Saturday Night Live.....

[troutman]

'SNL' Scorecard: Drake Welcomes Sasheer Zamata to Saturday Night


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_4611913.html

After an insane amount of coverage, Sasheer Zamata made her “SNL” debut last night with quite a few supporting appearances and ... that’s the last time I’m going to mention Zamata other than when it comes to her actual participation on the show. (And I only mention it now just to avoid the, “How did you not mention that?” questions.) Look, it’s hard enough to succeed on a show like “SNL” under normal circumstances and Zamata’s debut has been met with more attention than possibly any brand new featured player in the history of “SNL” – which really isn’t fair.

Anyway, Drake hosted tonight and was … really great, actually! And he went out of his way to sell everything he was given. It kind of reminded me of the Bruno Mars show from last season: An energetic host that's been given so-so material that he's able to elevate -- to a point. Here is your somewhat abbreviated (due to the fact I’m currently in Park City, Utah in the middle of Sundance coverage and haven’t slept in three days) Scorecard…


Sketch of the Night
”Resolution Revolution” (Killam, Zamata, Drake, Pharoah) This was great because this is true. Also: Drake doing cosplay.

· Lady Gaga 6.06
· Edward Norton 5.91
· Paul Rudd 5.90
· Drake 5.82
· Jimmy Fallon 5.80
· John Goodman 5.76
· Josh Hutcherson 5.75
· Bruce Willis 5.68
· Kerry Washington 5.60
· Tina Fey 5.35
· Miley Cyrus 5.20

[Eastern Girl]

I loved the Bieber impression. Those facial expressions were spot on.

I don't like Drake. I don't get his appeal, but I will give him credit. I thought he did well, though the material wasn't great.

They really used the new chick quite a bit, but in nothing really noteworthy. It was like they were just showing her off, and giving her nothing.

I agree about the girl that did Nancy Grace. She just put on a Southern accent. Beyond that, it didn't really seem like a Nancy Grace impression. She's one of the new cast members that hasn't really made much of an impression. Not sure why. Sometimes the new ones just don't do much on the show and they only get a season before leaving.

I love Aidy. She is hilarious.

[MissTeeks]

I laughed Sprite up my nose when they started doing cosplay during Resolution Revolution. That was hilarious.

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

Show was kinda meh, but yeah Rahad at the Indiana Jones ride was hilarious. Gotta love Nasim.

[MissTeeks]

http://tvline.com/2014/01/23/colin-j...e-replacement/

Head writer Colin Jost will occupy the seat next to Cecily Strong starting in March, after Meyers bids the sketch-comedy show farewell on Feb. 1 and becomes host of the network’s Late Night talker. The news was first reported by our sister site Deadline.

Jost, who has performed standup on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, wrote such recent SNL bits as the Miley Cyrus “We Did Stop” government shutdown parody, a Kerry Washington sketch poking fun at the show’s long-standing dearth of black female cast members, as well as “Weekend Update” regulars Drunk Uncle and The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party, Deadline notes.

[Daradon]

The Bieber impression and first sketch in general were the high points. Drake was pretty good in the sketches, though he didn't have a lot to work with. Not a great episode.

Again I gotta disagree with the Huff post score card, in fact their list could be close to the opposite of how I feel. As I mentioned after the Norton one, he's one of my favorite actors, but that wasn't a great episode, and Norton himself looked a little lost or hesitant in some of the sketches. Also thought the Rudd one was average and perhaps worse when you look at the star power they had in it and what they could have done with it.

Gaga's episode was good I'll admit, and I liked her more than I thought it would, but tops? Eeeep...

[DuffMan]

I thought that was one of the better episodes, start to finish.

Resolution/Revolution was great, as was the Bieber bit.

I didn't know much about Drake either, but I thought he was able to turn some protential crap, Indiana Jones and the father into some pretty solid sketches. They both could've been disasters.

[Daradon]

Yeah he was spot on in the Indiana Jones one. I don't think the problem was him in any of the sketches, and I do agree with you, that he improved or saved some. I guess I'm just looking at how much I like the overall show, rather than how much the star improves it or tanks it, though to be fair, it has entered some of my arguments.

As for the Resoultion Revolution skit, it was good, but it wasn't as good as Boy Dance Party, or In My Twin Bed, both non live musical video sketches done this year. As this seems to be more and more of a given in SNL after the awesomeness of what Andy Samberg brought to the show, to be fair, I think you have to compare the videos to the others. In my opinion RR was better than most non music video sketches of the season (as most of them are), but was near or on the bottom of the non live, music video sketches.

[Ducay]

Enjoyed the episode last night.

