TVSquad

Amy Adams was better than Ellen Page. Not saying much, but enough to make a difference in my enjoyment of the show.

All the good stuff I liked you already said... Clinton's smoking comment, Wiig crashing into the desk, Sudeiki's one side punching, "That's my eye on the pyramid."

That was the biggest problem of the episode. I didn't like one whole skit. I just liked moments. That doesn't make a good episode. Although I've realized that I'm in love with Kristen Wiig. She's pretty much the highlight of the show every week for me.

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Pierre Escargot was one of my fave skits on All That! It was so funny and I loved how Kenan lost it every time! I laugh every time Tim Calhoun is on, so funny. Penelope wasn't as great as it usually is but yeah, I just about died laughing with the "That's my eye in the pyramid" line. Like you said, a lot of the episodes problem was execution. The ideas were generally funny, but it just didn't come out as well. Looking forward to Jonah Hill though, yays!

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I enjoyed this episode WAY more than the Ellen Page debacle. Amy Adams didn't blow me away, but she wasn't as horrible as all that. I was in it more for the new cast. Wiig, Hader, Sudekis and Samberg are the only reasons I keep coming back each week.

And I loved the whole Penelope sketch. She's one of the few new recurring characters that doesn't annoy the crap out of me.

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Cold Open: I haven't watched The Daily Show all week so I missed the jokes as well as the ad itself. I'm getting sick of elections joke actually and I thought this one was ok.

Monologue: Amy Adams sang (were honestly expecting her to do anything else), messed up the slap, and made me realize she looks alot like Jenna Fisher and the chick from Wedding Crashers. You the crazy one who's married to Borat in real life.

Mirror Image: Best part was Wiig hitting the desk and the huge fart in the end.

Couples Therapy: Poelher saved the sketch.

Hero Song: Sanburg looked like Christan Bale in Batman at first. Then put on a Robin costume. Then got the shit punched out of him. Yet it all worked out perfectly. The Digital Shorts are the main reason to watch SNL now.

Fierce: I dont watch Bravo so I didnt know who the hell the Fierce guy is, I only know Klum from ads, but I've seen Tim Gunn on talk shows and Hader did him well (thats what he said, sorry Michael Scott moment)

WC: How can you not like Tim Calhoun? However this WU was WAY too long.

Penelope: I found this one annoying. Maybe because I've met someone like Penelope and let me just say people were ready to punch this person.

Steakhouse/surgery center: This one blew.

Roger Clemens: The child dieing of a broken heart made me laugh. Does that make me a bad person?

Tookie: Like you I laughed at the going back to get her purse.

Desperate: I remember the beginning but I dozed off at this point.

Vampire Weekend: I've never heard their music till now. I thought they were going to be crappy goth pop rock. I was wrong. They were preppy pop rock.

Overall it was better than last week and Adams wasn't bad. However the best host this season is still Brian Williams. And I have high hopes for Jonah Hill since I loved Superbad.

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I didn't think Amy Adams was nervous at all. She did a great job with weak material (better than last week, but still not as good as the Tina Fey episode).

Random comments: 1. Amy needs to stop laughing at her own jokes in Weekend Update; 2. Kenan's schtick is getting really old.

And for Ryan: Yes, Kristin Wiig is a total babe. To think three guys in a bar would blow her off (like in the last sketch) is ludicrous, even if she were a bad dancer.

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I think that sort of nervous, fluttery look is Amy Adams' thing. She's used it in pretty much all of her movies.

I was disappointed with this episode right from the get-go. What's the deal with taking a well-known Broadway-musical song and doing it straight? Couldn't they write a funny song of their own, or at least add new lyrics? The two actresses sang it well, but it might as well have been Carol Burnett and Vicki Lawrence 30 years ago.

The writing was poor overall, and I didn't even get some of the sketches. In "Desperate," were we not supposed to notice that the four women who supposedly can't get dates are all gorgeous? In "Mirror Image," were we really supposed to believe that Adams and Wiig could be twins, rather than having a vague resemblance? (It would have been better if they had actually brought in Isla Fisher for the sketch, since people often do confuse her with Adams.) Are we really expected to laugh at another Hillary/Barack opener?

It seemed as if the writers had a lot of good material built up over the strike, and used it all up in the first episode back. That one really raised my expectations as to how good an entire "SNL" show can be -- and this one lowered them again.

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Episodes like this really kill me because SNL really has so much potential right now. With talent like Samberg, Sudekis, Hader and especially Wiig SNL could be brilliant, but the writing seems to ruin it every week. I honestly dont even know if I could watch this without Kristen Wiig, she is easily the standout on the show every week. The new girl is doing nothing for me either. I dont know whether its because the Poehler, Rudolph, Wiig threesome was so good but she just hasn't been working.
Im also really disappointed in the digital shorts, since coming back from the writers strike they haven't been funny where as before they were consistently hilarious. they need another Dear Sister or something. I really hope next week they dont bomb with Jonah Hill because that could be a great episode.
And finally just have to say that Wiig can do no wrong, even if it was the worst Penelope thus far, it still was the funniest sketch of the night in my opinion.

