SNL Review, Drew Barrymore/Lily Allen Options

[bob_barron]

SNL Review

Blah blah…sorry this is late. I’ll try to have this week’s show done in a timely manner.

Cold Opening
Cast- Jason Sudeikis, Amy Poehler, Kenan Thompson, Seth Meyers, Maya Rudolph, Will Forte, Andy Samberg, Fred Armisen
Thoughts- Hey, it’s Seth in an actual skit. And congratulations to Jason Sudekis. He grabs another impression, replacing Parnell as the resident Simon Cowell. Then again, doing Simon Cowell really is not hard. A British accent and the ability to make snide comments, and you can be Simon Cowell too! This was one of those skits were the joke was funny once or twice, not enough for a whole skit. The animals were cute though. And yay for Seth getting to say LFNYISN, he does a great job of it. **1/4

Monologue
Cast- Drew Barrymore, Samberg, Armisen, Poehler, Kristin Wiig, Will Forte
Thoughts- Congratulations are in order to Drew Barrymore for joining the five timers club. I don’t think she’s really all that deserving. I don’t remember much about the show she did in 1998, but the anthrax episode sucked, and the episode she did in 2004 was mediocre. How did Andy Samberg get the coveted make out with the host slot? That should be earned through great skits and hard work. Lorne could have some sort of scoring system, and whomever wins gets to kiss the host. Not that I think Drew Barrymore is that great looking or anything, I just don’t think Andy Samberg should get any sort of reward. This monologue was okay as I liked the spoofing of romantic comedies, but there wasn’t that much to it. **1/2

The Dakota Fanning Show
Cast- Barrymore, Poehler, Thompson, Bill Hader, Wiig
Thoughts- I guess I don’t know my Dakota Fanning as much as I thought I did, since I didn’t know she was supposed to be some super genius. Watching War of the Worlds, I would’ve been on Team Alien had they slaughtered Dakota Fanning 5 minutes into that movie. She was so annoying. I think instead of killing Tim Robbins, Tom Cruise should’ve shot her. This was pretty good. I liked the awkward interplay between her and Kenan, but the interview with Harry Potter did nothing for me. Drew Barrymore looked really funny as Abigail Breslin, and of course loved the closing line, “I get raped in my next movie.” ***

Counselling
Cast- Barrymore, Forte, Wiig
Thoughts- Seems a bit early for an odd Will Forte skit, but I don’t think this was bizarre enough to merit official bizarre Will Forte skit status. This was funny though, especially when Drew expressed indignation at being blamed for everything. And you really can’t go wrong with Forte playing a poisoned guy. ***

SNL Digital Short
Cast- Barrymore, Wiig, Poehler, Rudolph
Thoughts- This reminds me of a skit that was cut from the Jon Stewart dress rehearsal where Tina, Amy and Maya played exercise models and Stewart was the host/a perv. It was awesome, probably my favourite cut skit ever. It was weird seeing a digital short without Andy, but it was a welcome change. This was, as usual, a funny digital short. Loved Amy’s character and all the cheesy perv shots. Whomever came up with deserves a gold star for originality. ***1/2

Target
Cast- Barrymore, Wiig, Armisen, Sudeikis
Thoughts- First of all, this Target skit is never funny! Second of all, they just DID one in the Justin Timberlake episode, and that one wasn’t that funny either. It seems that this one was shoehorned in there because of timing issues, since it was so short. At least Drew was funny in it. **

Insane Job Interview
Cast- Barrymore, Poehler, Rudolph, Thomspon
Thoughts- I know I’m sounding like a broken record, but this was another good solid skit in a series of them. Drew was very finny here and there were some good lines here. Plus, Maya was in a real skit that did not involve singing! And I was sad that this skit ended the run of this being Saturday Night Wiig. Another good skit, hooray for consistency. ***

Lily Allen “Smile”
Thoughts- The guys all playing the trumpets in unison bothered me. I had trouble understanding a word Lily Allen said because she’s British and because she spoke really softly. Come on Lily, speak up! I did like the song though, just wish she had sung it better. **1/2

Weekend Update
Cast- Meyers, Poehler, Thompson
Thoughts- Another good Update. The jokes were really good, and Kenan’s commentary was hilarious. Gotta love when Kenan plays a stereotypical black woman. I also really enjoyed Seth’s rant against his osteoporosis grandma. And there was Seth-Amy interaction which is always great to see. I wonder how much better the SNLs of the past two seasons would’ve been had they been smart enough to put Seth at the desk in 04. Seth was great, Amy had her moments and Kenan was Kenan. ***3/4

Versace
Cast- Ugh, Barrymore, Rudolph, Armisen, Meyers,
Thoughts- This might come as a shock to you, but I was not in favour of Horatio Sanz ever returning to SNL. I liked Drew and Seth as Posh and Becks (2 skits for Seth!) but the rest was the usual awful Versace crap. *

JoJo
Cast- Barrymore, Wiig, Poehler, Forte, Hader, Armisen
Thoughts- When they showed the rundown, I thought this was a skit about the singer Jojo. The chick, not the other half of the R-n-B group, KC and Jojo. This one just didn’t work, except for Jojo wanting to touch Drew Barrymore’s tits. *1/2

Firestarter
Cast- Barrymore, Sudeikis
Thoughts- I looked up at imdb what Firestarter was all about and man- how much coke was Drew Barrymore or her mom on to agree to do this film? This was alright, and I’m glad Drew was willing to laugh at one of her crappiest films. **1/2

Lily Allen “LDN”
Thoughts- I pretty much have the same comments as I do for her performance of Smile. She needs to be less nervous when she performs. I’m hoping Keith Urban does cocaine while performing next week. I’m looking forward to it. **1/2

Peter O’Toole meets Drew Barrymore
Cast- Barrymore, Rudolph, Hader, Sudeikis
Thoughts- Having seen Venus, I have a new appreciation for Bill’s impression of Sir Peter O’Toole. It’s really quite good! This was a nice little skit to end the show, just like every other skit tonight. And it’s true, back in the day everyone was an alcoholic in Hollywood and no one cared. Bill’s O’Toole impression was good enough to make this- ***

Bald Babies
Cast- Bill Hader
Thoughts- This was pretty random but it had its moment. It didn’t work at the beginning but the ending with Hader holding his son and the Baby Beards is what clinched it for me. **1/2

The Bottom Line- The avg. skit was **.5 making this a thumbs up show. Nothing stood out here, the show was a collection of consistently funny solid skits, backed up with a very good Update and a solid musical guest. Drew redeemed her last two craptastic hosting appearances by being very funny and adding to a lot of the skits. This was a marketed improvement over the January shows, there weren’t many “What….is…this” type of skits that plagued those shows. And luckily, Horatio’s cameo didn’t ruin the show!

Thumbs Up

[Youth N Asia]

I didn't watch the episode...but why do they keep doing Target bits? I've never gotten a laugh out of one

[bob_barron]

I bet the host likes them or something. I think one of the only reasons they did Versace was b/c Drew loves it

[Youth N Asia]

I work at Target, and it's not like I'm defensive of the place (fuck Target) but the bits just suck

[treble]

I liked it when she called them the 'Target Circles' on the Timberlake episode.

That's all I got.

[King Kamala]

I didn't think this show was much better than The January shows. Then again, I didn't think The January shows were all too bad. I think SNL has fallen into a slump of shows that are decent enough but on the whole front, forgettable. In fact if you take away the Baldwin and Timberlake episodes, you could pretty much use that as a summary of the entire season thus far.