‘Saturday Night Live’ review: Mother’s Day, Willie, Picture Perfect, more in Reese Witherspoon show (video)
“Saturday Night Live” loves politics. Therefore, where else are you going to get a primer on the Republican contenders for the 2016 election? Even though you still have 18 months to go, we met everyone tonight from Carly Florina (Kate McKinnon), Ben Carson (Kenan Thompson), Ted Cruz (Bobby Moynihan), and Marco Rubio (Taran Killam). Having Cecily Strong introduce all of the “candidates” seemed right to us, mostly because of her recent role actually around them at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Was this particularly funny? Not really so much as it was just silly fun, and at least a good high-energy way to start the Reese Witherspoon show. Now, let’s move on to the other sketches from the night.
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Reese Witherspoon monologue – This was not entirely funny (too much teleprompter-reading), but it was sweet to see most of the cast members bring out their moms and thank them. Also, home movies! Also, it was worth a laugh or two to see Kenan’s home movie be from something he did as a child star.
Be Scene in L.A. -A weird sketch that had a somewhat-funny game to it at first: The microphone guy doesn’t know how to turn them off during “commercials,” and the hosts do embarrassing things and don’t pick up on them. It made zero sense whatsoever, but we did at least laugh a couple of times.
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Picture Perfect – Hilarious. We weren’t expecting a sketch revolving around a drawing game where they were told to draw the Prophet Muhammad. Such a simple joke, but played perfectly. It was edgy, but since nothing was actually drawn, not too controversial.
Mr. Westerberg – For those who have wanted to see Beck Bennett get a better showcase this season, how about this sketch? We do wish it was something a little less creepy than a guy being drugged so that his boss can do weird sexual things to him.
“Weekend Update” – Despite knowing both Leslie Jones and the Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation with at a Party, we feel like both of those bits tonight disappointed somewhat. Instead, Kenan as Williw was surprisingly funny, and we got some pretty decent jokes from Colin Jost and Michael Che. We are still shocked at how long “Weekend Updates” is getting.
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School Play – Who thought that this would be a great idea to bring this back? It worked the first time because we didn’t really understand what was going on. Now that we do, it really does not have quite the same effect that it once did.
Dinner Party – Let’s forget this weird concoction ever existed. It was not funny, and we zoned out a good halfway through.
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Water Park – We have no idea whatsoever what is happening to the end of this show. It wasn’t great before update, but this was the third straight super-dud on the night.
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Whiskers ‘R We – This sketch is still so ridiculous, but we enjoy it in between McKinnon’s delivery and the woman she is with randomly hitting on her throughout. This time around, it was Reese doing one of her better performances of the night.
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This was not a great show. Most of the sketches were letdown, and we went almost a good half-hour without laughing near the end. We don’t really blame Reese too much for it; instead, the problem felt almost like someone was saving most of the good material for Louis CK. Grade: C-.
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