Last week, the premiere episode was hosted by Miles Teller with musical guest Kendrick Lamar. This episode had some great sketches and good musical performances to bring viewers a solid season premiere. This week, Brendan Gleeson makes his hosting debut with musical guest Willow, who also makes her official debut. Willow made her first appearance last season performing “psychofreak” with Camila Cabello.
The show opened with a game show called “So You Think You Won’t Snap” which brought up many different recent news headlines. I was glad to see them switch it up from the typical political cold open. Not saying that I don’t love a political cold open but it’s great to see them do something different. I thought Bowen was great as the game show host and thought it was funny there was a “Today Show-size glass of wine”. I felt like I would love to be on this type of game show and I would probably have some similar reactions that were in the sketch.
I thought Brendan Gleeson’s monologue was great and I liked it more than I thought I would. I loved when he brought out his mandolin and thought it was a fun take on the typical musical monologue. I thought the Colin Farrell cameo was funny, especially when he came out wearing a fake mustache. I loved when Colin Farrell joined in on the song and the jam session with the band at the end of the monologue. I thought this monologue was funny and that Brendan just seems like the nicest, sweetest guy.
The “Try Guys” sketch is one sketch where I have some mixed feelings since I knew they would eventually do a sketch about this. I did think it was funny how it started as a CNN news report about President Biden and then it cut to being about the Try Guys. I did love the casting, set design, wardrobe, and hair and makeup. Other than that, I didn’t like how they were basically poking fun at workplace misconduct. I’ve watched a lot of Try Guys videos over the past two or so years (it was one of the many things that got me through the pandemic). I watched the brief video that Keith, Zach, and Eugene released on the Try Guys channel talking about what had happened and then the episode of their podcast where Zach and Keith talked in more detail about everything. I suggest that everyone should watch those videos to gain more insight into the situation. In the end, real people were involved and this was and still is a very serious situation and I think the show could’ve handled the sketch better.
“New Cast Advice” was a super funny sketch and I loved how all of the new cast members were in this sketch. I loved how Devon, Michael, and Marcello gave chill and typical new cast member answers while Molly’s answers were about them being hired for the sole purpose of killing Putin. I loved how Molly said that Former Secretary of State John Kerry, Bill Gates, and Kelly Ripa were at Lorne’s place. I also loved the lines “I have to kill! Don’t put that kind of pressure on yourself”. I also thought it was funny when Molly said that Lorne told them that cast members are usually not asked to go on kill missions and they cut to Kenan asking if he didn’t have to kill Osama Bin Laden and then holding a gun at the end of the sketch. I hope they continue having new cast members featured in more sketches.
I thought “Blonde” was an okay sketch. I did think Chloe’s impression was great but other than that, I felt like they just used the same joke over and over again. To me, this wasn’t much of a memorable sketch.
“Headshots” was a sketch that started off just okay but picked up a little bit towards the end of the sketch. I thought Brendan was great in this sketch and I especially thought the photoshoot was great. We also had our second Colin Farrell cameo of the night, who joined Brendan in the photoshoot. I thought it was also great to see Andrew lead in a sketch and I hope to see more of that this season.
“Please Don’t Destroy-Tommy” started off and ended up being different from past “Please Don’t Destroy” sketches. This sketch had Martin, John, and Ben outside of their office playing high school student versions of themselves. I loved the truck scene at the end with the subtle nod to The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I liked the change from the typical office “Please Don’t Destroy” sketches.
Willow gave two performances of her songs “curious/furious” and “ur a <stranger>”. I didn’t really know what to expect since I don’t really listen to her music. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed both performances. I also thought it was cool at the end of “ur a <stranger> she put her guitar through the TV that was below the drum set and then kicked the mic stand down.
Weekend Update brought Colin Jost and Michael Che telling jokes based on the usual current events such as the midterm election races, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, President Biden, and Kanye West. There were two guest segments with Ego as “Black Ariel” and new cast member Marcello making his Update debut. I loved how in the beginning of Ego’s segment she said, in character, “you can just call me Ariel” and “I don’t call you White Colin to your face”. I also thought it was funny when she said she grew up “Bezos rich” and is “pro-SeaWorld”. Marcello’s segment was a hilarious commentary about baseball since the postseason is going on. I absolutely loved the commentary, his impression of a batting stance, and commentary on Aaron Judge hitting sixty-two home runs this season. Personally, I wish they brought up Albert Pujols hitting seven hundred career home runs this season but that’s probably my bias as a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals showing. I hope Marcello gets to be featured more and deliver more hilarious commentary like this appearance.
“Blood Oath”, I thought, was a pretty weird sketch. Although this wasn’t a type of sketch that I usually look forward to, I did think it was funny with blood spraying everywhere. I also thought it was funny how Chloe was trying to keep herself from breaking character with all the blood going everywhere. This sketch did remind me of all the past sketches where they had blood spewing everywhere.
“Eyes” was another sketch I thought was pretty weird. This seemed like a sketch that Sarah would write. I did think the googly eyes were pretty funny as well as Sarah’s character thinking the water cooler was a person and her character’s dramatic exit near the end of the sketch. I did think that this was a typical sketch that would end the episode.
Overall, I thought this was a solid episode. I thought there were several funny sketches although I wish there were a few different sketches that were shown. I would love to see which sketches got cut for time. Brendan Gleeson, however, I thought did a great job hosting and I would love to see him host again.
This is my take on the episode hosted by Brendan Gleeson with musical guest Willow. My next post will be about the episode with host and musical guest Megan Thee Stallion. Make sure to follow me on Twitter at @SNLBlogger for SNL news and live tweeting every new episode. Thank you all again for your continued support!
Thanks for reading!
Lauren
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