Posted in: NBC, Peacock, TV | Tagged: saturday night live, snl

SNL 52 Pregame Preview: Dakota Johnson Rewind, Weekly Recap & More

SNL Pregame Preview: a recap of the week, a behind-the-scenes image gallery from last week, and a rewind back to the January 2024 show.

With only a few hours to go until NBC's Saturday Night Live returns tonight with host Dakota Johnson (Verity) and musical guest Turnstile, we've got another edition of SNL Pregame Preview to pass along. Along with a recap of the week leading up to tonight, we also have an image gallery offering some looks behind the scenes of last week's Season 52 debut, and a rewind back to our review of Johnson's hosting effort from January 2024.

First up, SNL featured players Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter get the spotlight in a new TikTok clip from earlier today:

@nbcsnl

💅 @Saidah @Grace Reiter

♬ original sound – Saturday Night Live

The promo week kicked off with Johnson and SNL star Ashley Padilla teaming up for a midweek sketch that was actually just a nicely filmed version of Thursday's on-stage promos. In the clip above, Padilla goes hardcore to help Johnson promote her film and explains why her mom warned her from watching SNL. Following that, Padilla gets lost in a land of auditioning confusion and doesn't seem to understand how family relations work. Finally, Johnson makes disturbingly clear to Padilla why they're not the same…

On Thursday, SNL star Ben Marshall joined Johnson and Turnstile for the real on-stage promos. First up, Johnson and Marshall get a little freaked out by the band's response – specifically, how they respond. Following that, Marshall turns a promo into his own TikTok sensation. Then Johnson and Marshall want reassurance from the band that there won't be any "Fear" antics (see background below). Finally, Marshall explains why his doctor won't let him mosh and what it has to do with an IKEA lamp.

Here's a look back at Johnson and the SNL team from Wednesday night's read-thru, followed by a look at some behind-the-scenes images from last week's Season 52 premiere and our review of Johnson's previous hosting gig, back in January 2024 (with musical guest Justin Timberlake):

And here are some behind-the-scenes looks at last week's Season 52 premiere:

Saturday Night Live Season 49 Back on Track with Johnson, Timberlake

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."

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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