Jordan Ferguson: Hoo boy, this one was pretty dire. It is virtually impossible not to love The Rock, an affable guy who will absolutely commit to whatever level of silliness is requested of him, and he does his damndest to make things work this week, but the writing is just not there.
Luke Annand: Well, here we are. It’s the morning after the huge, giant 3 1/2 (4 1/2 if you count the red carpet arrival special) hour SNL 40th Anniversary special. At the beginning of the season, I was wondering if they were going to be paying tribute to the history of SNL throughout the season or if they were going to save it all for a special.
Jordan Ferguson:: One of the keys to a great episode of Saturday Night Live is the ability to properly utilize the host, whether by letting them play within a familiar context, or by cleverly subverting expectations.
This week’s episode was the 1st show of the new year. And like any job you come back to after the holidays, you might not be at your A game. This was on display with Kevin Hart as the host.
Jordan Ferguson: Amy Adams is an incredibly versatile dramatic and comedic actress, who can run the gamut between broad comedy and playing more of a straight man character with incredible ease. As a result of this, I found it kind of odd that the show so frequently lost sight of its host this week.
Luke Annand: To start off, I’d like to apologize on behalf of both of us for not doing a crosstalk recap of last weeks SNL with James Franco and Nicki Minaj. Work got in the way and we weren’t able to do it in a timely fashion.
Luke Annand: Going into this week’s episode, part of me was nervous about the host they had for this week, Cameron Diaz.
Jordan Ferguson: Luke, I want to start things off this week by talking about the opening half hour of “Woody Harrelson/Kendrick Lamar,” which I think is the best early stretch we’ve seen all season.
Luke Annand: Going into SNL this week, we have the return of another modern day stand-up legend who got their start in the industry as a one season performer on SNL back in the early 90’s.
Jordan Ferguson: I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that Jim Carrey was the last thing this season of SNL needed at this particular moment. Carrey is very self-aware about his pathological need to seize the center and soak up the spotlight, but self-awareness is very rarely enough to solve a problem.