Boy I can't stand Cecily Strong. She can only do 2 characters. Herself, and her ditsy voice.

Someone better like McKinnon better take over weekend update or its doomed.

[JonDuke]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Enjoyed the episode last night.

I hated it
I'm not a huge SNL fan, but watch when the Mrs does, and we both agreed last night was pathetic. Jonah Hills opening "6 year old" skit was painful to watch and the entirety of the show reeked of failure. The whole show last night was just very "off" to me.

[mustache ride]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Enjoyed the episode last night.

Boy I can't stand Cecily Strong. She can only do 2 characters. Herself, and her ditsy voice.

Someone better like McKinnon better take over weekend update or its doomed.

If Mckinnon takes over then the show loses all her characters.

[Machiavelli]

I wish the new cast members would do something funny. Half of the time, they are just playing normal people saying normal things.

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

I enjoyed the Jonah Hill episode. I like it when he does the 6-year old kid. But maybe I'm just in the minority. Leo was hilarious in the monologue too.

The only big crash and burn was that SoCal video. I don't get why they keep letting those two guys make videos. I don't think a single video they've made has made me laugh.

[troutman]

'SNL' Scorecard: Jonah Hill Took A Ride On Titanic

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_4666475.html

Jonah Hill has quietly become a good “SNL” host. His name doesn’t get mentioned in the same sentence as Timberlake or Jon Hamm (who somehow hasn’t hosted since 2010), but here he is -- back for a third time -- giving another solid performance.

Though, the cast is way too big right now. It’s impossible to get to know the cast when there are 17 (!) cast members fighting for airtime. There's no way around it, the show just feels muddled right now. I thought the cast was a little too big when it was at 14 for the past few seasons – but 17 seems to be a real hindrance. Look, this was the 12th episode of the season and I’m still catching myself saying, “Wait, was that Brooks Wheelan? I think that was Brooks Wheelan.” My point: I really don't know who Brooks Wheelan is. (I don't mean to pick on Mr. Wheelan, I could mention quite a few other cast member names instead.) I don’t know what the immediate solution is (even with the upcoming departure of Seth Meyers, he’s being replaced in the cast by Colin Jost), but it’s been difficult to build a connection with this particular cast.

Sketch of the Night
”Lamborghini” (Bayer, Strong, Hill) I’ve never been a huge fan of this particular sketch. I mean, it’s certainly not “The Californians” when it comes to the echelon of “sketches I do not like,” but these always seemed like they were missing something or went on way too long. Having said that, this installment was hilarious. All of the jokes worked and Strong and Bayer have a rapport with each other now that’s really, really great. If the attitude is, “We’re going to keep doing this sketch until we get it right,” well, it’s done.

If they were going to bring back a Jonah Hill skit, instead of Benihana, I'd like to see the awesome "What's Your Situation?" game show again. I liked the straight mens' figure skating.

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/07/07hsituation.phtml


· Lady Gaga 6.06
· Edward Norton 5.91
· Paul Rudd 5.90
· Drake 5.82
· Jimmy Fallon 5.80
· John Goodman 5.76
· Josh Hutcherson 5.75
· Jonah Hill 5.73
· Bruce Willis 5.68
· Kerry Washington 5.60
· Tina Fey 5.35
· Miley Cyrus 5.20

[East Coast Flame]

That was a brutal episode. Easily the worst this season.

[Eastern Girl]

I liked the monologue with Leonard DiCaprio. It's nice to see him display a sense of humour. He strikes me as the type that takes himself very seriously. To see him do Titanic was awesome.

The rest of the show was a lot of meh. I agree about those videos. I don't understand them. I watch them and just keep hoping there's a big payoff or punch line, but it usually just ends with something obvious. They are disappointing.

They definitely have not figured out how to use the new cast, or the new cast has not figured out any decent characters yet, because as someone mentioned above, they all appear as the normal person in the sketch, all totally interchangeable really at this point.

[Swarly]

The 'Me' sketch had me in tears, especially when Cera showed up. But I don't think many people have seen or heard about 'Her' which they were making fun of.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Swarly

The 'Me' sketch had me in tears, especially when Cera showed up. But I don't think many people have seen or heard about 'Her' which they were making fun of.

That was a heavily marketed Hollywood movie, that had commercials absolutely everywhere. I'd argue most people would have known what that was about.

[Swarly]

Originally Posted by flameswin

That was a heavily marketed Hollywood movie, that had commercials absolutely everywhere. I'd argue most people would have known what that was about.

Ah, I wasn't sure, haven't heard anyone talk about it and I don't watch commercials

[DuffMan]

Worst I've seen in awhile