Saturday Night Live: Season 50, Episode 3 recap

Was it COVID that denied us Justin Timberlake-like rule over the US? SNL Ariana Grande's microphone? Or did she just get a “thanks, next” during the increasingly competitive main pop girl wars? Of course, the continued presence of her then-boyfriend Pete Davidson, who was briefly engaged to Grande in 2018, may also have played a role. But before their breakup and after his departure from the series, there was still plenty of time in which she could have burnished her reputation as a consummate musical impressionist and, for all intents and purposes, sketch performer, which, as a bonus, didn't spur writing one of those “Bring.” it on to omeletville” sketches. Her musical monologue, which included a jokingly insincere bit about how she would keep things low-key, admitted that she hadn't hosted since 2016, but also somehow implied that she had done so regularly enough to reach the audience would expect a litany of famous voices, characters and powerful melodies – hence the false warning that she wouldn't do any of that. Maybe she gave away everything she was up to during her appearance on Jimmy Fallon Tonight's showwhich, as far as I know, includes a whole lot of impressions – furthering the unspoken connection to Timberlake.

In fact, before I got notes from Grande herself about her final hosting gig, I had no particular recollection of when that was, or if she'd ever done it before without also appearing as a musical guest (no!). Although she comes to terms with being a theater kid in the monologue, there's something a little nebulous about Grande's image, at least when it comes to how she functions on a comedy variety show. (I'm sure a full-time music critic or even just a hardcore fan could give me a complete overview of her personality.) Her vocal impressions are indeed technically astonishing; When she juxtaposed her more energetic Jennifer Coolidge voice alongside Chloe Fineman's (very good!) Jennifer Coolidge voice, it felt like exactly the kind of braggadocio she jokingly wanted to avoid in her monologue, in which she also did mini-impressions of Britney, Gwen and…played through Miley. (Celine Dion would make a bigger, but not necessarily better, impact later in the episode.) But even her “normal” voice sounded like she was doing some sort of Broadway thing, like she couldn't shake Kristin Chenoweth off her back Evil job, just like Austin Butler couldn't shake Elvis. It puts their whole business in protective quotes.

That's not necessarily negative. Her vocal control was a highlight of the episode, which cheekily broke its monologue promise with a mostly singing sketch cast. Of the seven skits Grande appeared in, she sang in four, which gave the episode an unusual level of cohesion – even in the non-musical skits, musicality was evident in her singing mannerisms. So it was a strange twist that Grande's control was arguably most impressive in a sketch in which she not only diligently and playfully sang off-key to stay in character, but in a sketch that didn't even make that the actual joke of the piece . SNL has played out the “shag at the wedding” scenario in various forms before, but having Grande, Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim and Sarah Sherman play the courting bridesmaids and perform a clunky “Espresso” parody with such deliberately staccato enthusiasm did wonders for the momentary veracity of her bizarre confession — at least until the sketch reached the final punch line, in which Marcello Hernandez ran onto the stage to scream something. (Plus, he's obviously a sweet and charming guy, but any time a comedy show assumes one of its cast members is absurdly hot, you have to scratch your head a little.)

The bridesmaid song was the purest, most raw song Grande had felt all evening. Most of the time, she managed to turn her affectations into something memorable: a mother who couldn't stop cruelly mocking (or neglecting?!) her son's friend; a woman caught in a tangle of intrigue between a series of hotel detectives; an Italian castrato with a constantly distant look as his parents enthusiastically explain the mutilation he experienced. In all of these appearances, she was probably the highlight of her performance, which is rarely the case for a presenter. So what stopped this episode from becoming an instant classic? Was it just that most of the sketches were pretty good and not outright great?

