Goldberg74

Whoops, forgot to open a new thread.

To me this is a random host with a random musical guest.

Good luck to them.



Season 48 (2022-2023)
SNL 10/01/22 (S48E01) — H: Miles Teller - MG: Kendrick Lamar (Season Premiere)
SNL 10/08/22 (S48E02) — H: Brendan Gleeson - MG: Willow
SNL 10/15/22 (S48E03) — H: Megan Thee Stallion - MG: Megan Thee Stallion

Paff

Spared y'all my typical old man "get off my lawn" rant on Kendrick Lamar last week, 'cuz I knew what to expect from him. But tonight, I was not impressed with Willow one bit. So much taped material that I'm genuinely curious if any of it was performed live at all. I mean, backing vocals even though no one else was singing, instruments that were obviously not there (I clearly heard an acoustic guitar but no one on stage was playing one). And a stage setup that would have been excessive for Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden in 1973. Someone's trying to hide the fact that they're lip-synching to a tape I think.

EDIT: While Willow's second song was a pretty good hard rocker, all my above complaints still stand; I just don't know how much of it was performed for real. There were two guitars, rhythm and lead, and I guess we were meant to believe Willow was playing rhythm. However, when she used the guitar to smash the TV, the rhythm guitar was still playing the riff, so there was definitely a lot of pre-recorded material in her "performance".

Also, I think Sarah Sherman could be a breakout star. She's willing to give her all in a sketch, as we saw in the "googly eye" bit at the end. She constantly had to bob her head for the googly eyes to move and keep the joke going.

JeffTheAlpaca

A rare show with almost zero political sketches.

Headshots was good

Sherman is known for doing body humor when she talked with Seth Meyers though I don't know why she has a haircut from the 60's?

Still missing McKinnon and Davidson

Not a fan of the non-binary cast member but Marcello Hernandez I would like to see more of.

I have no idea who the Try Guys are and don't follow internet personalities

Trelach24

So I do know who the Try Guys are and I laughed during that sketch..

And then I decided to go check out the Try Guys reddit page and my god their fans are hilariously unhinged about it.

Troy Stiffler

Gleason was dope. Some actors just know how to work it for laughs.

Coral

I thought this episode was just horrible... and Gleason wasn't very good.

Rob V

^^ Funny how polarizing this show is / can be... I found this to be one of the better shows in a while. I thought Gleeson, while sort of off in the opening, was pretty funny. The reporter sketch about Try Guys and the pre-recorded "Senior High School" skits were pretty funny, IMO.

Nesbit

I enjoyed New Cast Advice. Feel like Eyes was a missed opportunity given how funny the visual was.

Hadnt seen a thing Willow has done single the hair whipping video and wow that was a shock given what I expected. I think I liked it (was so shocked would have to listen at least once more to fully judge) but that was the lamest “Destruction” of a guitar i’ve ever seen.

Paff

The problem with the New Cast Advice bit was, and I swear I'm not making this comparison based on physical size, Molly Kearny was basically doing Chris Farley's Matt Foley bit, combined with Kate McKinnon's abducted by aliens skit. Really. It was three people, two of whom were describing a normal experience, while the third was talking about an over-the-top hellish event. And Kearny's cracking voice made me wonder if a "I live in a VAN down by the river!" was coming.

Nesbit

Yeah can definitely see the similarities to both.

William Fuld

She made Phoebe Bridgers look like Pete Townshend.

JeffTheAlpaca

I thought this would be a 2 or 3 page with a star from Paddington 2 hosting?

jpcamb

I was pleasantly surprised by the episode. Shocked to say I got a slight laugh out of Yang in the cold open something that is exceedingly rare for me to do.

I liked the bit with Marylin with Heidy finishing each letter 'not a fan' and Gleason in drag with the beard sort of somehow elevated the skit.

Paff

Guitar World magazine did a write up of the Willow performance: https://www.guitarworld.com/news/wil...-ur-a-stranger

They're a little kinder than I am, but they noticed the same thing; the guitar playing we saw on stage did not match what we were actually hearing. Guitar World didn't want to call it a lip-synched performance, but it's fairly obvious it was.

I apologize for always going on about this, but I think it's valid because musical performance doesn't have to be mimed, there's thousands of people doing it for real every night in concert halls, arenas, and nightclubs. And SNL was always insistent upon no performing to a pre-recorded track, that's what American Bandstand and other shows did at the time. To me, it would be like if Kenan Thompson said he could no longer make it to Studio 8H, and would just pre-record his lines at home, then in mid sketch when Kenan had a line they'd cut to the tape. It would be fake, you know it would be fake, and you wouldn't enjoy it. Half the fun of SNL, if not more, is the "live" nature of it (hint: it's in the title). There's no retakes if an actor flubs their line or a cast member starts to laugh. And in fact, many of SNL's best moments are due to non-scripted incidents.

It's a shame the Musical Guest no longer has that same element of spontaneity. If the acts SNL books are unable to play live, then they should find acts who can, because I know I go see them all the time.

Count Dooku

I think it is safe to say that, in the 2000s, what you want and expect from an SNL musical performance and what SNL wants and expects from a musical performance are two different things.

At almost 50 years old, SNL is an American entertainment institution, and so being asked to be on it is a kind of honor, but nowadays, most of the musical guests are bigger than SNL, meaning they don't really need the platform, exposure, or promotion that SNL provides, so SNL is not in a position to place demands on someone like Kendrick Lamar, who likely sees it as a favor to SNL that he would appear there.

JeffTheAlpaca

I bet another Brendan Brendan Fraser will probably host in the future and he will be a hot name during awards season.

Decker

"You were born a flower and you'll die a flower!"

bluesix

I take it Molly Kearny is supposed to be the new non-binary cast member?

Of all of this year's adds I really liked her bit the best. She comes across as a more masculine, grittier version of Melissa McCarthy. The bit she was doing was predictable but she pulled it off and came across very believably. I hope they find a way to use her in more sketches but I can't see her filling in the Aidy vacancy playing the mid-50s age Mom role in skits...

Throwing Copper

One of the few times where I really hate the Cold Open. Just didn’t care for Brendan Gleason at all. Fast forwarded through a lot of the show.

beavis69

So I went back and rewatched the performance and compared it to the studio version and it appears she is signing on it. She is absolutely not playing the guitar though haha. There is even a point she has a small solo and turns her back to the audience when it happens. Also that might have been the lamest guitar "smash" I've seen.

With that said I thought the song was pretty good and she obviously has a great voice. The Smiths entering the alternative world isn't anything new, with Jada's Wicked Wisdom back in the 00s. I would in no way call myself a fan of that band (I had moved on to other metal subgenres by then) but I thought she and the band sounded good and I respected them for playing those Ozzfest dates while people threw and heckled them the whole time.

JTH182

That was Willow SMITH? Damn, I'm getting old, lol

I swear when I first saw Devon Walker this season I though it was a heavier Pete Davidson in blackface. There's just something about his eyes or something that reminds me of Pete Am I crazy?

Count Dooku

I am going to go ahead and say that if you thought Pete Davidson was on SNL this season AND that he was appearing on TV in blackface, then you are, in fact, crazy.