(S35E05) I had to talk myself through being allowed to criticize Taylor Swift. Ever since Kanye West VMA outburst turned everyone in America into Swift's over-protective mom, she's been shown even more as an innocent country-inspired sweetheart. Every time she messed up in this episode, I felt the need to hold back any not-super-great remarks because, well, she's a teeny-bopper! Teeny-boppers are just kids goofin' around!
And then I have to pause and remind myself that she's almost 20-years-old, around the same age as Shia LaBeouf and Ellen Page when they first hosted and Abby Elliiott when she initially joined the featured players. Screw it, there's no need to hold back. Swift is a musician, so we can't expect her acting skills to be super-good, but the fact I keep thinking she's only 14 shouldn't affect anything else.
(S35E04) I remember sitting down and staring at Gerard Butler as he made funny, smarmy faces at the camera. And then I blinked, only to see Butler was thanking the cast and viewers for a wonderful show. I looked on the computer screen. There were half-remembered notes haphazardly tapped out at some point.
Somehow, I had jumped forward ninety minutes. Had I finally mastered short-term time travel? Or did I just watch an incredibly forgettable episode of Saturday Night Live? Probably the latter. However, I vaguely recall a destructive robot adorably struggling through a wall. If that was actually a dream and not real life, please don't tell me.
(S35E03) Drew Barrymore is energy. Pure, almost-scary energy. It's disorienting to watch when one is bleary-eyed and staring at a tiny TV in the wee hours of the morning, but this trademark makes for consistent television-viewing. While the quality of Saturday Night Live's writing may waver from episode to episode, every time Drew Barrymore returns, one can safely expect absolute enthusiasm and a palpable willingness to step back and laugh at herself.
All right, little Ms. "I Extra-Love Female Empowerment," prepare for me to work that ego.... Especially when one compares her to the typical "hot girl" host (see: Megan Fox's SNL premiere), Barrymore doesn't box herself in and offers a lot more opportunity for fun characters. Would someone like Fox ever be willing to bolo it up to play Nina Wilkes Booth? I doubt it.
(S35E02) After that Jenny Slate f-bomb nonsense and Megan Fox's not terribly original hot girl material from the season premiere, it was exciting to see a really solid episode (and a star-studded one, at that). Ryan Reynolds did a fantastic job as host (snaps for his wavering voice during the porcelain fountains sketch and accent in SYTYCD), though he didn't have any major stand-out roles. Did I miss the memo that Lady Gaga wasn't just musical guest but co-host as well? Such a role is normally left up to Ryan Reynolds' giant biceps.
It's been a while since we've seen such consistently enjoyable writing in an episode. Usually, there's a distinct lull during the course of the 90 minutes, but I didn't feel it this time. Hopefully, this is a good indication of the rest of the season.
(S35E01) Alternate title for this post: "New girl's f-bomb overshadows Megan Fox's slammin' bod."
Yes, Saturday Night Live new girl Jenny Slate's f-bomb was the most thrilling part of the show's otherwise bland 35th season premiere. It's not like we've never heard that word before, and it's not like accidental verbal naughtiness has never happened on SNL (I still distinctly remember my extra-young self watching Cheri Oteri cringing as she contributed to the swear jar), but the pain still felt fresh with hot embarrassment.
This was partially due to the fact that it's just a generally bad thing to have happen on a player's first show (and in such a mediocre sketch, at that) but mostly because of this face that she made after she caught her boo-boo. Twitter exploded with people's camera phone pics of this one moment.
Amy Poehler is returning to Saturday Night Live ... sort of. She's not actually going to be on the show during its usual Saturday performance, but rather on the Weekend Update Thursday spin-off. She'll be sitting behind the anchor desk with her co-host Seth Meyers.
Frankly, it's a good way to launch the second season of her NBC show Parks & Recreation. Obviously, NBC is trying to copy the success of having Tina Fey do her Sarah Palin impression for a couple of Thursdays (and indirectly promote 30 Rock as a result).
I'm an Amy Poehler fan, so I think more of her on television is a good thing. I liked her back during her Upright Citizen Brigade days (and have seen her perform live several times with the troupe).
I only wonder how Weekend Update Thursday will fare without a big media event like the last election to use as fodder. I'm sure they'll think of something.
