| Gwyneth Paltrow / Ryan Adams | |
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Well I'll have to admit that I wasn't expecting much from this episode. Even though Gwyneth hosted a few years ago, and did a fairly good job, I have this inner feeling that tonight's show would be a disappointment. I guess I'd have to wait to find out.
[ COLD OPENING ] George W. Bush Address
The Arabic captions at the bottom were a clever idea and tied into this sketch very well. Some of Dubya's myths were pretty funny, especially the "women with mustaches" one. A fairly impressive Bush opening....there's been better, and there's been worse.
RATING : 7/10
[ MONOLOGUE ] Gwyneth Paltrow
Well, this was the first time this season SNL has actually attempted a monologue with comedy involved. They failed miserably. The whole part of how Gwyneth and Maya were in the same class during grade school was pretty ironic and an interesting fact, but the whole bit about Maya being the maid just wasn't funny. But kudos for attempting something funny! Now I expect something better next week.
RATING : 5/10
[ SKETCH ] Sully and Denise at the Prom
I'm not usually a huge fan of these sketches, but this one was definitely the best one yet. The whole idea for the prom setting was very clever. The photo taking segment was very funny, and it was great to see Tina in a sketch at the end. Pretty funny sketch.
RATING : 8.5/10
[ SKETCH ] Gemini's Twin
Heh like the previous sketch, I'm not usually a huge fan of the Gemini's Twin sketches. But, with Gwyneth hosting, I could see it coming from a mile away. Dean's character was extremely funny, and his little terms he used during the interview were hilarious. I also liked when they were talking about how changing their names would make them more ethnic. But even still, I found this sketch pretty annoying.
RATING : 7/10
[ SKETCH ] Atteburys
Hmm it's been awhile since we've seen these characters! Will's extremely sarcastic comments were great, and fit in perfect with the sketch. Chris was good as the man from Persian decent, and the questions that Ana and Gwyneth asked were hilarious. A nice change to see these recurring characters back again.
RATING : 8/10
[ CARTOON ] Michael Jackson
What can I say....in my opinion, I found this extremely funny. However, I can see NBC getting tons of complaints after this one though. Maybe I like toilet humor, I don't know, but I liked the cartoon. So sue me.
RATING : 8/10
[ MUSIC ] Ryan Adams
Before this episode I had never heard of Ryan Adams before. It was good to get a rock artist on though, and this song was fairly decent. Lenny Pickett was amazing on sax. An overall good performance.
[ WEEKEND UPDATE ] With Jimmy Fallon & Tina Fey
There were a couple of excellent jokes this week, my favorites being the "David and Goliath, and David's friend the Stealth Bomber", and the "College is for Homos". It was also really funny to see Horatio back on as the sick minded cartoonist Jasper Hahn. But honestly, Jimmy can't get genuinely mad enough like Colin Quinn used to. Darrell's Guiliani segment wasn't that great, but it was funny when Chris came on as the new mayor of NYC...on his knees. An overall decent Weekend Update.
RATING : 9/10
[ SKETCH ] Family Dinner
Again, another very clever idea. Will was perfect as the father, who occasionally yelled out things that made no sense whatsoever to the conversation. His comments to his wife were great too, especially the "They wouldn't talk like rap people if you didn't let them watch the MTV". A fairly decent sketch, but it seems as if we're nearing the end of the show.
RATING : 6/10
[ SKETCH ] Mango
Seth's Hugh Grant impression was dead on and great! They're going to have to find a way to work that into the show more often. I can understand why they're putting these sketches closer and closer to the end of the show, because the jokes are really wearing thin. I did, however, like the little singing part. Matt Damon's cameo appearance fit in well with the rest of the sketch too. I guess it didn't suck too bad.
RATING : 6.5/10
[ SKETCH ] Fiesta Politica
Well this sure was...err...different. I can see that SNL is trying to work in Darrell's Rumsfeld impression as much as possible, maybe for practice for future shows? His little "what the hell?" remarks were pretty funny, and Horatio's character's screaming for no apparent reason was okay. Pretty decent for the very end of the show!
RATING : 5/10
[ NOVEL ] My Big Thick Novel By Jack Handey
"...the lion fell with me, and mauled me in the air. When we hit the water, he swam over to me and continued to maul me some more..." This was the best Handey yet so far this season.
RATING : 4/5*
* - not counted towards episode's final rating
[ OVERALL RATING ] 70 / 100
[ BEST SKETCH ] Sully and Denise at the Prom ( 8.5 )
[ BEST QUOTE ] "Hi little guy! Not gonna fondle ya!" - Michael Jackson.
[ POINTS OF INTEREST ] Gwyneth Paltrow and Maya Rudolph went to grade school together. Ryan Adams only performed once. Handey's back, and probably for good.
I'm surprised this averaged out to be a 70, because the lasting impression wasn't that great. Oh well, I guess it was a well evened out episode, and if you can consistently write shows like this all season, I guess it would be a pretty good season. Anyway, I can hardly wait for Creed to perform next week, because they're my favorite band. I don't really know much about Billy Bob Thornton, other than the fact that he's married to Angelina Jolie. Even still, I'm expecting big things from next week's episode.