Saturday Night Live: Season 40, Episode 20 with Reese Witherspoon & Florence + The Machine
Pre-Show Thoughts:
Reese Witherspoon is obviously an incredibly talented actress. She’s received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and many other accolades. Her name definitely carries a lot of weight when it’s attached to projects. Yet despite this, I’ve never felt compelled to see a movie because it has Witherspoon. She’s just not a big get for me. It also doesn’t help that most of her films after Walk The Line were by and far not what I’m interested in. So when it was announced that she was hosting SNL for the second time, I didn’t jump out of my seat with excitement. I’m confident though that she’ll do a great job because she certainly has the skill.
Really, I’m more excited for Florence + The Machine. This is their third appearance and they have a new album coming on May 29th. Rock the night Florence Welch.
The Good:
Last night was the Mother’s Day episode, which is always a very special event for SNL. This show definitely knows the right way to celebrate the important ladies in our lives. There were a couple nods to the holiday throughout the episode, but none were as overt and delightful as Witherspoon’s monologue. Well, it was less her monologue and more of a showcase of the cast members mothers. Nearly every Mom was in attendance, and we got the cast apologizing for misdeeds and the Mom’s showing embarrassing childhood videos. It may have been a bit lengthy, and some “misdeeds” felt too unrealistic or just weren’t funny, but the novelty and sweetness of this segment made it one of the best.
“Picture Perfect” was one funny sketch. Deftly subverting viewer expectations, this skit withheld the punchline until the right moment, and it paid off in spades. It was a lot like that ISIS bit during Dakota Johnson’s episode. It started of unassuming, a typical game show with some celebrity impressions. I was all set to write this one off too. But then Bobby Moynihan’s character is asked to draw the Prophet Muhammed, and it quickly became hilarious. His totally befuddled expression and clear sense of panic was awesome. This was also a really clever way to stay current with all those recently horrible events involving cartoonists.
It’s no secret that my favorite 10-to-1 sketch is the retired pornstars. I celebrate whenever that’s on. However, last night made something very clear to me: “Whiskers Are We” is a very close second. This skit is great because it lets Kate McKinnon go extra weird with adorable kittens. It was no exception this time around. She brought out a kitten who was a registered sex offender, one who claims they’re three but everyone knows she’s four and a half, and another pretending to be Mufasa but is totally a loser from Delaware. Witherspoon gets huge credit for going along with the absurdity too, not even batting an eyelash as she repeatedly rubbed up against McKinnon. It always amazes me how these people can keep something like this together.
The Bad:
“The Scene In LA” opened up with some promise. Witherspoon and Cecily Strong played hyper sexual Californian women (but not the Californians. Big distinction) with Jay Pharoah and Kenan Thompson as their flamboyant sound board operators. The acting was pretty solid and this looked like it could be some silly fun. But then it didn’t really go anywhere. It was way too formulaic and it rehashed the same jokes. Both hosts went off to have disgusting phone calls with their mics on. The board operators talked about how they don’t know what they’re doing twice. The guests were basically the same person. If this sketch had more substance, it would have been so much better.
I’m not sure what was going on with the “Waterslide” sketch either. It didn’t have any direction, existing only to watch Bennett and Mooney flirt all over Witherspoon as lifeguards. This was one of those bits where you feel like the writers wanted to throw something together as a means to fill up time. To really hammer that point home, it just ended, as if someone off camera decided it was time to cut the bit short. Then again, maybe that’s just the impression you get when something doesn’t even really start.
It’s official: Weekend Update is spiraling downward from whatever high point Colin Jost and Michael Che reached. On the correspondents, all three were returning characters, and they just didn’t feel as fresh anymore. Well, except maybe the Girl You Wish You Didn’t Talk To At A Party, which was now two girls (Cecily Strong and Witherspoon). I thought that was pretty funny. Leslie Jones however mostly stumbled through what should be her strongest role at this point. Perhaps she was getting a little winded from her sketch amount, which was the highest it’s been in weeks. As for the hosts, they were mostly very middling with only a few jokes featuring some firm hits. There was one moment though that perfectly represented the lack of chemistry between Jost and Che. When they turned around to participate in “reading their Mom’s texts” (at least Jost had his phone out. C’mon Che.), there was a noticeable pause as if these two guys were bracing themselves to work together. When they did? It was the equivalent of a very bad date.
Lastly, that “Mr. Westerberg” segment. Yikes. Credit goes to Bennett for confidently delivering the shocker that the titular boss molests him after hours. It was funny at the start solely because of the surprise. Then it went downhill fast, getting darker and infinitely more disturbing. These were supposed to be jokes?
Overall Thoughts:
Last night’s show started off on the right foot. I loved the Cold Open’s ridiculous introductions to Republican Presidential Candidates, anchored by none other than Cecily Strong. She was probably using the same skills that got her to the White House Correspondents Dinner. It was a really high energy skit that got me ready for the night. Then we had the Mother’s Day dedicated monologue which I enjoyed because of how sweet it was. Sure, “The Scene in L.A.” was bad, but positive momentum from the beginning was enough to give me confidence that the night would turn out to be a fun experience.
It wasn’t, sadly. Once “Picture Perfect” did all SNL is willing to do on the Prophet Muhammed, the really great jokes suddenly stopped. What we got were disappointing returns of unfunny segments (“Student Showcase”), sketches with no direction or purpose (“Southern Ladies”, “Waterslide,”) disturbing humor (“Mr. Westerberg”), and a bad Update. Witherspoon also never excelled beyond her characters. She was clearly game to do whatever, but when it came time to make her pop on the screen, it just didn’t happen. She only existed, basically. So even though my prediction last week that we’d get another templated monologue didn’t pan out, most of the night was average at best. At least Florence + The Machine sounded great.
Rating: 6.5/10
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Luke Kalamar is Pop-Break.com’s television editor. Every Saturday afternoon you can read his retro video game column, Remembering the Classics. He covers Game of Thrones, Saturday Night Live and The Walking Dead (amongst others) every week. As for as his career and literary standing goes — take the best parts of Spider-man, Captain America and Luke Skywalker and you will fully understand his origin story.
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