SNL: The Season So Far
2007
Seth
Rogen and Kristen Wiig as nerdy kids. Comedy
fans like to make a sport of critiquing Saturday Night Live, and Jester
is no exception (see last year's "Season So
Far" review). A great deal of this can be just taste, but I try
to look at it with a universal but informed point of view. This season
has generally been stronger and less uneven so far than the first
episodes of last year.
The season opener, featuring LeBron James,
did not yield anything as hilarious as the Peyton Manning short last
year of him lambasting kids as a youth league coach. In fact, the
opening monologue that segued into a sketch was a bit muddled and didn't
really get its point across. But James did a nice job as straight man to
two recurring characters, first attention junkie Penelope played by
Kristen Wiig, and later cocky video production assistant Mike Underballs,
played by Jason Sudeikis. The Penelope sketch this time had much more
variety to it, and was better written. The duds of the episode were "The
Lyle Kane Show" and "106th and Park." A very good sketch -- "Great
Moments In Guidance Counseling," that played off the hypothetical
guidance counselor who advised James to skip college for the NBA, was
buried way too late in the show. Grade: B minus.
The next episode, featuring hot comedic actor Seth
Rogen, as host, came pretty close to being everything an SNL
episode should be. No out and out dud sketches -- and a lot of strong
memorable material. The recurring MacGyver parody (MacGruber) throughout
the episode definitely grew on you. Rogen's monologue, reading from a
note to himself as a teenager, worked well; his appearances as a quirky,
nerdy and weird child in one sketch and a stoner colonist in another
were letter perfect. Bill Hader's appearance as Animal from the Muppets
was priceless. Grade: A.
Most recently, Jon Bon Jovi appeared as
host, and nearly pushed the Foo Fighters off the show completely as
musical guests (they only played one song, while Bon Jovi turned the
monologue into a song, and also did another at the end). Again, no out
and out terrible sketches as in the LeBron James episode, but overall
nothing as strong as the Rogen episode, and not totally as consistent as
that one either. The highlights were the cold open of a teenage Amy
Poehler dreaming about Bon Jovi himself stepping out of the poster on
her wall, circa 1986. Kristen Wiig, who can be very hit or miss -- the
Target Lady character has never been all that great -- did a better job
than usual as a starship captain becoming obsessed with a lost purse as
invaders capture the ship. Of course, people were talking immediately
about Andy Samberg’s short, “People Getting Punched Just Before Eating,”
which like last year’s “Andy Popping Into Frame,” rides its musical
soundtrack momentum and editing into making you laugh.
Grade: B.
We’ll try to get back to you later in the season with another set of
reviews. |