SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: KEVIN HART, SIA
Cold Open: Martin Luther King Jr. Day is right around corner, so why not address the greatest year black people have ever had (sarcasm) with a sketch featuring Kenan Thompson as Dr. King trying to help Pete Davidson write a paper about him? It leads to King being filled in on the things that have happened since he's been gone. It's a typical setup premise that's been done before (The Boondocks centered a whole episode around it), but it's okay here. I think Kenan does an actual serviceable job here as Dr. King. It's better to see him as someone other that Al Sharpton.Kevin Hart is the host for tonight for the obvious reasons. As he did last year, he's opening 2015 with a slew of projects, two movies in just three months. In any case, one of the great things I love is when a comedian hosts the show. That's because they give an actual monologue. Usually, when an actor hosts the show, the monologue consist of the cast or special guest interrupting him/her. When a musician hosts the show, the monologue is a comedic musical number. It's always the same. So, I'm always glad when there's a deviation from the norm.
His monologue was pretty funny. He flows it nicely together talking about his home life in his new home with his fiancee and son, and relates a few funny tales. It was a refreshing way to start the show.
After a brief commercial parody of Justin Bieber's recent Calvin Klein print ads, we're treated to an interview segment show called "Why'd You Post That?" Kevin Hart interviews different people for their rather dumb posts on Instagram. We're treated to the spectacle of live television as the monitor sitting beside Kevin Hart malfunctions and doesn't operate as the sketch starts. Vanessa Bayer, the first guest, seems befuddled as to what to do at first, while Kevin improvises for a second until it's back up and running. The premise is simple, yet mildly absurd. Kevin grills the person on the stupidity of their post and then sends them flying offstage into his dungeon. It had a few hits and it pretty much captures the normal person's confusion over why someone would post this or that pointless thing on the service.
The digital short focused around Kenan, Kevin, and Jay on a street corner relaying different stories, but they tell the stories with foolish topics. It gets absurd at times and then to end it, it gets suddenly surreal. Then it goes back to being absurd. It's pretty amusing.
Kevin Hart plays James Brown with some of the cast as his backing band. My brother and I made fun of how the Godfather of Soul would ask his band to go to the bridge or count it off and that's pretty much what happens here. Brown wants an individual response to his question before he actually moves on. It leads to pretty funny chat between the band as the music still plays.
Nancy isn't what I'd consider strong enough for the first half (aka pre-musical performance 1), but it does okay here. Basically, a bunch of people are reuniting on a talk show and while everyone has nice entrance music, Vanessa Bayer's character has dopey, fart-filled music. She quickly notices and calls the show out on it. They invite the sound director out (Hart) and he denies such, sort of. He can speak English, but can't understand it. She storms off the set in a huff (to the fart music, of course). Weak piece in my opinion.
Sia is the musical performance tonight and it leads to an interesting performance. Sia had terrible stage fright. She didn't appear in the music video of her big hit of 2014, Chandelier, and her live performance consist of as little attention placed on her as possible or with her back to the audience. Here she's center stage, but facing stage right with a mini-black veil visor. As she sings her song, "Elastic Hart", two girls give a dance performance to the song. It's a pretty nice song and she sounds great singing it.
Weekend Update has been trying to find some footing after Seth Myers left. Jost has been wooden at times, to say the least. and a lot of the jokes have either been too easy or rely too heavily on a visual gag. When Michael Che was added as his co-anchor, their chemistry seemed to be lacking, also to say the least. Tonight was pretty good. The jokes were funny (I enjoyed the Al Sharpton Diversity Task Force) and everything seemed to flow. Kate McKinnon had a funny bit as Mrs. Santini, an older woman giving tips on how to deal with neighbors. It was nice. They must've been really confident in their material this week (or short on time) as they only had one correspondent piece. In any case, it was definitely one of the strongest weeks they've had this season. I still think something is missing, but I still can't place my finger on it.
The second half of the show will be covered after the break
The musical Game of Thrones-ish sketch was okay. Slightly pointless in a way, but funny for its showcasing of Kevin's frustration.
Jay Pharoah is a great impressionist. His bests are probably Denzel Washington (which they haven't done in quite sometime and should again), Will Smith, and President Obama. Here he tries out Kevin Hart, playing the son Kevin didn't know he had until after he finishes a performance. It works out okay. He doesn't have the voice down pat, but he does do the intonation and mannerisms very well.
Sia returns with a slowed down piano and strings driven of her big hit "Chandelier". This time instead of dancers, she has a mime by her side as she faces the audience still adorned in that mini-black veil visor. Now, in Chandelier, she already showcases her powerful voice, but she does even more so here. Such power in her voice. It really is what makes the song stand out. Excellent job.
The final sketch of the night, the ten-to-one (more like five-to-one currently), features Kevin with his posse in the music studio. He let's them listen to his new song as he performs it. The song is however, a bunch of different secrets the posse are keeping. Mildly entertaining.
In the end, this show was "okay". That's been the word for me to describe this season. It's not bad, but "okay". It has a lot of bright spots, but they don't all come together in one episode. It's certainly better in a way to the overstuffed Season 39, but it has a ways to go. They're rebuilding still and there's nothing to worry about. Just as history has shown, some breakout stallwarts will make themselves known and SNL will be back on top as one of the consistent comedic showcases.
Blake Shelton will grace the stages of 8H next week pulling double duty. He works for NBC as a judge on a hit NBC show set to premiere soon. Hmm, I wonder if there's a word to descri- oh, synergy. That's the word.
I don't know if I'll be back to cover next week's episode, I was just trying it out here, just for the sake of trying it out.
"You act like someone put gluten in your muffin."
J out.
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