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Saturday Night Live Recap: Bad Bunny, Ted Cruz, Ego Nwodim & More

So another episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live has come and gone (with Nick Jonas set four double-duty next week before what we're assuming will be a break), with Bridgerton star Regé-Jean Page hosting and Bad Bunny as the musical guest. The episode itself? Eh. On the plus side, Page did an excellent job showing his comedic range while also introducing himself to a broader, non-Bridgerton universe. As for Bad Bunny, his performances of "La Noche de Anoche" with Rosalía and "Te Deseo lo Mejor" kept this season's musical track record of quality going strong- and we need more Rosalía in our lives because her sound blew our minds. Bonus points for Bad Bunny being the coolest house plant around, though we were a combination of surprised and disappointed that the WWE 24/7 Championship wasn't "defended" during the show (especially considering how chummy the WWE and NBCU's Peacock have become lately).

The episode also saw "Weekend Update" suffer a bit from a news week where the two biggest stories were Ted Cruz and a winter storm terrorizing people in Texas- tough material to get a ton of traction from. I don't know what the deals were with "Sea Shanty," "Mr. Chicken Legs," or Heidi Gardner's "WU" segment but they left us staring at the screen with absolutely no expression. Big points for using the opening monologue to get the Bridgerton obsession out of the way, while "Let's Say Grace" walked that fine line between absurd and annoying and stuck the landing nicely- though "The Grocery Rap" felt like a missed opportunity. Here's a look at what else was in play- starting with Chloe Fineman's excellent Britney Spears take balancing Aidy Bryant's Cruz (and who should now appear weekly) and Pete Davidson's NYS Gov. Andrew Cuomo. But the sketch lost points by wasting an opportunity to go after Gina Carano (Cecily Strong) in the same manner, offering nothing more than a line, a "yeah but," and then Strong trying not to break to Bryant's Cruz:

Yes, Bad Bunny deserves serious props for being a smooth-ass house plant and Davidson process yet again why he rules SNL's taped musical segments, but Ego Nwodim makes this thing pop in a way that leaves you laughing and crying over how much it connects:

We might be alone on this one, but "The Job Interview" was so absurd that it should've failed from the jump- and then Beck Bennett and Page sell it by how committed they are to the off-the-wall "spec" advertising they're peddling. If this was live and one of them broke, the thing would've fallen apart:

This was the segment that elevated "WU" and was probably Davidson's best segment to date. We hope the show continues to appreciate and cultivate his ability to deftly blend the personal (no matter how uncomfortably honest it might be for some) with his comedy in a way that makes him someone you hope's doing okay- he develops a connection with the viewer. From a bit of quick praise to Colin Jost for his Valentine's Day to his explaining why he needs to move out of his mom's house, it felt less like a segment and more like we were sitting in a diner booth with Davidson and Jost in the middle of a 3 am mental deep-dive.

If you told me SNL had a Bridgerton sketch ready with Page playing his role from the series and Fineman as Daphne, as well as Davidson, Mikey Day, and Kate McKinnon ahead of time, this is not what I would've expected. That's not a good thing. We knew it wasn't a good sign when it was held until late in the show, and we get the point it was trying to make. But Day and Davidson were too over-the-top for what the sketch needed, and we felt every second of the four-minute-plus sketch.

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