Kate McKinnon returned with her skilled impression (which we first saw in March), recording her campaign announcement as a selfie video. After years of a president that’s just too hard to mock with sketch comedy, I’ve nearly forgotten how entertaining SNL can be with a politician with a more defined comedic hook – namely, the maniacal ambition and always-a-bridesmaid insecurity of Hillary Clinton. SNL may be on more solid footing as Season 40 approaches its end, but this episode wasn’t evidence of it… as much as superfans like me wanted it to be. The night saw exciting cameos from alums Darrell Hammond and Billy Crystal, a killer performance by Kate McKinnon, and some pointed satire its back half, but everything in between struggled to stand out. Henson revealed herself as an energetic, dynamic host, but one prone to misreading a scene’s comedic point of view (which, in fairness to the actress, often wasn’t nailed down in the script to begin with). The material lacked inspiration, clearly written by people who haven’t slept in weeks: lots of celebrity impressions, less-funny versions of premises we’ve seen before, topical bits that didn’t quite hit. This was the SNL I tune in for! Curse broken!īut as the night wore on, SNL fell into the same traps the show always seems to suffer at the end of these three-week runs. Sure enough, the first block came out guns blazing – a hilarious Hillary Clinton cold open, an impressive performance by Henson in the monologue, an amusing fake commercial. SNL has walked tall this spring with strong showings from Chris Hemsworth, Dwayne Johnson, and Michael Keaton (whose episode deserves more praise than I initially gave it), and Empire’s multi-talented scene-stealer seemed like a safe bet. Henson’s episode began, I crossed my fingers that this would be the night season 40 finally hit its stride. Objectivity be damned… when SNL’s funny, we all win. I’ve never understood the hate-watchers, who tune in expecting a train wreck and tweet cruel insults to its cast members. Even at its worst, SNL remains a fascinating experiment in live TV sketch comedy, and if I’m going to spend a chunk of my week doing something, I want it to be a positive experience. And not just what I considered the glory years of the series – the late 90s that I grew up with, or the late 70s that my parents grew up with, or the late 80s I discovered in college, or the late 2000s that inspired me to start reviewing it online – I’ve loved it even during the not-as-great seasons 39 and 40. Despite all the criticisms I’ve made about SNL, I should say that I love this show.
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