'Saturday Night Live' Recap - Adam Driver & Chris Stapleton

It feels like a long time has passed since the last episode of Saturday Night Live. I’ve been looking forward to getting back to SNL. There’s just something so fun and unique about this show that keeps me coming back week after week, year after year to watch and write. Tonight’s episode will be interesting for a few reasons. It’s the first show of 2016 after an extended hiatus. The first show after a break can often feel disjointed as it takes a few weeks in a row for the show to get in a groove. It’ll also interesting to see how they use tonight’s host, Adam Driver. He’s a great actor, sure, but I always feel like he’s playing a variation of the same character. There’s a quirky, somewhat hostile, man-child aspect to much of Driver’s work that makes it hard for me to separate the actor from the characters. Will SNL tap into that or will they make him play against type?

Like I always do, I’ll be writing the recaps “live,” meaning I’ll watch a sketch and immediately write a short blurb reviewing and recapping it. For each segment, I’ll rate it on a scale of 0-5 stars. At the end of the piece, I’ll share some quick overall thoughts and the best/worst sketch of the night.

 

Republican Debate Cold Open: * * *

In the last episode’s cold open, I praised “Pharaoh’s spectacular Ben Carson” and worried that SNL “jumped ship on Killam’s [Trump] already.” Well Pharaoh’s Carson is still a delight and it’s clear SNL did jump ship and give Trump fully back to Hammond (who, by the way, isn’t a cast member). But the bad also rings true to this monologue too. With the real Republican primaries becoming more and more circus-like each week, how exactly do you parody people who are walking caricatures? This was fine (a few jokes hit home) but it didn’t bring any new wit or insight beyond what we see every night on some talk show monologue.

 

Opening Monologue: * *

If, an hour ago, you would have asked me what Adam Driver’s monologue would be, I’d have said Bobby Moynihan as a geeky “Star Wars” fan or maybe Leslie Jones hitting on him. Check and check. While the monologue was neither terribly funny or original, Leslie Jones can make just about any line reading funny and Driver seemed game.

 

Green Bay vs. Cardinals: ½

See, the problem is that it wasn’t funny the first time they played Schleff’s horrific injury. That’s a big issue since the rest of the sketch was just replaying it over and over again. Not a great start to the show. No, wait, a terrible start to the show.

 

Undercover Boss: * * * * ½

It was inevitable that Driver would do a Kylo Ren skit and, given that, this is quite a fun way to go about it. You have the “Star Wars” and “Undercover Boss” tropes to play with and Driver’s Ren is such a great overly serious foil for all the silliness. While it went on a bit long, there were some great moments (that condolence card bit was phenomenal) that will surely have its pop culture moment in the sun.

 

A Whole New World: * ½

Quite a few years ago, there was a great SNL skit where Jason Sudeikis and Rosario play Aladdin and Jasmine, ten years after “Aladdin,” fighting during a therapist mandated date. They sing “A Whole New World” with really hilarious and spiteful updated lyrics. If I were you, I’d just rewatch that one and forgot Adam Driver’s “Whole New World” skit ever existed because it was lazy and fairly pointless. I felt promise when they had the Syria joke, but then they did absolutely nothing with it. Oh well.

 

America’s Funniest Pets: * ½

Seriously, am I being punk’d? Did I fall asleep in my chair and dream this whole episode? It’s been so random and scattershot in both writing and execution, I can’t pin it down. At least the Trump episode, as god-awful as that was, was consistent in its god-awfulness and use of the host. I will say this for tonight’s episode so far, even though the writing is sub-par, they haven’t pigeonholed Driver into playing into his usual type and he’s done a very good job with a variety of different characters. I just wish he had better material to work with.

 

Weekend Update: * * * * ½

For the record, I have seen “Brooklyn” and “Room.” In fact, “Room” was my favorite film of the year. It’s harrowing but brilliant filmmaking. Oh, I’m supposed to be writing about SNL? Oh, SNL is finally delivering real laughs? Maybe I’m just tired and grumpy but this WU was uniformly great. Pete Davidson’s stand-up (sit-down?) set on gun safety is by far the funniest thing all night. The banter between Che and Jost was really solid and Bayer finally found the best use for her precocious child actress character, Laura Parsons, as a news correspondent. Just the way she said “dildos” had me laughing out loud.

 

Bullying Awareness: * * * ½

I really like the idea of this sketch on social puppeteering. The set-ups to Driver and Strong’s stories were really funny and twisted, but then the sketch never did much with it. I like the idea, but the format seemed off. Maybe if we saw Driver do his vampiring?

 

Golden Globes: * * * * *

What a great, SNL short film. Instead of relying on typical set-up/punchline jokes, Globes won me over with a great comedic premise and a perfect plot arch. Wonderfully parodying award show speeches and their aftermath, this short continues the trend of wonderful (and somewhat bittersweet) SNL films.

 

The Doctor Is In…My Butt: * * *

This is a one-note sketch. That one note is innuendo. Granted, it does that one note quite well, but cheap, junior high innuendo

 

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Best Sketch: Golden Globes

 

Worst Sketch: Football accident!

 

Musical Guest: Chris Stapleton

I’m not a country guy, therefore I don’t know much about Chris Stapleton or even have much to say about him. I just hope if the music thing takes off, he’ll be able to afford a nice haircut.

 

Overall Thoughts:

Adam Driver did really well as an SNL host. He played a lot of different characters and did great ensemble work when that was asked of him. The material, especially around the middle, lagged quite severely quite the episode had a few terrific moments that were well worth a second viewing.