Cold Open - Nice premise, I guess. The whole "Ever have incestuous fantasies?" thing was a little obvious and unnecessary for my liking, but the audience seemed to eat it up. I liked "Has anyone this house ever criticised the Obama health care plan? What are their names?" and also "What is your most embarassing moment?" with the latter just being asked for the hell of it. Amusing, but not great. Bonus points for Fred who I thought tried with the Obama impression this week.
7/10
Monologue - I enjoyed it. I didn't prefer it to her first monologue where she debuted her 1940's actress impression, but it was funny. I liked the whole "How do you juggle it all?" thing - anything that features I'm Every Woman is a winner in my book. And Steve Martin! And Ukrainian workers!
8/10
Brownie Husband - I enjoyed it, if only for how Liz Lemon-y the notion of an edible companion is. It did remind me of something taken directly from 30 Rock. It wasn't hilarious, but as far as commercial parodies go, it was pretty good. Also, I loved Tina waking up at the end after a seemingly wild night with her brownie husband.
7.5/10
The Masters - Okay, I could care less about the Tiger Woods fiasco and his string of lovely mistresses. I was actually laughing more when it was just Jason and Bill talking in hushed tones, but the inclusion of Tina as a mistress just seemed a bit obvious and at this stage, done to death. I'm kind of like "Why give these women any more publicity than they've already gotten?" However, I did love the spoof of the extraordinarily creepy Tiger Woods ad.
6/10
The Sarah Palin Network - While it wasn't as snarky and hard-hitting as I would have liked it, I got a few laughs out of it. Tea Party Wheel of Fortune with the mispelled "Obamar is a terrist" made me laugh as did Dancing with The Real Stars - America's Small Business Owners. As it went on though, it became more of a stream of funny programme titles and didn't actually target Palin or the Tea Party people as much as I would have liked.
7.5/10
Lonely Teacher's Thoughts - Okay, so some parts I was like "Oh, should I be laughing at a teacher having these thoughts about a child?" But it was so well-executed I was like "Yes, I should be laughing." Kudos to Justin Bieber who did a pretty good job here and didn't make me want to vomit. The end with Tina's character singing "Jason is my baby!" was my favourite thing ever. Oh no, wait - my favourite thing ever was Fred's character getting up and singing "We could read maps together". That was amazing.
9/10
Weekend Update - I loved this if only for the return of Aunt Linda and Women's News. Jokes were great. I especially loved the one about some strains of gonnorhea becoming incurable to which Seth said "I do not have room in my life for another 5k walk." Jason as the Devil was great. I've seen a lot of shows attempt to find humour in the Catholic Church scandals and failing, but SNL actually succeeded here. Getting the Devil to denounce the church's behaviour was really the only way to go. Likewise, Aunt Linda brought a smile to my face. Is it odd that I agreed with her review of Alice In Wonderland? Tina Fey stole the segment though with her snarky commentary on matters pertaining to Michelle "Bombshell" McGee. "...when your body looks like a dirtbag's binder from 7th grade metal shop it doesn't bode well for your character..."
I loved the notion that even Hitler would be Team Bullock. Best edition of WU in a while.
9/10
Al Roker's Ruff Rugged and Roker - So I actually laughed during this sketch, but I did have one problem - why was it set within a TV show? It would have worked a lot better had it been just Roker living his life and having wild times with Dinah Lohan instead of him supposedly filming a TV show for TV1. I actually forgot that that was the premise until the end when he was like "See you after this break" or something. Anyhows, Roker reading the weather cracked me up as did Tina as Dinah Lohan - "My daughter Ali is recording a record, it's gonna be a bomb". I get that Nasim bares kind of a resemblance to Kim Kardashian, but I just don't understand why she does impressions of her. KIM KARDASHIAN DOESN'T SPEAK LIKE THAT. I loved the line about God giving her more than her sister Khloe though. I enjoyed it but note to SNL writers - not every sketch has to be set within a TV show.
7.5/10
High School Dance - So, I thought this was really sweet, if not exactly loaded with laughs. I thought Nasim did a tremendous job here, and really showcased all that she has to offer in terms of original characters and general acting ability. Ken Tucker said something really interesting in his EW review about this being a really substantive episode and I can't help but agree. This sketch in particular had a lot more substance than average SNL fare - what, no gay references? - and I actually thought that Nasim's character's admiration for her mom was kind of endearing (but also creepy). I liked Bobby & Andy's reaction to being asked to pick up trash, and I also thought that Justin Bieber did a servicable job here as Nasim's male counterpart. All in all, well-written & well-executed.
8/10
Nine Inch Hooker - Again, wasn't loaded on laughs, but I thought that everyone did a great job here, especially Fey - I love when she channels her inner depression-era. I liked how the fact that Fey's character was 9 inches tall was an after thought - "That and she's 9 inches." And I also enjoyed the cliches about such a little person having a big heart. Not the best sketch, but executed reasonably well and a nice way to end the show.
7/10
OVERALL -
Overall, this was one of my favourites of the season. Tina brought her A-game and I think that the writers used her to the best of her abilities. Only thing I could have really done without was the Tiger Woods mistress bit, but all in all, I thought that the sketches were quite strong. It was a shame not to see certain cast members i.e Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Will Forte, Andy Samberg. But it was also nice to see Nasim carry another sketch on her back and do a pretty damn good job of it. Also, kudos to Jason Sudeikis and Kenan Thompson who once again brought it.
I didn't watch any of Justin Bieber's musical performances, but his appearances in the show didn't offend me like I thought they would. Instead he came across as a nice kid who worked well in sketch comedy. Kudos!
Overall grade - 8/10
MVP of the show - Tina Fey (yeah, it's cheating, but it's true)
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