Fey was alright, so were the sketches but goddamn I love the Weekend Update
The cold open aside (how cool was that Sorprono intro! As soon as the song kicked in, i knew where they were going and was delighted!) was awesome; don't think they've had one that good in awhile. But, my favorite part was in the first skit, where they were at the royal wedding .. best line was from Aidy Bryant, playing Elton John, saying "SAT-URDAY, SAT-URDAY! .. that skit was a true gold SNL skit.
Did a Tina Fey-hosted episode really need this many cameos?
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2018-09-24T04:23:30Z
[7.1/10] A little too self-congratulatory and cumulative, but that’s kind of how these season finales go, especially in recent years, so what can you do? Given the overstuffed nature of the guest star rolls this episode, tons of sketches were basically a variety of “character walks in, gets introduced, tells a joke, and we move on” bits. That can work in some contexts, but stacked on top of one another, it gets kind of exhausting.
Hell, we got two sketches like that which were just about the Trump. The cold open was more focused on the Russia investigation, and the Palin-led sketch was more about flashes in the pan, but it was the same basic shtick. Even when there were good jokes, like Eric Trump parking his three-wheeler, it’s all subsumed by the format. The same thing was a problem in the star-studded monologue, which at least had the decency to acknowledge the whole “regular cast being overshadowed by celebrity walk-ons” thing.
The one sketch that followed this format and which nevertheless had success was the Prince Harry wedding reception skit. Maybe it was going single cam, which gave the skit more energy, or a greater variety in the type of characters and bits within the sketch, but it was more fun and had a looser vibe.
The other sketch that I really enjoyed this evening was the “Pervert Hunters” sketch. The lunacy of combining a “To Catch a Predator”-style show with a group of actors on set trying to get a scene right led to some good, absurd comedy, and the final punchline was predictable but funny.
Otherwise, the major highlight of the night was “Weekend Update.” The desk bits were solid -- with the always amusing Trump bros. owning and Kenan being Kenan. There were a lot of good one-liners and commentary from the hosts, with Che in particular getting in some cutting material. And the final “jokes too offensive to tell” bit veered toward the ridiculous, but had a transgressively funny quality to it.
For the most part, this was a solid but not overwhelming episode. The “talent show” skit was pretty shaggy, but Kenan saved it with his mid-act personal riffing, and Leslie Jones was pretty damn funny as the random, earnest audience member. I continue to dislike the “Morning Joe” running, mostly because it seems so specific to a show I’ve never seen and doesn't work outside that context. Similarly, the “Chicago Improv” skit was a one-joke bit without many laughs (though maybe it was a veiled dig at Don’t Think Twice?)
Overall, there’s some pleasant bits here, but on the whole the episode is too scattershot and overstuffed to really feel like it’s firing on all cylinders. That said, it’s an amiable enough watch.