SNL Review: Well, someone has to be the worst host of the season

Liev Schreiber wasn’t terrible as host, but when the highlight is an apology from Pete Davidson things didn’t go great.

Here’s all that you need to know for the SNL water cooler this week:

SNL Rundown…

1. There was a number of different directions the cold open could have gone, but Jeff Sessions resigning was the route taken. Any chance to feature Kate McKinnon as much as possible is usually the right decision, and what better opportunity than to bid farewell to one of her most well known and appreciated impressions.

2. Many probably wondered why Liev Schreiber was hosting this week, which is something he sort of leaned into during his monologue. The gist was he’s a famous actor, but the best part of his opener was how nervous he was starting out. Never before has an SNL host been so relatable.

3. The first skit of the night was an indication that this was going to be a safe episode. Not that the topics discussed wouldn’t be edgy, rather there’s a blueprint for hosts like Schreiber to follow so that the night goes smoothly. Right away we saw a plug-and-play skit featuring the Denver morning news crew that accidentally turns normal things into sexual puns.

4. Schrieber didn’t have to do much more than stay out of Kate McKinnon’s way in the second skit. We saw the return of a time-tested winner: McKinnon’s matter-of-fact chain-smoker Colleen Rafferty who seems to always be on the raw end of a paranormal experience. The skit is, at this point, designed to get the host to crack, which is one reason why it works so well whenever Ryan Gosling drops by. McKinnon tried to break Schrieber, and it mostly worked, and it’s never hard to enjoy.

5. One half of a show was packed with two different songs. The first, about how we can unite as a country over the little annoyances we all hate, was clever but a little flat. The second, a song that slapped surprisingly hard banger, stands out as a season highlight.  Keenan Thompson and Chris Redd toplined a song, featuring Future and Lil Wayne, about consent.

6. It’s also a great excuse to revisit a skit that tackled something similar, albeit with much greater success.

7. Michael Che is sure to make more friends on the left by taking a pretty great shot at Beto O’Rourke. While describing why he thinks the Texas Senate nominee is such a perfect candidate for the Democrats to get behind in 2020, he noted that one of the top reasons is he loses elections.

8. Pete Davidson and Dan Crenshaw shared a moment on the Update desk that extends a lot further than last week’s controversy. It also featured some moments where it appeared Crenshaw jabbed Davidson with jokes he didn’t know were coming. The first of which was when Davidson apologized to Crenshaw for what he said about him last week, which prompted Crenshaw’s phone to ring with an Ariana Grande ringtone. The congressman-elect then performed a bit where he made fun of Davidson’s looks, in which he compared him to Martin Short in The Santa Clause 3 and jabbed that only one of them was actually any good on SNL.

Of course, the most powerful moment was at the end of the jesting, when Crenshaw flew into a heartfelt monologue about thanking veterans this weekend by letting them know we’re all in this together.

It was a reminder that SNL can be as powerful as it is funny.

9. If you’ve ever listened to a podcast, the first let’s-get-weird skit of the second half of the show was for you. Kate McKinnon carried the skit in which every trope of podcasting was roasted. From the awkward and jarring placement of ads, journalists approaching dangerous situations with a microphone to the idea that most of these true crime stories are listened to by people jogging on treadmills, this was a seemingly niche skit that actually hit a much wider target.

10. I always say that a mark of a bad episode is when we get to this part of the list and the musical guest comes up. Welcome to the first occurrence of that this season. While the overall show was mostly forgettable, it’s at least notable to say Lil Wayne further re-introduced himself to audiences. It’s been years since the self-proclaimed best rapper alive captured the zeitgeist, and while it doesn’t appear he’ll sit atop that throne again, it’s nice to see he’s still around and able to effortlessly be one of the best acts this season.

Verdict

Schreiber mostly played it safe, which there’s nothing wrong with. The blueprint was there for him to have a night, maybe not specifically a memorable one. Not every episode is going to be a winner and someone ultimately has to be at the bottom of the list at the end of the season. There were good moments on Saturday, like Pete Davidson’s apology and a skit where Cecily Strong couldn’t stop laughing, but overall it was a vanilla episode that is only timeless in its blandness.

Grade: D+

Season Grades

1. Seth Meyers/Paul Simon — A
2. Adam Drive/Kanye West — B+
3. Akwafina/Travis Scott — C
4. Jonah Hill/Maggie Rogers — C
5. Liev Schreiber/Lil Wayne — D+

Next Week on SNL…

Date: November 17th
Host: Steve Carrell
Musical Guest: Maggie Rogers
TV Channel: NBC

Next: 30 Biggest Hip Hop Feuds of All-Time

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