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Posted in: NBC, Peacock, Review, TV | Tagged: saturday night live, snl
SNL Season 50 Heads Into Holiday Break with Best Effort Yet: Review
NBC's Saturday Night Live heads into 2025 with a holiday effort that set the bar for Season 50 and reminded us why SNL has lasted so long.
When it comes to NBC's Saturday Night Live, the final episode of the calendar year comes with a ton of pressure built into its DNA. Along with being the holiday episode, it's also a chance for the long-running late-night sketch comedy and music series to head into its much-deserved longish winter's nap on a strong note. But with this being SNL's milestone 50th season, there is even more reason for there to be pressure because 2025 is already filled with a lineup of docuseries, documentaries, tribute shows, and more to honor what SNL has achieved over a half-century.
How did official "Five-Timer" Martin Short (Hulu's Only Murders in the Building) and musical guest Hozier handle all of that? By delivering not only a strong creative effort to end the year but also the best top-to-bottom effort this season. As much as we've loved Short since his "SCTV" days, we have to admit that a little bit of Short can go a long way – sometimes too long. But when he's surrounded by an SNL cast and writing team that brought its A+ game and famous faces who actually contributed to the sketches beyond just being guest stars, you get what we got this weekend – a reminder of why SNL remains as hotly relevant and twistedly funny as ever. With that in mind, and because there were no "misses" to address – here's a rundown of some one-sentence thoughts we had about the show.
"Martin Short Five-Timers Club Cold Open": A well-deserved all-star tribute that saw Tom Hanks, Paul Rudd, Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, John Mulaney, Scarlett Johansson, Emma Stone, Melissa McCarthy, and Jimmy Fallon at their wonderfully obnoxious and deliciously self-deprecating best.
"Martin Short Monologue": If we don't get a film where Short and Sarah Sherman play grandfather/granddaughter or something like that, there is no justice in the world because they have some fun chemistry together.
"Parking Lot Altercation": Melissa McCarthy was only giving us a sneak peek during the cold open of the physical comedy greatness that was to come, with even Chloe Fineman unable to keep from breaking as McCarthy "washes" the passenger window with a chocolate shake she spit on it and her breasts.
"An Act of Kindness": A great premise showcasing Kenan Thompson's immense talents that blindsided us with the FOX "News" knife twist at the end because it's exactly what we would expect from the alleged news network.
"Christmas Airport Parade": The comedic partnership between Bowen Yang and Ego Nwodim and strong ensemble support made this sketch work (and reminded us how much we want to see Hanks back to doing comedy).
"Sábado Gigante Christmas Special": Another strong turn by Marcello Hernandez, with Rudd perfect as the totally lost contestant and Dana Carvey now appearing in nine shows this season so far (with more to come, we hope, because it's cool that Carvey has kinda become a cast member again).
"Peanuts Christmas": You know you're having a good night when a late-in-the-show sketch hits hard enough to have been in the first half-hour, with serious props to Thompson for making Snoopy the cool badass we needed him to be (with honorable mention to Andrew Dismukes' Schroeder).
"Weekend Update: A Drone Discusses the Mysterious Drone Sightings": With all due respect to the rest of the SNL cast, Yang has cornered the market when it comes to portraying either inanimate objects or things that shouldn't be able to speak finding themselves being interviewed on "Weekend Update" because this one was "Iceberg"-level great.
"Weekend Update: Christmas Joke Swap 2024": After making Colin Jost use his "Black voice" and having Johansson watch the jokes go down for a real-time reaction, we're almost afraid to think of what Michael Che will have planned for next year (fingers crossed).
Saturday Night Live Season 50: Martin Short / Hozier
9.5/10
When it comes to NBC's Saturday Night Live, the final episode of the calendar year comes with a ton of pressure built into its DNA. Along with being the holiday episode, it's also a chance for the long-running late-night sketch comedy and music series to head into its much-deserved longish winter's nap on a strong note. But with this being SNL's milestone 50th season, there is even more reason for there to be pressure because 2025 is already filled with a lineup of docuseries, documentaries, tribute shows, and more to honor what SNL has achieved over a half-century. How did official "Five-Timer" Martin Short (Hulu's Only Murders in the Building) and musical guest Hozier handle all of that? By delivering not only a strong creative effort to end the year but also the best top-to-bottom effort this season.
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