‘Saturday Night Live’ re-watch: Do Miley Cyrus, ’50 Shades of Grey,’ Michele Bachmann hold up?
This is the second edition of our “Saturday Night Live” re-watch series this fall, where we literally do just as the title explains: We sit back and take a look at the latest episode of “Saturday Night Live” again, and then try to figure out what from the show stands the test of time, and what were the sort of sketches that only worked once thanks to the cultural zeitgeist.
We like to really categorize this by highlighting three sketches that all do something different: One that still is a hit watching it the second time around, one that has gone from being a good sketch to a bad sketch, and then a bad sketch that either improved itself or was even worse upon the second viewing. Luckily, Miley Cyrus had a pretty solid entertaining show when it first aired, so most of this is not going to feel as dramatic as it otherwise could have been.
Still a hit – “50 Shades of Grey” screen test. We love any sketch on the show that can utilize a variety of different impressions that the cast has, and we still don’t believe that all of the ones that are used here are particularly amazing. However, the reason that this works is because of the ridiculous amount of commitment that just about everyone involved has in them at least being entertaining. The show can probably thank Charlie Hunnam for in part keeping this fresh, as we are still not bored watching it again now.
From hit to miss – “We Won’t Stop.” As a concept that was created during the government shutdown, this was a brilliant way to spoof both Congress and also Miley’s “We Can’t Stop” video at the same time. Watching it after the shutdown is over really does not produce the same effect. There are some “SNL” sketches that are timeless, and others that audiences will be clueless about in a few years. This falls into the latter category.
From miss to … hit? – “Morning, Miami.” There was a little bit of humor in actually watching the facial expressions and the attitudes of these three anchors subtly change every time that they read the news promos, and another reason that this works is just because you pick up on a few things that are being done in the writing in repeat viewing. We at first said that this sketch was a little lazy and probably went on to long, but now, we’re not quite so sure on that.
We’ll be back next week with a new “Saturday Night Live” review, but if you click here, you can at least check out some of what happened on Kerry Washington’s edition of the show this past week.
Photo: NBC