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i'm glad they used more of Bill Hader (the best person on the show), but sad they didn't use him very well outside of Tim Gunn and the old military guy in the Tookie sketch.

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Is "un-vampire-y" a good review or bad.

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Was impressed with Vampire Weekend (had no idea what to expect other than that my friend liked them, so I knew they weren't going to be goth-y or anything). Enjoyed the Couples Therapy sketch quite a bit, as well as the Digital Short. Found parts of the rest of the show enjoyable (Roger Clemons Theatre and Tim Calhoun, specifically) but nothing else really stood out too much.

The difference between last week and this week is that nothing stood out as AWFUL this week, either. It was "just okay" all around. Mildly funny and not poorly acted, it didn't make me want to fast forward through anything, which unfortunately WAS the case last week.

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The show sucked. The musical guest, Vampire Weekend, was pretty much the only thing worth watching.

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90mins in 15

This show was SOOO poor that I FF'ed through it all in 15-mins. The opening sketch was overdone reminding me of a jr-high skit when kids don't yet understand the concept of overplaying a joke. The intro credits always take so long I ran out to Walmart for a six-pack and still made it back in time for Amy's opening, which I quickly skipped through after it was made painfully clear that she and Kristen look alike. All the skits leading to the woefully mis-named "Vampire Weekend" performance were lame. Weekend Update just doesn't cut it anymore, it's so hit or miss, and inconsistently uneven. There's so much political and cultural material whose potential is just going to waste with their inept writing staff. The digital short featuring Samburg was forgettable, and the backend set of skits was better used as a sedative.

SNL really needs a serious retooling. And to start they should look at going to a 1-hr format, they just can't do justice to 90-mins any way you cut it; they just don't have the goods to fill that much time. They need to let the hosts stand on their own talent during the opening monologue instead of fouling it all up with contrived production numbers and cast tie-ins. Weekend Update should go back to a single person format and shortened but with snappier, comically-timed writing. Heck, bring Chevy Chase back to do it if you must. Finally, lose the musical acts. That's a legacy thing from the '70s, we've got more music variety than we know what to do with these days. Fill that space with better skits, animated interludes, digital shorts, or stand up comics. Anything would be better.

So, there you go, criticisms with ideas to make it better. Whatever.

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Hmm, how about a new categorization for awfulness. I got one. This was the worst SNL episode of the post-9/11 era. In fact the entire writing and performing staff of this ep. is in wanton violation of the Patriot Act. Because it is clear they have committed an act of terrorism against the Art of Comedy.

In particular, anyone who had anything at all to do with that first "Mirror Image" sketch about the nearly identical twins should be shipped off immediately to Guantanamo. That shit is so old I think they did a similar sketch way back when the Olsen twins were still cute. And it wasn't funny then.

You're saying, Ms. Wu, exactly what I've been saying since they returned with the Tina Fey episode. The concepts for the sketches are OK for the most part, but they're coming up woefully short when it comes to fleshing them out into 5-minute skits. It's as if the writers spent their time during the 100-day strike conceiving ideas for the show, but no jokes. And now they're back and unleashing the huge stockpile of rhinoceros crap they've amassed upon us, the unsuspecting public.

There's no way this once-proud show should be on the air in its current form.

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Terrible. I only watched to see Amy, but I quickly remembered why I'm a bigger fan of MadTV than SNL. Just terrible.

Still crazy about Amy, however, in a creepy stalker-ish way.

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Wow I really am shocked at the response to Weekend Update. I thought it was the only good part of the whole episode. "Joke of the week!" was hilarious, and as much as I can't stand Keenan, the French Def Comedy Jam bit was the funniest idea he's ever had. Seth's best line "A Baltimore bar owner has built a robot with a water cannon to keep drug dealers away. This just in, a Baltimore bar owner has been killed by wet drug dealers."

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I seem to be the only one around who did not think this episode totally blowed. I actually laughed enough to make it a worthwhile watch.

I thought the opening, although too long, was done in an intersting way with pictures rather than video, and I laughed enough to make it worthwhile.

I did not like the monologue, and agree that Amy Adams seemed a bit lost in the entire show.

I had had a number of beers, so maybe the fact that I laughed everytime Wiig winked and farted was due to the alcohol - but, I did.

Couples Therapy - it is fun to see Amy do something understated, she is just so versitile and fun to watch.

Digital Short - did not like it, saw the punches coming a mile away, and even anticipated that the beating was going to go on for a long time.

Fierce - never seen the show it was lampooning so I was pretty lost.

Penelope - I LOVED this character - but it may be time to retire her. It has become too wacky - it used to be ALMOST a real person.

WU - I thought Amy and Seth were funny, some good jokes in there. Tim Calhoon and Keenan were both good. Loved the "Super Tuesday" joke.

STeakhouse - it was stupid, and one joke over and over. But again - I laughed - what can I say? Maybe I'm just easily amused. Liked the "review": They are performins Surgury in a BBQ restauruant. - Jefferson County Police Department.

Roger Clemens - thought the guy who played Roger was good, but this one was definately too long.

Tookie - wierd, but funny. Laughed everytime the gunfire started.

Desparate - OK - I finally agree with everyone -this one blew.

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