Like many other late night television shows, Saturday Night Live shut down production in mid-March in response to the coronavirus pandemic, postponing three episodes that almost certainly will now not happen this season (John Krasinski, who would have hosted the March 28th episode, probably can reschedule to host in the fall when his film A Quiet Place Part II will now be released). But seeing as how all those other late night hosts have figured out ways to keep producing new content from home, it seemed inevitable that SNL would try to do the same, which is how we ended up with the extremely strange, extremely sincere lo-fi SNL At Home special this weekend.
Just as with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and the rest, there was something undeniably comforting about having SNL back on air. Tom Hanks is doing okay! All the guys in the cast have grown quarantine beards! Larry David is still doing his Bernie Sanders impression! Weekend Update is still here! But overall, I don't think the experiment worked as an episode of SNL—the best SNL moments happen because of the special chemistry of the cast and host, and this episode was far too disjointed, with about 80% of it short individual pieces filmed by each cast member at home (notably absent: Cecily Strong, Bowen Yang and Melissa Villaseñor). That aspect was of course completely understandable considering everything, but I'd be hard-pressed to call much in the episode laugh out loud funny, even by SNL's usual hit-and-miss ratio. Without the live chemistry, especially without the live aspect, what really differentiates SNL from any other comedy show?
Still, if ever there was a moment to grade on a curve, it was this one. And there were moments that surprised and even moved me, like the Weekend Update joke swap in which Michael Che invoked his grandmother, who died of COVID-19 last week. Or Chris Martin, a man whose music sounds most at home playing softly in the background of an Abercrombie & Fitch, pulling out a truly inspired cover of Bob Dylan's "Shelter From The Storm." And there was one truly great sketch, the only one that really seemed like an ensemble piece: Zoom Call, in which Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant let loose in the best way imaginable as they struggle over how to Zoom.
Although he didn't do anything besides open and close the show, Tom Hanks was the ostensible "host," and started things off in his Monologue on an apologetic, positive, warm note. I felt more invested in Hanks talking about his own experience with the virus than with the jokes, except for one line at the end which was probably the funniest line of the night: "Now, is it gonna look a little different than you're used to? Yes. Will it be weird to see sketches without big sets and costumes? Sure. But will it make you laugh? Ehh, it's SNL. There'll be some good stuff, maybe one or two stinkers, you know the drill."
My favorite part of the Bernie Sanders Address was the fact that Larry David did not even try to change his regular clothing/look. A little self-awareness, like with his bald comment, went a long way.
Buried late in the broadcast was Visualizations with Aidy Bryant, one of the best sketches of the evening, so don't sleep on it—although it actually seemed like a pretty good guided meditation, so maybe you can use it to fall asleep purposefully.
There were a bunch of sketches that felt like they had been pulled directly from each individual performer's Instagram feed. One was MasterClass Quarantine Edition, which gave Chloe Fineman a chance to show off some of her amazing impressions of Timothée Chalamet, JoJo Siwa and Carole Baskin.
Another winner was Ego Nwodim's Quarantine QT, which literally was already a well-deserved hit on Instagram a week or two ago.
A few performers got to breakout some of their favorite characters for a quick sketch, including Heidi Gardener, who brought her Weekend Update regular into the episode with Bailey Gismert YouTube Channel.
McKinnon-as-Ruth Bader Ginsburg broke out some funny props and danced a whole lot in the charmingly homespun RBG Workout.
It feels like it's been a long time since we had an SNL animated short, which makes me wonder whether Middle-Aged Mutant Ninja Turtles has been lying around for awhile waiting to be finished. The moment where Donatello is waiting for his test results was masterful.
Kyle Mooney & Beck Bennett enlisted Fred Armisen and a lot of funky royalty-free clips to create Whatcha' Cookin' On.
The only other sketch to include more than one cast member was the post-coronavirus dating show How Low Will You Go?
Mikey Day played an extremely bad gamer in Twitch Stream.
Alex Moffatt played a British play-by-play man in Sport Report, turning mundane things around his home like popcorn races into exciting competitions.
Pete Davidson was the only cast member to get two sketches, and both were (not very good) music video parodies: Pete Davidson "Drake" Music Video and Pete Davidson "Andre 2000" Music Video.
I had extremely mixed feelings about Weekend Update. I was very glad they were able to mostly keep their usual formula and have Colin Jost and Che interact; they even brought on Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump as a guest, in what was probably his least irritating cameo in several years. But the decision to include a live laugh track made up on unidentified fellow cast members, producers, writers and/or friends was more strained than infectious.
As I mentioned above, Martin's performance of "Shelter From The Storm" was an unexpected highlight.
One of the most affecting moments of the entire production came at the very end, when current and former cast members paid tribute to longtime SNL musical producer Hal Willner, who died of coronavirus last week. I understand why the show couldn't have more somber moments like this, but I would have gladly watched an assembly of SNL all-stars come together to do a few more interactive sketches.
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April 13, 2020 at 08:08PM
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