Posted in: NBC, Opinion, Peacock, TV, TV | Tagged: nate bargatze, nbc, saturday night live, season 49, snl

SNL Second-Guessing: Nate Bargatze Helped Course-Correct Season 49

After a shaky start, host Nate Bargatze, musical guest Foo Fighters, and the SNL cast & writers course-corrected Season 49 with the episode.

NBC's Saturday Night Live Season 49 had a decently solid opening back in October 2023, with SNL alum Pete Davidson and musical guest Ice Spice kicking things off. After that, it was host/musical guest Bad Bunny – and things were starting to get a wee bit concerning. Having taken the past two weeks off while NBC turned itself over to Paris 2024 Olympics coverage, we're back with another edition of SNL Second-Guessing – and with the past season's third episode getting replayed tonight, we thought we would share what it was about host Nate Bargatze and musical guest Foo Fighters that helped course-correct the season in some much-needed ways.

Just to be clear, we're not saying that the season was perfect from this episode forward – far from it. Remember, we still had Jacob Elordi on the way in January 2024. Even the episode itself began on a concerning note, with the "Biden Halloween Cold Open" suffering from leaning way too hard on "President Joe Biden (Mikey Day) is old" jokes and a forced guest appearance from Christopher Walken. But after that, so much worked in so many ways that it became an unofficial blueprint on just how good SNL can be when it plays like a true ensemble effort on our screens.

Bargatze's monologue was a well-crafted stand-up performance that did a great job of putting his comedic strengths on display. "Washington's Dream" proved to be a stinging look at the absurdities behind the decisions the U.S.'s founding fathers made in crafting the country – and a definite must-see for this election cycle. "Airplane" was a fun group effort (Bargatze, Day, Devon Walker, Dave Grohl, Heidi Gardner, Chloe Fineman, Andrew Dismukes, Bowen Yang, Chloe Troast) showing how egos can get the best of even an emergency situation – even when it's happening 30,000 feet in the air.

"Hallmark Horror" saw Bargatze and Fineman starring in a trailer for a horror rom-com that brings together the best of those Hallmark and Lifetime films and then runs them through a Shudder blender. "Chef Show" found Bargatze's and Ego Nwodim's chefs facing off on a cooking show to see who can cook the best soul food – while Punkie Johnson & Kenan Thompson are the judges. Bargatze portrays his chef's growing shame at his unexpected success in an effectively understated way. Bargatze, Andrew Dismukes, and James Austin Johnson went the filmed music video route for "Lake Beach" to portray the country music trio Mudpuddle, who really, really love spending their summers down by the lake.

As we mentioned before, and as you can see from the brief rundown we just offered, the third episode of Season 49 was truly an ensemble show in every sense. Sarah Sherman was on fire as the SAG-AFTRA President in "Trick-or-Treat with Fran Drescher" and when it came to finding a new way to torture "Weekend Update" anchor Colin Jost (this time, as Jost's "agent," J.J. Gordon). Johnson was the perfect reality check" in "Hallmark Horror," and a great comedic tag-term partner for Thompson as the two pretty much took over "Chef Show" (with bonus points to Thompson for what appeared to be some improv on his part when he pushed the plate onto the floor). Please Don't Destroy (Ben Marshall, John Higgins & Martin Herlihy) went wonderfully absurd with "Dawg Food," while Jost and co-anchor Michael Che continued making "Weekend Update" the go-to moment in the show for wonderfully brutal laughs. Of course, the Foo Fighters were the Foo Fighters – that's all that needs to be said for that.

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