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For the final show of the year, SNL "Weekend Update's" Colin Jost and Michael Che unleashed a brutal edition of their annual joke swap.
Posted in: NBC, Peacock, Review, TV | Tagged: dakota johnson, justin timberlake, nbc, Review, saturday night live, snl
Saturday Night Live Season 49 Back on Track with Johnson, Timberlake
Host Dakota Johnson, musical guest Justin Timberlake, and SNL's cast & writers were able to get Saturday Night Live Season 49 back on track.
Article Summary
- Dakota Johnson hosted SNL this weekend with Justin Timberlake as musical guest.
- Please Don't Destroy and "The Barry Gibb Talk Show" were just two of the highlights.
- Justin Timberlake delivered two standout performances - with one featuring Tobe Nwigwe.
- Bowen Yang continues to offer viewers a collection of amazingly unique characters.
Not to beat an issue to death, but to put into perspective just how different things were with this week's Saturday Night Live as compared to last week's Jacob Elordi/Reneé Rapp show? By the time the "NFL Championship Sunday" cold open wrapped and the cast was screaming the famed opening line, I had already laughed/smiled more than I did during last week's brutal effort. That's not to say it was a perfect show or even a contender for best show of the season – but it got Season 49 back on track for the remainder of its run. As far as hosts go, Dakota Johnson (Madame Web) was a mixed bag – there were some sketches when her dry sense of humor & delivery were spot-on, while other sketches needed something more comedically expressive that Johnson just didn't deliver. Musical guest Justin Timberlake silenced the doubters with two impressive performances (with serious support from Tobe Nwigwe), and it was nice to see him join a familiar face to revisit a favorite of mine. But I'm tipping my hat and awarding serious points to the SNL cast & writers for being the driving force this week. With that in mind, let's look at what worked and what didn't – along with some random thoughts along the way.
The "NFL Championship Sunday" cold open was a fun opener that spoke some brutal truths about fragile male egos, gatekeeping, and the underlying love/hate relationship that NFL fans have with the Super Bowl. Who wants to spend the big game having to explain the game of football to a room full of people who won't care about the game again until next year? Johnson and Timberlake had a nice chemistry during their exchange in the opening monologue – but it was Jimmy Fallon appearing in Barry Gibb costume that did it for me because that was clearly a sign of things to come. "Waiters" was a mess – after the cold open and monologue worked, this sketch just killed the momentum. It felt like it was being made up along the way – like someone lost a bet or they were doing someone a favor.
"Big Dumb Cups" was exactly the goofy follow-up I wanted – because what else accessorizes a big dump hat? "Book Club" was a perfect example of where Johnson's approach undercut the vibe of the sketch – thankfully, we had Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Punkie Johnson, Molly Kearney, Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, and Chloe Troast as the other club members to keep things afloat. "Lost Bag" was one of those "beautiful disaster" sketches where you can tell that it was trying to develop a new character but it didn't quite work. Devon Walker's over-the-top annoying airport worker needed a better counterbalance to work off of, but Johnson wasn't it.
With a better audience to vibe off of, Colin Jost & Michael Che's "Weekend Update" was back in a big way this weekend, with an arsenal of jokes that hit and hit hard (especially the Donald Trump/OJ Simpson perspective). Also, I definitely need more of Gardner's tarot reader Jan Janby in my life moving forward – with Gardner continuing to kill it this season with her characters. Musically, Timberlake turned all of Studio 8H into his private stage "Sanctified" (featuring an amazing assist from Nwigwe) and his newest single, "Selfish."
Saturday Night Live: Show Highlights
Please Don't Destroy – Roast: Johnson vs John Higgins, Martin Herlihy & Ben Marshall in a battle of brutal takedowns that went by way too quickly. This was the sketch where Johnson's comedic strength was most on display – rocking a perfectly dismissive glare while spitting venom with the best of them. Bonus points for the "timeout" moment when nepotism was officially declared out-of-bounds – with that "Wonder Twins" pledge.
The Barry Gibb Talk Show: 2024 Election: Barry (Fallon) and Robin (Timberlake) return in one of the few things from Fallon's SNL run that I can still watch & enjoy. Bonus points go to Johnson for not breaking – though it looked like Fallon was trying to make it happen – and to Bowen Yang for a great take on Andrew Yang. But this all boils down to just how over-the-top Fallon's Barry Gibb can be and just how understated Timberlake's Robin Gibb can be for it to work – and it worked.
"Home Videos": After "Waitresses" left me worried that this weekend's show was going down the same path as last week's, Johnson, Sherman, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Marcello Hernandez, and James Austin Johnson pulled the show back from the brink with one of the best filmed sketches that we've seen over the past few seasons. What happens when the "Maury Povich" talk show generation grows up? Here's your answer – and it's a hysterical one.
Weekend Update: A Guy Named Ethan on the 2024 Oscars Snubs: I know I've gone down this road before, but Yang has turned introducing interesting characters during "Weekend Update" into an art form. That's because Yang presents us with quirky, offbeat, and sometimes downright bizarre characters in a way that allows us to get to know them. He's never laughing at them or playing them as a cliche or joke, and that allows us to get to know them better. "A Guy Named Ethan" is another excellent addition to Yang's growing ensemble of characters – not surprising from someone who can get us to relate to an iceberg.
Saturday Night Live: Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake
7.5/10
Not to beat an issue to death, but to put into perspective just how different things were with this week's Saturday Night Live as compared to last week's Jacob Elordi/Reneé Rapp show? By the time the "NFL Championship Sunday" cold open wrapped and the cast was screaming the famed opening line, I had already laughed/smiled more than I did during last week's brutal effort. That's not to say it was a perfect show or even a contender for best show of the season - but it got Season 49 back on track for the remainder of its run. As far as hosts go, Dakota Johnson (Madame Web) was a mixed bag - there were some sketches when her dry sense of humor & delivery were spot-on, while other sketches needed something more comedically expressive that Johnson just didn't deliver. Musical guest Justin Timberlake silenced the doubters with two impressive performances (with serious support from Tobe Nwigwe), and it was nice to see him join a familiar face to revisit a favorite of mine. But I'm tipping my hat and awarding serious points to the SNL cast & writers for being the driving force this week. With that in mind, let's look at what worked and what didn't - along with some random thoughts along the way.
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