(S34E23) Wow. Way to go, Will Ferrell. Maybe they should just bring back Saturday Night Live alumni for season finales from now on, because this episode was spectacular. Ferrell brought back some old favorites and a slew of famous faces, from the familiar to the inexplicable, including Amy Poehler, Tom Hanks, Anne Hathaway and Artie Lange. Here are some video highlights from the evening (Hulu vids are US only. Sorry, kids... you can also watch these videos at NBC's website).
(S34E22) Justin Timberlake returned for his third turn as host and it was tough not to keep expectations pretty high. I mean, if an vengeful warlock were to suddenly put a crippling curse on his music career (like they do), Timberlake could definitely fall back on being a professional SNL host. Yes, this would become a real profession, just for him.
As usual, some sketches fell a bit flat, but Timberlake's over-confident, hammy swagger made things a little more interesting. This particular episode also gave us another legendary musical Digital Short with Timberlake and Andy Samberg and a couple of all-around MILFs. It's tough to top a surprise appearance by Leonard effin' Nimoy, but "Motherlover" was certainly the highlight of the evening. Here are some other notable video moments!
It looks like NBC is going to expandSaturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segment with more half-hour specials, most likely on Thursday nights. Judging by the success of SNL and its Thursday night election specials during the campaign season, this move isn't too surprising. Plus, this is a progressive step in reaching the network's ultimate goal, which seems to be filling the airwaves with as many former SNL employees as possible. Actually, the next season of Celebrity Apprentice is probably just going to be all the early-90s players that aren't doing movies right now. And Rob Schneider. That guy isn't doing anything.
Saturday Night Live head writer/Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers stopped by Jimmy Fallon's show last night and explains why he thinks that he's smarter than Amy Poehler's new baby. Fallon also shows a clip of an SNL rehearsal. The joke doesn't go over too well, but I think it's actually pretty damn clever.
Bill Hader and Seth Meyers (the latter of whom is the head writer for Saturday Night Live) will be writing Spider-Man ... the comic book, not the next movie. Their single-issue story is called "The Short Halloween" (which I presume is a parody of a Batman comic story called "The Long Halloween") and will be in finer comic book shops on May 13.
This isn't the first time a comedy writer has written a comic book. I recall Gilbert Gotfried helping out with an issue of Superboy and Patton Oswalt writing a one-shot Justice League special, among others. While I don't think this will get the same level of publicity as Barack Obama being on a Spider-Man cover, it's kind of cool to hear about. I wonder if Spider-Man will sing his own rendition of "Dick In A Box".
In short, comedians are huge nerds. But this is nothing you didn't know before.
(S34E21) When it came to everything unrelated to jazz hands, my expectations for Zac Efron were pretty low. Then again, there was part of me that kept thinking back to Justin Timberlake's first time hosting; he was just another song-and-dance good guy but the enthusiasm and craziness he brought to his performances blew everyone away. Okay, so Efron didn't do as well as Timberlake, but as the evening progressed, Efron seemed to get a little more comfortable and delivered a not-too-cingeworthy performance. Consider that a massive victory.
(S34E20) Seth Rogen returned to host for the second time to promote his new mall cop movie (yeah, I know). Unlike last time, when there were one or two stand-out sketches, this episode didn't have any particularly memorable moments. However, there were Muppets, Mogwai and a thinner Seth Rogen involved, so maybe things weren't too horrible.
(S34E15) Bradley Cooper, who are you and what are you doing on Saturday Night Live? I IMDb'd him before watching the episode and despite having seen many of his projects, I still couldn't attach him to anything. Is he best known for something? Or is He's Just Not That Into You his big break-out? Well, regardless, his performance in this episode wasn't mind-blowing, but at least it wasn't cringe-worthy either (exceptions can be considered for the Christian Bale sketch). The writers didn't give him anything terribly exciting and in the end we were left with a pretty forgettable episode. Here are some video highlights.
(S35E01) Alternate title for this post: "New girl's f-bomb overshadows Megan Fox's slammin' bod."
Amy Poehler is returning to Saturday Night Live ... sort of. She's not actually going to be on the show during its usual Saturday performance, but rather on 
There weren't a lot of surprises at 
Bill Hader and Seth Meyers (the latter of whom is the head writer for Saturday Night Live) will be writing Spider-Man ... 
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