Saturday Night Live review: Riverdale, Melissa Villasenor’s Lady Gaga, Ralph Northam, & Halsey

Tonight, Saturday Night Live was hosted by Halsey, who also just so happened to be the night’s musical guest. Suffice it to say, she was excited to have the role — she’s been a diehard fan of the show from the beginning.

Related SNL video – Be sure to get some more thoughts on the sketch show now below! Remember that you can subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube for more information and be sure to check out our official show playlist.

For our take on the cold open, all you have to do is head over here — comedically, it had its moments, but it was also a familiar take on something that we’ve seen many times before. As for the monologue, there wasn’t actually all that much more to really say here. Halsey talked about loving the women on the show and her excitement to be one of them. She did a great NEw Jersey accent and that was mostly it.

Let’s get now to the sketches, which we will update as the night goes along.

Them Trumps – This Empire spoof came back, and while there were some funny lines in it, what we wonder here was this: Why do this again? It was somewhat-timely, but it also feels like Empire has past its pop-culture zenith.

Virginia problems – This was the show taking on Ralph Northam and some other Virginia people in politics — and also discussing how blackface was always wrong. Did anyone else sense the Megyn Kelly shade here?

Valentine’s Day song – While there wasn’t a real catchy name for the song, this was still a pretty fun, pretty catchy number all about some of the unfortunate people who often come out of the woodwork every February 14 — like your parents, or your boss doing awkward things for you.

Family emergency – This was ridiculous, but also really funny — basically, every time Mikey Day ended the conversation with his parents, he learned about something terrible that was going on with them. The joke didn’t get old and this totally worked.

Women of Congress – This was one of those sketches where the show build this up to be some huge, epic sketch, when really it was just a chance to have all of these different female members of Congress shouting about Donald Trump and smashing a phone.

Weekend Update – This was one of the best Weekend Update segments of the entire season — not only were there some really funny segments in here but, to go along with it, we also had a chance to see some super-funny stuff featuring some of the correspondents. Melissa Villasenor killed it as Lady Gaga. Meanwhile, the Instagram couple segment featuring Mikey Day and Heidi Gardner was ridiculous, and we also had a really silly return from the Guy Who Just Bought a Boat — which seems to get more ridiculous as time goes by.

Sorority Pledge – Seeing these pledges actually make it into their group by humiliating other people in the midst of karaoke was unexpected — but also probably not as funny as it should’ve been. The point here was to defy stereotypes, but we’re not sure that the comedy paid off all that well.

Black History Month – This started out as just a simple PSA-of-sorts from some of the show’s African-American cast, at least before it became a little bit more about watching Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett try to impress their black friends with their extreme knowledge of pop culture.

Cam Account – What we learned over the course of this sketch is that apparently, Leslie Jones’ character has no problem having her husband  (Kenan Thompson) make money running a very adult sort of business online … one that involves his butt and also cake. This was ridiculous, but at the same time fairly funny as everyone in the family started to get on board due to the financial boon it provided.

Corpse Actor – This is one of the weirdest closing sketches in a while, mostly because Pete Davidson’s character (on a fake Riverdale set) was the biggest corpse method actors we’ve ever seen. He seemed to know a lot about corpses … but also just chewing the scenery.

Overall, this was the rare case of a show that actually got better, and weirder, as the night goes on. Sometimes, that does happen with this show — Halsey was game, and pretty darn solid throughout.

Related News – Be sure to get some more updates on tonight’s new episode

What did you think about the Saturday Night Live episode overall? Be sure to share right now in the comments! (Photo: NBC.)