Rosario Dawson/Fleet Foxes

Cold Opening: 5/10 - Very weak opening, they could have done so much more with Cheney, or else gone in the more obvious direction of lampooning Bush's final address or the extremely weird press conference that he held last week. I do have to give props to Wiig for quite a good Diane Sawyer impression, but other than that, weak open.

Monologue: 5/10 - Fred could barely even save this. Rosario started off bland, and unfortunately when she made her only joke : "Smile and get discovered!" not one person laughed. Ferecito had one or two funny lines, but they didn't revive a dead monologue.

North American Savings: 7/10 - Yeah, seven might seem a little high for what it was, but I actually liked this. It made me giggle, and reminded me of those other bank commercials that Jim Downey used to do, "Change is what we do." The kicker came when Hammond shoved the money under a mattress.

Da Learning Train: 5/10 - Despite having lots of energy and potential, the sketch never really took off. (excuse the mild pun.) And why was Harry Connick, Jr. featured in it?! The only part of this I liked was the intro : "You have so many channels, your kids are bound to find porn." and Bill's DJ. Other than that, this was a pretty lame concept.

Guantanamo Bay Going Out Of Business Sale: 7/10 - Probably the best of the night. People have been linking this to Circuit City's shutting down, but I don't think there was any particular link between the two. "Git'mo!"

Aladdin Anniversary: 6.5/10 - Cute sketch, but didn't really deliver the laughs. The genie/Robin Williams references were funny but other than that, it was just okay.

SNL Digital Short: A Couple Of Homies: 7/10 -I actually really enjoyed this. The concept may have been a little lame and sparse, but the background music, and inane songs made me laugh. "Backscratch!" And you know, Will Forte showed his ass. That's got to be good for something.

Gilly: 7/10 - A lot of people are hating this sketch and complaining about Kristen Wiig, but I really enjoyed this sketch. I honestly don't know how she made it through without busting her gut laughing. It was so stupid, but for some reason that I can't quite point out, it was really funny to me. Also, Bobby and Kenan did well in this sketch. And it had one of my favourite lines of the night:
"Who just shot the principal's ass?"
"Oh, we call it a bum in here."
"Who shot the bum's ass?"
Or something like that. I would like to say though, that Gilly should not return as a recurring character.

Fleet Foxes 1: n/a didn't watch

Weekend Update: 7.5/10 - Some good jokes, and I've noticed these past couple of weeks, they've been trying jokes out that the audience doesn't necessarily like or get, but that the writers' like. Like last week, they made that great Agatha Christie/President's dinner gag that barely got a giggle from the audience. I loved Judy Grimes' tonight, but Bernie Madoff and Larry the Goose were pretty lame.

La Policia Mexicana: 4/10 - A gag that despite trying their hardest, could not be stretched out for the duration of a sketch.

The View: 8/10 - Loved it! I really like The View sketches, and props to both Jason Sudeikis and Michaela Watkins for their excellent impressions tonight! I don't know what the point of having Rosario there was, but her Salma Hayek was pretty poor.


Fleet Foxes 2: n/a

Good Excuse!: 6.5/10 - Fun enough. I liked where the camera would pan to an empty theatre with cats roaming around while "Good Ex-Cuse!" played out. Kenan's part was funny enough, but they should have left the joke alone instead of bringing out "Perpetua".

Overall: One of the worst of a generally good season. Rosario brought little/nothing apart from her Latina heritage to the show, and while some may choose to criticise the writing instead of the host, in this case I'm going to criticise her. The host plays a big part in what sketches are written up, what they'll do, what they won't do etc. As we've seen this season, the writers flourish when given a good actor to play around with. I happen to think that Rosario Dawson is a very average actress, and I don't imagine she brought a whole lot to the table. So, in this case I will blame the host for the lacklustre show. But next time it happens, I'm blaming the writers.
Notes:
-Where was Abby Elliott tonight? She was given the honour of screeching Live From New York, It's Saturday Night! last week and this week, she had maybe one word of dialogue in Da Learnin' Train.
- Michaela Watkins does a mean Barbara Walters.
- Where are all these Sudeikis impressions coming from?! Last week and this week, he's proven himself to actually be a decent impressionist, a talent I would not usually associate with Sudeikis. Props, brother! Hope to see more soon!
-Lorne, show us some Casey! Bobby gets tons more to do than her, and he's been there for a significantly shorter amount of time!
- There wasn't actually a lot of sketches this week. Three videos in one episode? And the show featured the SNL band playing for longer than three seconds, something they NEVER do. And the goodbyes started about two minutes earlier than usual. Wow, talk about a lack of material, and a need to fill time.

Overall: 5/10