Posted in: NBC, Review, TV, YouTube | Tagged: aubrey plaza, nbc, Review, sam smith, saturday night live, snl

SNL Returns: Leslie Knope, George Santos, Miss France & More (Review)

From a Parks and Recreation reunion & George Santos to a killer SNL "Weekend Update," there was lots to love about NBC's Saturday Night Live.

George Santos? It looks like you have a new "friend" in NBC's Saturday Night Live… and in Bowen Yang, in particular. Because after this weekend's Aubrey Plaza (The White Lotus)-hosted (with musical guest Sam Smith) edition, it's pretty clear that SNL sees something very, very wrong with a congressperson who lies more than The Pope prays holding a position of power in Washington, D.C. where serious, honest decisions need to be made. But it was far from just Santos getting the spotlight during the first SNL of 2023, which saw the long-running late-night sketch comedy/music series returning with a stronger show than we're used to seeing coming out of an extended break. Nothing against SNL, but its "reputation" in the past has tended to be that we look to the second episode of the season (or the second episode back from midseason break) for things to start hitting on all cylinders again. But for this go-around, no weak spots, stumbling points, or anything beyond little things here & there to address. Plaza was a joy to watch the entire run, having fun while playing up the stereotypes about her while also demonstrating to viewers that she's had range all along and that they needed to catch up fast. So with that in mind, some quick bullet points on the sketches that stood out to me:

"Miss Universe": I loved how they played up the contestants screaming every answer, the absurdity of the questions & answers, and the fact that Tony Hawk and The Property Brothers actually appeared as themselves as judges. But Plaza's Miss France is the twisted, shrieking fuel that keeps this sketch's engine running.

"The Black Lotus": It's like HBO's The White Lotus but with 85% less unnecessary drama and 100% more common sense. Kenan Thompson & Ego Nwodim can do no wrong for me at this point. They can sell a sketch just based on their facial expressions alone. And Chloe Fineman's Jennifer Coolidge is getting eerily accurate with each passing sketch. But let's not forget Plaza… who I didn't recognize until the end of the sketch (and then I had to go back and rewatch). And bonus points are being given for the joke at the end about it showing on both HBO and STARZ.

"Morning Announcements": Walking that fine line between slice-of-life and absurd, this was a sketch that could have a life of its own for Molly Kearney, Andrew Dismukes, Marcello Hernández, and Sarah Sherman. It has a vibe of being one of those sketches that SNL could build a "sketch universe" around (folding in hosts and musical guests as new students or nuns & priests along the way), so I hope we get a revisit sooner rather than later.

"M3GAN 2.0": What's there not to love about this sketch? Plaza and Fineman are on point, and it speaks to a box office truth about one of the main reasons why the horror/dark social commentary film is doing so well. But my inner snarky bastard gave the sketch bonus points for the line about M3GAN being "'Bros' for the gay community." I love Billy Eichner, but even if he would have to admit, that was a damn funny line.

"HIV Commercial": Devon Walker plays an actor on the set of an HIV medication commercial who wants viewers to know that his character isn't gay and got HIV by having sex with a woman. So he begins improvising lines, much to the growing "salad frustrations" of Plaza's director. Right off the bat, the sketch gets points for diving into uncomfortable waters when it comes to the subject matter. And then it does a satirical double dip by not only questioning why a number of these ads never seem to focus on white, straight people with HIV but also demonstrating how some male egos are so fragile that they can be threatened simply by playing someone who isn't them.

SNL, Bowen Yang "Introduce" Themselves to George Santos

This past week, it was "A Tale of Three George Santos" when it comes to late-night television. Stephen Colbert interviewed Harvey Guillen's Santos in what was a great back-and-forth between the two exposing the dangerously growing absurdity behind Santos' ability to lie their way into Congress. Following that, Jimmy Fallon and SNL alum Jon Lovitz teamed up for their take, but it was… lacking. And then, on Saturday night, we had Yang tackling Santos in both the "NFL on FOX" cold open as well as on "Weekend Update" (more on that in a minute). While I'm a big fan of what Colbert & Guillen did earlier in the week, I have the give the edge to Yang for two reasons. First, Yang doesn't need set-up or assistance to get his fire across- in both sketches, Yang could've easily gone solo a number of times, and the effectiveness of each sketch wouldn't have dulled. What also gives Yang's portrayal the edge is its willingness to punch, punch hard & keep punching. Yang and the sketch writers in the cold open didn't just have Santos address the reports that Santos competed as a drag queen… they had their Santos come out in drag. They didn't just say that Santos lied… they directly addressed the question marks surrounding if anyone in Santos' family died or not during 9/11. It's that in-your-face directness that SNL had done well with in the past, and Yang brings it back tenfold.

"Weekend Update" Moans & Groans Only Make Jost & Che Stronger

But as great as Yang's George Santos and the returns of Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope & Plaza's April Ludgate were, we needed Colin Jost and Michael Che's "Weekend Update" to be the satirical razorwire that stitched it all together… and our WU anchors did not disappoint. Vibing like they were looking to make up for some lost time, Jost & Che didn't just laugh off the audience's moans & groans when some jokes hit a little too hard for its liking… it felt like they fed off of it. Some advice? Wait until SNL releases the full, not-chopped-up "Weekend Update" video because it needs to be viewed in its full flow to properly appreciate it.

Sam Smith Performs "Unholy (ft. Kim Petras)" & "Gloria"

I may not always be the biggest fan of everything that Sam Smith does, music & performance-wise, but no one can accuse Smith of not leaving everything on the stage artistically when they're done performing. It says a lot that I was more interested in what was going on with Smith that I didn't realize that Sharon Stone was right in front of me the whole time (thankfully, Twitter was filled with enough, "Holy f**k… was that Sharon Stone?!" tweets to catch me up). Random thought, but after watching both performances, I couldn't get it out of my head what it would look like if Smith and '70s Andrew Lloyd Webber got to work on a musical together…

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