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Posted in: NBC, Peacock, Preview, TV | Tagged: emma stone, nbc, noah kahan, Review, saturday night live, season 49, snl
Saturday Night Live: Start Fitting Emma Stone for "Ten-Timers" Jacket
NBC's Saturday Night Live host Emma Stone proved why she needs to make room for a "Ten-Timers" jacket while Noah Kahan owned the stage.
Okay, enough with all of that "Five-Timers" nonsense when it comes to Emma Stone. Because after this weekend's edition of NBC's Saturday Night Live, we need to start putting in the order for her "Ten-Timers" jacket. There was a whole lot to like about this weekend's show – the first of three before the Season 49 midseason break. And while it's not a competition, Stone, musical guest Noah Kahan, and SNL's cast & writers definitely set a high bar for Adam Driver & Olivia Rodrigo to clear next weekend and Kate McKinnon & Billie Eilish to clear before wrapping up 2023. So let's jump into what worked (a lot), what didn't work (nothing), and a whole bunch of random thoughts & observations in between.
Saturday Night Live: What Worked, What Didn't & Random Thoughts
Stone's monologue was perfectly fitting for a five-timer, with Tina Fey & Candice Bergen on hand to bestow a "Five-Timers" jacket upon Stone – representing the creative influence that women have had on SNL since the beginning while also reminding us of the hardships that women went through over the years as they fought to have their voices heard.
"Question Quest" was another example of something personal taken to the extreme – with Michael Longfellow & Stone selling us on just how much of a burden a turtle that can live to be over 150 years old can be (and teaching us way more about turtles than we expected).
Stone, Kenan Thompson & Bowen Yang teaming for "Tree Lighting Gig" was the kind of character-driven sketch that will always work for me because Thompson presents us with characters that you can't help but pay attention to – the "ringmaster of the absurd" type. But let's not leave out Stone & Yang, who were the perfect "jam band backup" combo compliment to what Thompson was throwing down.
"What's in the Kiln?" was the closest sketch that I could say didn't work for me – but that wouldn't be fair to Stone, Heidi Gardner, or Chloe Fineman because it vibed like a sketch that other viewers were probably connecting with hard. I felt the same way about "New Skincare Product," but the absurdity of "Diet Coke by OLAY" combined with Fineman, Gardner, Sarah Sherman, and Ego Nwodim selling it like it's the next "miracle drug" made it work for me.
"Weekend Update" hosts Colin Jost & Michael Che continue proving why they've deserved the anchor desk for as long as they've had it (and hopefully, in no rush to give it up until after the 50th season). But I think we might have a returning character in Longfellow's Old Fashioned Cigarette – assuming naming Ron Jeremy as a "hero to cigarettes" (alongside Marlon Brando & Elizabeth Taylor) and posting an image of Hiler vaping doesn't cause some rumbles. I hope not because those moments helped sell the point that Longfellow was trying to make. He's a cigarette. He gives people cancer. He's not nice.
From Nwodim's growing disgust with just how stupid Stone's poster girl was to Thompson trying to get Mikey Day to break by calling out his David Beckham, there was a whole lot to like about "Posters." For me, the biggest takeaway from the sketch was that it showed just how well a sketch can work when an excellent actor is confident enough to bring their skills to SNL and then hand themselves over to the writers & cast members. Stone trusts "the process," and it serves the show well every time she hosts.
SNL Weekly "Sketches Hall of Fame": Personal Highlights
As impressed as we were with the show overall, there were four sketches that stuck in our brains even after the 1 am hour hit. If anyone deserved the cold open spotlight and to utter those famous words at the end, it was Yang in full-on George Santos mode. The best compliment that I can give Yang is that I almost wish Santos hadn't been kicked out of Congress because that would've meant more great material to work with. But, you know… "democracy." Please Don't Destroy (Ben Marshall, John Higgins & Martin Herlihy) tackling "AI" was exactly the hysterically bizarre take that I was hoping for – with the voice-overs getting me every time. But Marcello Hernandez and Punkie Johnson grabbed our attention in this one – with Johnson having a pretty great show all around this weekend.
When Emmy Awards season comes around next year, "Make Your Own Kind of Music" could be the sketch that gets this episode a nomination. Chloe Troast (as Mama Cass) and Stone (as Cass' producer) presented us with what felt like a performance than a sketch, addressing the issue of how artists would feel if they knew how their songs would be used decades from now (for example, the "irony" use when it's played in a film but the visuals are something completely opposite of the message that the song is actually conveying). With Day, Yang, and Andrew Dismukes offering strong support, I felt like standing up & applauding by the time the sketch ended – a perfect example of a sketch running over five minutes that felt less than half of that. Yeah, I know it's a cliche to say this, but I wanted more.
I'm hoping I'm not being NY-selfish when I write this, but "Fully Naked in New York" was the perfect anthem for the things we're willing to do here to break through the winter doldrums. Once again, we have Stone, Yang, Dismukes, Fineman, Johnson, Sherman, Hernández, and Troast taking a concept that could've been perfectly fun but disposable and turning it into an anthem for doing what you need to do to get through the blues and feel alive. No joke – that song was still in our heads this morning.
As for this weekend's musical guest, I will readily admit that I hadn't listened to anything Kahan going into Saturday's show – but that has now changed in a big way. Kahan left that stage at the end of the night like someone who had been there before – he owned it and then some with performances of "Stick Season" and "Dial Drunk" – here's a look:
Saturday Night Live Season 49: Emma Stone/Noah Kahan
9/10
Okay, enough with all of that "Five-Timers" nonsense when it comes to Emma Stone. Because after this weekend's edition of NBC's Saturday Night Live, we need to start putting in the order for her "Ten-Timers" jacket. There was a whole lot to like about this weekend's show - the first of three before the Season 49 midseason break. And while it's not a competition, Stone, musical guest Noah Kahan, and SNL's cast & writers definitely set a high bar for Adam Driver & Olivia Rodrigo to clear next weekend and Kate McKinnon & Billie Eilish to clear before wrapping up 2023. So let's jump into what worked (a lot), what didn't work (nothing), and a whole bunch of random thoughts & observations in between.
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