Saturday Night Live Season 39 (1 Viewer)

I guess I'm getting old, anymore I just DVR it and watch the morning after. Not a super strong start, but I do love the porn-star infomercials

Great season premiere. Girls & e-Meth were huge hits. Loved the first used car commercial. Drunk Uncle and porn stars was funny as usual. I even enjoyed the airport sketch, and even the ones that missed still had good lines.

Because of the stellar Girls sketch and the lack of any real groaners, this will probably be one of the top five episodes of the season when all is said and done. Also, the show gets rockier and rockier as the season goes along, so anything really good right now will look absolutely boss in retrospect.

The girls sketch definitely nailed the series.

mattCR said:

I guess I'm getting old, anymore I just DVR it and watch the morning after. ...

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I've done that for well over a decade now. It's just good time management. Skipping the endless parade of late-night commercials means you can watch the whole show in less than an hour (45 minutes if it's a skippable musical guest).

I thought it was a pretty strong opener. The cold open started a little weak (Jay Pharoah's Obama was a bit off at the beginning) but Kate McKinnon's ER doc was a scream and Aaron Paul's cameo as "Jesse from New Mexico" brought it home perfectly. Great call to bring old-pro Tina back to oversee the first show after such a big cast turnover, and her monologue featuring their dance humiliation was a good (and funny) way to get the new folks some face time.

Loved the "Girls" promo - they nailed that whiny, overrated show to the ground about as well as it could be done. (Seriously, "Girls" nominated for Best Comedy while "Parks & Rec" is snubbed?? WTF, Emmys??)

Also liked eMeth, the airport sketch, "New Cast Member or Arcade Fire" ("Did he just call me 'the black guy'?"), Drunk Uncle & Meth Nephew, and of course, the porn girls bit had me laughing the whole time. Great dirty malaprop humor.

I love Cecily Strong - she's a hilarious sketch performer - but I'm not sure she's the right choice for "Weekend Update". It seemed like she was struggling the whole time to NOT be "The Girl Who You Wish You Hadn't Started A Conversation With At A Party". I think Nasim Pedrad would have been a stronger pick here. Speaking of which, where was Pedrad last night? Was she even in the show?

And about those newbies... right now I see them as Noel and the Five White Guys. Remains to be seen if any of them are able to stand out as the season progresses.

Next week... Ugh. Miley Cyrus is host and "musical" guest. Really not sure if I even want to watch that one.

“I had this friend, and he got sick. Like, cancer-sick. But because there wasn’t Obamacare, he couldn’t afford treatments. So he was, like, backed into a corner.”

"...And keep in mind, this man was a teacher with a family!"

"You know it's good because it's blue, bitch!"

How many times did they have to use that guy from Breaking Bad? Girls video short was pretty great.

I think the cast shake-up really worked. There was a fresh energy to the show. Even the political sketch was funny.

That said:

So SNL hires 6 or 7 new people, and they're all white? Great job, Lorne.

First thought that came to mind with the new cast was that Lorne Michaels had spent 20 years looking for the next Eddie Murphy, had finally given up, and simply decided that it was just easier to look for the next Joe Piscopo.

The bigger problem is make up of the writer's room. Say they hire a black woman. Or someone Asian. Or Latino. Who's going to write for them? Eddie Murphy was a singular talent (and probably only made it because it wasn't Lorne in charge at the time). MadTV was way better in that respect. Aires Spears, Key and Peele, Bobby Lee - none of them would have been in any sketches if they were ever cast on SNL.

The bright side was it allowed him to make the "the black one" joke.

Sadly, Tina Fey hosting the show only showed how much the writing has suffered since she left.

Another solid B episode. I even laughed at the reviled Cheerleader Alien Abduction sketch for being so absurdly stupid.

Laughed my ass off at the "Energy Drink" and "Boy Dance Party" sketches. McKinnon was on fire last night.

Update was great, particularly the repeated pummeling of the Jenner-divorce jokes. Cecily is coming along nicely.

"Prince Harry may soon propose to his girlfriend Cressida Bonus, who -- judging by her name -- is a mid-priced Toyota sedan."

"Florida police arrested a man for not wearing pants in drive-thru, and fondling himself. The man is charged with one count of Lovin' It."

Anybody else watching Gaga?

Frickin hilarious.

Need Justin Timberlake more often. Several of these numbers were killer. Justin Timberlake & Fallon together were a blast. Great extra guests, but some really solid sketches all the way through. A few that killed me: Wrapping Paper.. Sex in a Twin Bed (Home for the Holidays), Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past, It's Cold Outside..

Jeez.. from beginning to end, this was a show that worked all the way through for me..

So many cameos in this episode with Fallon and JT.

What was up with the screaming lady in the cold open? I always wonder with people like that if they have to call security to make them shut up.

I would have volunteered to tazer her upon each screaming outburst.

Nobody watching SNL this season?

I decided to check out last night's show as it was the first without Seth Meyers and Jim Parsons hosted. Parsons' talent seemed to be mostly wasted & I got bored and shut it off at Beck's second song. The new guy on Weekend Update clearly had first show jitters, but Cicely Strong was ok.

Greg Kettell said:

Nobody watching SNL this season?

I decided to check out last night's show as it was the first without Seth Meyers and Jim Parsons hosted. Parsons' talent seemed to be mostly wasted & I got bored and shut it off at Beck's second song. The new guy on Weekend Update clearly had first show jitters, but Cicely Strong was ok.

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I thought the best Jim Parsons sketch was the serial murderer one.

During Weekend Update there was that nice live moment with the card doing the flipback.

Due to a late start from the Hockey game my DVR missed a bit at the end, but it is online at NBC's site.