‘Saturday Night Live’ review: Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump. Jennifer Aniston, Emma Stone, more (videos)

For one of the first times this season, this weekend’s episode of “Saturday Night Live” as hosted by Emma Stone was one we couldn’t predict going into it. While the predictable route for almost every new episode this season has been to give us a wide array of politically-themed cold opens, it didn’t feel as guaranteed entering this show that this is what we were going to get. The biggest political news potentially over the past few days was the Donald Trump – Carrier deal, but was there enough there for a full sketch?

Well, as it turns out the producers found a way to milk Trump once again for all they could! Specifically, the show opened the episode with a sketch all about Trump retweeting various messages in the middle of business meetings. This is something that he was famous for well before he was elected, and he has come under fire for it ever since. Specifically, the show referenced him tetweeting a teenager’s message, and then also told a joke about whether or not he should call another world leader, a reference to what he did with Taiwan in real life.

One of the main reasons why these Trump sketches still work is the presence of Kate McKinnon as a defeated Kellyanne Conway, a woman who they portray as being through a lot over the past couple of months.

A couple of other highlights before we move on to the rest of the show: Bobby Moynihan was glorious in limited screen time, and the show’s representation of Steve Bannon as a Grim Reaper-like figure is something that was very difficult to see coming … and also wonderful. The structure of the cold open was somewhat weird, mostly because it bounced around to a variety of different scenes that disrupted the overall energy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI3g_laToxE

Reminder: We’ll have videos for many of these sketches up in the morning.

Emma Stone monologue – This was presented to us as her “homecoming” of sorts, as she took us through how much was different between now and when she first hosted the show five years ago. Moynihan again was the best part of this playing the stereotypical 1980’s movie quarterback she had a fling with, though Vanessa Bayer was also great as the “mean girl” who mocked Stone while also begging for her to reach out to her contacts about future jobs.

Theater Troupe – We’re really starting with this black-box theater sketch? This ran its course a long time ago, but we’ll admit that there were a few bits in here that were so weird (Aidy Bryant talking about AIDS, or the group talking about the Dakota Access Pipeline) that we still found ourselves laughing about here and there.

Candle Commercial – This was the (probably) true story, as told via musical format, of a candle that is routinely handed from one person to another as a gift. While never hilarious, this was one of those pre-tapes that worked just because the premise behind it was fairly true and undeniable for many people out there. cool premise, but shaky execution.

Poster Chat – The idea behind this was very funny: A college student (Pete Davidson) getting advice while asleep on how to do his math homework from a series of posters hanging on his wall, with Stone playing a particularly ridiculous one who just wanted to talk about eating as many hot dogs as possible. (Everyone loves innuendo!) This was funny enough to be worthy of a couple of laughs, but it never quite rose past the idea phase.

The search for Hill – This, meanwhile, was on another level, and probably the best part of the show since the monologue … which is not something you often say about Kyle Mooney – Beck Bennett pre-tapes. The two guys played trackers searching for Hillary Clinton in the woods, and eventually, through some hard work and dedication they were able to (almost) track her down. The best part was them putting down a newspaper of Jill Stein’s recount efforts in hopes that it would pay off.

Weekend Update – This felt like a very long edition of Update, not that we really minded all that much given how the vast majority of the content within it was hilarious. Sure, Leslie Jones broke about five times during her segment, but there are times when that really works just because it shows that she’s into it and having fun. Also, it wasn’t awkward as though you were walking in on an inside joke.

In general, most of the individual headline-jokes worked, and then you had Jennifer Aniston popping in near the end while Vanessa Bayer was bringing back her version of Rachel from “Friends.” It was timed to coincident with Aniston’s new movie, but it wasn’t an obnoxious promo-cameo. It was funny, and Jen was game for it! Probably the biggest surprise later, even if its presence ruined a second cameo later.

Santa song – If there was a word that we would use to describe this, it’d be “strange.” What else are you supposed to say about a sketch that features three women singing about Santa Claus in an odd, sexual way while at a Christmas party? Once the first song was out into the universe, the unfortunate thing is that the sketch started to lose all of its steam. The worst of the night.

Debette Goldry – Admittedly, it’s a little bit of a surprise that we’re seeing this character from McKinnon so soon after her first appearance. Yet, at the same time it made sense to bring her in for a Paley Center panel at the same time that both Emma Stone and Jennifer Aniston were around. It was WAY too predictable that we’d be seeing Aniston again the moment that this sketch started. Debette is a good character (horrifyingly relevant after the “Last Tango in Paris” headlines), but we would’ve waited to bring her back.

Wells for Boys – This commercial parody was all about advertising a new Fisher-Price product for sensitive boys, featuring Stone as a mother trying to look after her extremely sensitive son. From one vantage point, this was incredibly ridiculous, and yet at the same time it was remarkably funny from start to finish. Good idea and strong execution.

Virgin Mary – For a sketch at the end of the show, surprisingly funny! Once we got the sense that Mary really didn’t want any of the guests to be there it lagged ever so slightly, but that was okay since the original premise worked so well. Kenan Thompson added a few good lines as one of the Three Kings.

Overall – Probably a very middle-of-the-road episode in the spectrum of the season. Other than the Santa song there was no major dud of a sketch, but there probably isn’t a top 10 sketch of the season in here either. The Hillary Clinton trackers probably was the best, but there was good stuff at the end of the show this time, as well. Grade: B.

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