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Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 9:08 pm Posts: 4734 Location: 5th floor, Bay 7, position 5740
You got what you expected from a Melissa McCarthy episode: a more than game host playing dress up with whacky characters, a broad slapstick sketch, and now Spicey. That particular well was a given this week after the situation with the bushes. Like a lot people though I feel the political material is too much of a good/easy thing. An early celeb cameo who literally just seemed to stop by but the one at the end was a nice touch. McCarthy & McKinnon in particular play well together, I would have been perfectly happy with another cat ladies sketch. Nothing else of the episode particularly stood out though; that goes for Update too. I also noticed Colin was on crutches during the goodbyes? The finale this week, let's see if they go out with a bang or just want to wrap the season.
Joined: Tue September 24, 2013 5:56 pm Posts: 47029 Location: In the oatmeal aisle wearing a Shellac shirt
5/13/17: Melissa McCarthy/Haim
This marks McCarthy's fifth hosting gig, and of course she's been a recurring guest this season with her take on Sean Spicer. Her hosted episodes typically follow the same uneven pattern: Some of the best material the show puts up in a given season, tempered by some of the worst skits they've ever done. She excels at physical comedy, and when the writers embrace this, the skits can soar. But she has gotten into the habit of repeating herself -- while her characters may be technically different, they've come to embody one of a handful of archetypes she's developed. I expect to see the following characters revisited: Sean Spicer; an overconfident loser with no self-awareness; a bull-dykeish woman in power (gym teacher, police officer, etc); and some sort of suburban cookie-cutter housewife type. They'll all be great, but none of them will be new.
Side note: It was announced this week that Bobby Moynihan had a new pilot that was just picked up by a network, so the last few eps of this season will mark the end of his run on SNL. Hopefully he'll get a lot of airtime over the next few weeks; I sure am gonna miss his presence on the show.
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Cold Open: Nice to see Michael Che in a non-Update skit playing Lester Holt. Pity it has to include Alec Baldwin. I loved when Lester Holt got the relay in his headset that "Nothing matters at all any more." The Nixon/popular vote jab was good, and probably irked the real Trump, and the "I finally let Kellyanne Conway out of the crypt" was excellent. The followup jab at Trump's manhood -- insinuating that "priming the pump" is a reference to his foreplay routine with Ivanka -- was nice and coldhearted too. But these all got topped with Trump's admission that he "sit[s] on every chair like a toilet." Baldwin's take on Trump has become so boring and toothless, but this skit rises above the norm by having Lester Holt deliver some truly mean-spirited barbs at POTUS.
Monologue: I love any monologue that takes the viewer backstage, and this one is especially cute. And yet I despise Ryan Reynolds. I don't know what to make of this one.
Just Desserts!: Here's the suburban housewife character I mentioned, with lots of physical comedy. The "stay-at-home mother of none" line made me chuckle. Otherwise this was pretty bad.
Amazon Echo Silver: This wasn't funny.
Sean Spicer: I loved Aidy Bryant's Sarah Huckabee impression. Some good jokes throughout, and I enjoyed the sad and absurd ending. Probably the best Spicer appearance since the original.
Haim #1: I had to stop watching this after about a minute.
Weekend Update: Great installment! Lots of great, pointed criticisms of Trump that were actually funny. I like Che's repeated record scratch gags. Loved Jost's "basic atrocities" jokes. The non-political stuff was strong. Pete Davidson's bit was ok. Jost's "India: Where they treat babies better than America treats women" was awesome. I think my favorite joke was the Aunt Jemima/Listeria joke. I think this was my favorite take on Cecily Strong's Cathyanne character so far. Where previously the joke has been basically "I'm white trash," this one took the premise a big step further by having her deliver some strong political jokes from her character's vantage point.
Film Society Lincoln Center: This was ok. Not the best installment of the Debette Goldry character.
Leslie Jones & Kyle Mooney: This premise has never done anything for me.
Haim #2: I managed to get about halfway through, because the music was at least more interesting to me than the first song. But I don't care about this band.
Power Animal: This was awesome, especially because my MiL has adopted the rooster as her own power animal; her house is filled with rooster paraphernalia. The wife and I were cracking up.
Lighthouse Features Pitch Meeting: This was not good. ----------------------------------------------
Surprisingly weak episode for Melissa McCarthy. As Biff said, she was game as always, but the writing was often very weak. I was also surprised she didn't trot out each one of her primary characters I mentioned in the show intro, though we did get a couple of them.
I'm sad to see Bobby Moynihan's run winding down, but then I'm starting to see some of the newer cast members come into their own (Mikey Day and Alex Moffett). It's a bummer about Melissa Villaseñor -- I was finally starting to come around to her unique sense of humor, but she has really struggled this season, and I'd be very surprised if she was invited back next season.
The Steve Martin cameo during the credits was nice. And Haim is a dreadfully boring band.
Best skit: Weekend Update Worst skit: Just Desserts!
likes rhythmic things that butt up against each other
Joined: Fri March 31, 2017 7:05 pm Posts: 736 Location: In The Crevasse
I really enjoyed the WU. Che' and Jost have hit their stride really well with this segment. I wonder how Trump reacted to the make out scene between he and Spicer? The pie gag looked painful by the 3rd go round, props to MM for enduring that! She excels at the physical comedy. All in all, not a bad episode, but there's some stuff I could do without. Especially the Leslie Jones/Kyle Mooney segments. I'll miss Bobby M, but Pete Davidson can be executed a little more now.
Joined: Wed January 02, 2013 11:15 pm Posts: 20771 Location: the bathroom
I chuckled throughout the entire episode, and most of them were centered around the politically charged jabs. They seemed to be extra harsh this episode, like the writers are pushing the line to see what they can get away with, and I love it. Some very coldhearted, entertaining moments with some very veiled one-liners
Agreed, this was the best Trump/Baldwin moment so far since he was introduced. Some extremely harsh moments – awesome. I almost choked on my food with the "sitting on a toilet" line.
I dig Melissa McCarthy. She's hit or miss, but when she hits she really cracks me up. She just goes for it, and I like that about her. You could tell she was genuinely choking on a piece of confetti in that Just Desserts skit, haha
WU was top notch. It's good to see Pete Davidson slowly making his way back into the fold, and thought his appearance here was good for him as part of his rehab. I think his ability to finally poke fun at himself and take control of his problem is a really interesting and inspiring thing to watch on live tv.
Haim is dreadfully boring, and the last 3 skits could have been cut.
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