Comments on: ‘Saturday Night Live’ review: Big Bird, ‘Long Island Medium,’ and Daniel Craig try

By: PC

PC — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 02:47:42 +0000

Oh, this episode was very dissappointing. I had such high hopes after last week but again, SNL writing is bordering on high school material. Some credit to the cast to try to make it work, but even they stumbled and presented as if they were trying to just get through the show. Seriously, was big bird that much of a treat? I can watch BB anytime. A kitten was the saving grace? Yet another skit with men on men? How about something worthy? Grade: D-

By: Eunice

Eunice — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 17:10:24 +0000

As much as I looked forward to Craig, comedy isn’t his strong suit. He was awkward the whole show, starting with walking out on stage & rushing the monologue. And yes, not knowing his lines & flubbing them repeatedly takes away a great deal. He made the effort, but it didn’t work. Also surprised at how small & aged he looked. Too much felt like missed opportunity, including Big Bird. But I liked Kate McKinnon’s efforts – she’s great.

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 12:00:14 +0000

I thought it was a good episode, the Space shuttle sketch had me in stitches and reminded me of MadTV’s golden years. The British sitcom was horribly funny with the cast struggling with their accents. Armisen’s drag performance was hilarious and pushed the lines of indecent exposure.
The construction worker sketch was bad, but the rest of the sketches balanced it out. I rarely laugh at SNL, but this episode is a keeper.

By: Jay

Jay — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 11:42:28 +0000

This was the worst show since January Jones hosted a few years ago. The Maddow sketch was the only “winner” for me personally, and even that was at best a 7 out of 10. As for why Craig was “under utilized”, I believe we must have been watching two different shows. He was dreadful. There was not one sketch in which he actually memorized a line or felt like he was even remotely close to knowing what was going on. He was an afterthought in most sketches because someone working for SNL had to of noticed this in the days leading up to the show or during the dress rehearsal.

This brings me to the low point of the show and the season (granted only 3 episodes so far), the kitty in space sketch. Craig flubbed a line FOUR different times in just this one sketch. Bobby Moynihan tried to save it with a poor mans Chris Farley take on the central kitty loving Kirby but with Craig’s painful fumbles, and no real jokes besides Moynihan’s weird voice the sketch seemed like an funny idea executed in the worst possible manner. It felt like Moynihan made the Kirby voice around the office, which probably garnered a numbers of laughs, and then someone higher up the chain made the call to write an entire sketch around it. How it got to be a kitty lover in space with some generic streotypes to play the other members of the crew I’ll never know.

It seems the biggest flaw of this season as a whole so far isn’t the hole left by departing cast members, as Kate McKinnon and Jay Pharoh have impressed with increased roles, but the overall shotty writing in sketches. In three shows only one sketch so far, the puppet sketch, has come off as something one would deem memorable, and that may just be because of the brillance of Bill Hader. Everything else has seemed rushed to air. Not surprisingly, the best works other than the puppet sketch have been the pre taped bits. Maybe this transition year has been hard on the writers to find what works best for the younger cast members. Maybe the busy schedules of the veterans is making them rely on greener members for more sketches than usual. Maybe this is the fallout of having the last number of years seem like the Kristen Wigg show, with the writers unable to adjust to a show without her. Maybe Lourne is losing his touch of what is considered funny these days, and can only revert back to topical humor to save a show. Whatever it is with this writing and the quality of sketches, it needs to improve quickly or the gems still left (Hader, Thompson, Sudeikis) will soon be jumping ship to pursue better projects.