During his monologue on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, host Chris Pratt sang a song about himself. It included the lines, “And I join a list of some amazing hosts/Some of them did not do well/Hopefully I’m not one of those.”
While Pratt won’t be joining January Jones or Steven Seagal on that list of bad hosts, the material he was given was shaky at best, and didn’t help fans forget about last season. In fact, someone without the comedic skill of Pratt would have made Saturday’s episode even harder to watch.
Cold Open: State of the Union with Candy Crowley
Instead of tackling President Obama’s awful summer, SNL decided to start the season by poking fun at the equally awful summer and fall for the NFL. This sketch had some rough moments with Aidy Bryant as Crowley stumbling over lines, and Jay Pharoah‘s cartoonish impression of former CBS analyst Shannon Sharpe. Thankfully, Kenan Thompson as Ray Lewis reminded us how absurd most of the actual talk about the ongoing problems within the NFL have been among people paid to talk about these issues.
Best Sketch: Marvel Trailer
Like I said, this episode was rough. It wasn’t the worst episode I’ve ever watched, but it just wasn’t very funny. Choosing the best sketch out of several mediocre sketches is hard, and the only reason I went with this Marvel trailer sketch is because of Pam and Fancy Ghosts. Even as I write this, I’m second guessing myself and wondering if I should pick a different sketch, but I think Pam 2: The Winter Pam is putting this one over the top.
Worst Sketch: He-Man and Lion-O
As a 30-something guy who grew up with He-Man and Thundercats, this sketch should have been a home run, but it wasn’t. It was weird, but not weird enough, and I couldn’t get over the fact that Pratt as He-Man was talking like a caveman. I understand that neither He-Man or Lion-O (Taran Killam) were supposed to “know” anything, but Lion-O seemed to pick up the English language kind of quickly. This one just didn’t work for me, and had more than a few awkward pauses.
Also, as a 30-something guy who didn’t know who Ariana Grande was before she was announced as musical guest, I guess seeing the right side of her face is a big deal.
Weekend Update Moment: Pete Davidson
The highlight of “Weekend Update” and the episode was the first appearance from new cast member Pete Davidson. As the show’s “resident young person,” the 20-year-old Davidson delivered a commentary about the “How much money would you go down on a guy for?” game. This will easily be the most talked-about moment from the first episode, which may take away from how well Davidson actually delivered the whole joke.
“Weekend Update” clocked in at almost 17 minutes this week, and featured appearances from Cecily Strong as the Girl at a Party, and “relationship expert” Leslie Jones. One of the more talked about changes from the summer was the decision to replace Strong with Michael Che behind the Update desk. Che had a few missteps, but settled in nicely. One episode is too early to tell, but Che and Colin Jost seemed more relaxed than Jost and Strong ever did.
Standout Performer: Aidy Bryant
After her problems in the cold open, Bryant was featured several times throughout the episode with no additional issues, which kind of “wins” her this distinction in a poor episode. Last season, Bryant slowly emerged as one of the better performers on SNL, and it seems the writers have awarded her with more screen time.
Other Notes:
I probably should not have liked the Ariana Grande duet with The Weeknd on “Love Me Harder,” but that is a good pop song.
“Devin Peters, Stanford” might have been the joke of the night. A close second was, “If you’ve got the Ion channel, it’s always on.”
Anna Faris (Pratt’s wife) hosted SNL in 2008 and 2011. Maybe she and Pratt could co-host like Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin did in 1994.
Next week’s host is Sarah Silverman with musical guest Maroon 5. The SNL Vintage episode at 10 p.m. Saturday will be the Christopher Walken episode featuring “More Cowbell.”