Or maybe I'm detecting a touch of pop star conceit in the plot, a holdover from those Timberlake episodes where about half the sketches were about showing what a playful, energetic, versatile guy Timberlake can be. Grande isn't nearly as obvious about it – and she seems more able to disappear into the role. For example: It is not uncommon for a Saturday Night Live Actress in her 30s playing a middle-aged mother; less so for a singer of similar age, who often presents himself as even younger, to do the same thing and do it so well. But Grande's flagship work occasionally felt like the cast was pushing against something rather than completely in sync with it. That's not a disservice to her or the episode, both of which were good by most standards. But especially with such a large cast, it can be disorienting to see someone swoop in and become the star of the show, as if they're finding a haven of credibility in a devastated music industry landscape. If she can't be like Sabrina Carpenter, she can damn well commit to singing it off key.

What was going on?

Aside from the bridesmaids song, which felt very current in style SNLTwo later sketches felt a lot like pieces that perhaps could have aired in the first five seasons: the Castrato sketch and the Hotel Detective sketch, both full of commitment to goofy voices. James Austin Johnson seems particularly excited about the chance to seem like he's in a thriller set in 1941 or something, and he could be this episode's MVP if it made sense for a performer to take the title . But no, this is entirely Grande's show.

What was going on?

The triple Jennifer Coolidge routine was obviously there for the sheer enjoyment of it, and while it's novel to see the mirror image part performed by three impressionists rather than one impressionist and the original, I don't really see the benefit of elaborating impressions by someone, who is initially primarily a comedy actor. Likewise, Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg were funny in the Castrato sketch, and it's hard to say no to a little all-star action on the side as long as Rudolph, Samberg and Carvey are there to do their little political skits for one more Month or so, there's a neither-here-nor-there quality about her presence later in the show.

As for the cold, open up, yes. Family feud is an ideal format…to extend an impression-based sketch past the 10 minute mark, since superficial intros alone require at least half of the sketch. That dusty frame highlighted something very appealing about these mediocre 2024 election sketches: how no single artist was expected to bear the burden of the bad cold alone. Three weeks later it was Rudolph, Carvey, Samberg, Johnson and Yang who performed their little show together every time, and this week Mikey Day was there too. It seems very supportive that three-quarters of all the overlong sketches are canned and toothless, supporting Rudolph and Johnson as the real candidates. I try not to get too upset SNL'It's both sides – it's part of the show, what can you do? — but three weeks into the season, the idea that making fun of Doug Emhoff is at least as important as making fun of JD Vance has gone from slightly strange to truly crazy.

The next time

Michael Keaton, whose nine-year gap between episodes is actually the shortest of all three episodes he has ever hosted.

Crazy observations (mainly about music)

• The “My Best Friend's House” music video was specifically credited to longtime writer Dan Bulla on the back and branded “Saturday Night Live “Midnight matinee” in front of the door. Does this mean that other writers are making recordings of their own videos instead of a regular “Please Don't Destroy Piece”? The PDD guys are still writing sketches, and their videos would probably be more refreshing three or four times a year than ten or twelve.
• I'm afraid that James Austin Johnson and Sarah Sherman don't exactly “have” a Noel and Liam Gallagher respectively. (Not least because Johnson started mockingly singing “Wonderwall” in Liam's voice, not Noel's.) They also have no basic idea of ​​when Oasis played stadiums or when the Spice Girls were there. However, they understand that it's funny to hear boys with a vaguely Manchester accent saying “legend” and teasing each other like children, so the update part worked well!
• Obviously, the three characters intertwined in the hotel detective drama were intended to represent the three songs in They Might Be Giants' trilogy of hotel detective songs. James Austin Johnson is “(She Was a) Hotel Detective,” Ariana Grande is “She Was a Hotel Detective,” and Dismukes is “She Was a Hotel Detective of the Future.”
• If that last point made any sense to you, I'm sorry. If that's not the case, then it probably at least makes sense for me to reveal that I've never been a big Fleetwood Mac guy and therefore I don't feel entirely qualified to review a new Stevie Nicks song or her performance of ” Edge of Seventeen.” It's also a nice gesture to the show's past to bring back a musical guest who hasn't appeared since 1983. Besides… she sounded bad, right? Especially with that first song?
• Where the hell was? Here's the part of the recap where I ask where the hell a particular cast member was. Where the hell was Ashley Padilla?