SNL: Is Saturday Night Live new tonight, December 22?
It’s the week before Christmas, and all through 30 Rock, not a writer was stirring, no Saturday Night Live from A through G blocks.
Saturday Night Live has had a rocky start to season 44. No matter if it was seasoned, returning hosts, former castaways hosting or first-timers, the show hasn’t been as consistently funny as it was during the beginning of the current political administration. What used to be biting, hard-in-the-paint political satire mixed in with a variety of audacious and experimental sketches has been anything but.
Whatever the case may be, the show has been incredibly sloppy throughout the first nine episodes of the season, up and down production. The actors have been missing cues on cue cards, cue cards hadn’t been prepared at all times, the camera direction for in-studio sketches has been inconsistent and skittish, sketches have been cut in progress, the show has run long; nothing is coming up Millhouse, as they say.
Most importantly, Saturday Night Live insists on relying heavily on celebrities’ star factor to drive its political cold opens rather than drawing upon their acting skills. With the exception of Ben Stiller’s Michael Cohen and Matt Damon’s Brett Kavanaugh, the celebrities (Alec Baldwin included) have been mailing their performances in, and the writing hasn’t carried the load.
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Though it’s just one episode, Matt Damon’s hosting stint last week showed at least some promise of better times. It was Christmas SNL at its modern finest; mixing at-the-time cultural references with timeless comedy pointed at the family coming together at the holidays. Weekend Update also fired on all cylinders (as it has all season), bringing forth some of the show’s most daring, hilarious content seen in years.
As such, Saturday Night Live ended 2018 on a high note, as there is no new episode tonight. No way are the cast and crew going to be working through to Dec. 23 without the opportunity to go back to their families for the holidays. There likely won’t be an episode through the Saturday of Jan. 5, 2019, considering New Years’ plans, but the next episode’s airdate hasn’t been announced.