketch, and sky sports news were the best.
Ginsberg was awful. Heidi Gardner continues to annoy the shit out of me. The Master Class sketch may have been funny but I legit had no idea who they were trying to make fun of.
Is this because I hate the Black Keys?
Seriously folks...The "novelty" will never wear off for me, because this episode is perhaps the single greatest example we'll have of how the personalities and creative minds of this cast operate free of the constraints of their normal production environment. Similar to the Self Pollution broadcast or Single Video Theory, it's a unique window into the personal lives and creative process of the cast members when they're isolated from the monstrous production team...
Some of them soared. I think Kate McKinnon's skit was hysterical; ditto Alex Moffett's Sky Sports Report, and Beck and Kyle's weird sample video. The "How Low" dating sketch was something that would have worked just as well outside of the pandemic narrative, but it added an extra element that was pretty funny.
Conversely, Pete Davidson making a skin in his mom's basement about Drake is basically what I imagine Pete Davidson is like when he doesn't have the cast propping him up.
I also happen to think this is one of the very best
ensemble casts the show has ever had, even if it's lacking (outside McKinnon and possibly Mooney) the genius-levels of a Murray, Farley, Fey, or Poehler. With the exception of Davidson, I find everyone to be extremely talented.
And it's also the first cast to have a number of members land roles on the show by creating
this very type of content before they were famous: Bennett and Mooney were doing a ton of videos with Good Neighbor, Chloe Fineman has been doing terrific impression work on Instagram for a while now, etc. So this episode was, for me, not just a window into the private creative lives of people I really enjoy, but a great reminder that many of these people deserve to be on the show because they're funny, talented, creative, and driven.
And the Hal Willner tribute was really touching, and a great way to acknowledge what the extended crew bring to the show on a weekly basis.
Certainly not the "funniest" stuff they've turned out, but for this superfan it was one of the most joyful experiences I've ever had watching this show.
