sketchcomedy

(S32E20) I'm not a crazed Zach Braff fan, but I'm familiar enough with his work on Scrubs and Garden State. As the weird fantasy sequences in Scrubs have shown, Braff and the bizarre totally work. So, I was disappointed that he didn't play any outrageous characters in this episode. He was always playing some version of himself. Even in the "Prom Committee" sketch, when he had the chance to portray some completely out-there character, he played the Garden State kid with the Natalie Portman headphones. Oh, well. At least he didn't blatantly stare at the cue cards all night.

Also, there was so much Maya Rudolph love in this episode, it sort of felt like she was hosting. I wonder if this is a sign that she's planning on leaving after this season? This then leads me to wonder if Darrell Hammond, who only appeared two or three times in this episode, is ever going to leave.

(S32E15) Julia Louis Dreyfus hosted less than a year ago, so I was surprised to see her back so soon. She did an all right job last time, but I wonder what drove Saturday Night Live to have her return this quickly. It's not like she had anything new to promote. Hmm.

This episode was pretty boring. If I wasn't planning on writing this review, I probably would have tuned out a little after "Weekend Update". Yawn.

(S32E14) Rainn Wilson is probably best known from NBC's The Office, in which he plays the incredibly funny Dwight Schrute. As always, just because an actor does well in a sitcom doesn't necessarily mean it all translates on Saturday Night Live. Fortunately, Wilson delivered a great performance that was on par with the show's actual cast members. This was a pleasant surprise for me, so I really wish that the weeks' writing had done better justice to Wilson's talent.

(S32E13) I'm not very familiar with Forest Whitaker's work, but I'm well aware of his new-found status as one of the biggest actors in Hollywood. He recently won multiple awards for his performance in The Last King of Scotland, so I knew that he could act. Whitaker didn't do such a spectacular job on SNL. He was good, yeah, but not spectacular.

However, the writing this week was really something else. It was a lot weirder than usual, I thought. For the most part, I liked it. I see that they've cut down on a lot of the more formulaic recurring character sketches, which is a massive improvement. Plus, none of the those recurring sketches are accompanied shitty little theme songs! Remember the days of "Debbie Downer" and "Carol"? Thank goodness those are over.

(S32E12) Cold Open (American Idol auditions): The animals angle was cute, but I think the best parts were the split-second clips of the good singers, a beautiful example of how American Idol loves to focus on the painful auditions and push the better performances to the sidelines. Oh, and the shaggy dog family was also kind of nice.

Monologue: Drew Barrymore has only hosted five times? I mean, I know that's a lot, but I definitely feel like I've seen her more than five times. Maybe it's because of her occasional cameo appearances. Anyway, I thought this monologue was a great take on the typical romantic-comedy. The inclusion of Maroon 5 and Corinne Bailey Rae as the soundtrack was also hilarious.

(S32E11) I'm familiar with very few of Jeremy Piven's projects, but, from what I've seen, he's a great comedic actor. Unfortunately, sometimes even the great funnymen of television and film can really -- for lack of a better phrase -- totally suck it hard when it comes to live television. In Piven's case, before the monologue was even half-way over, I knew he was going to do fine. Aside from a few very minor reading flubs (I think he said "contact" instead of "connect" in the monologue, and stumbled over some lines in various skits), Piven did a flawless job. All in all, I thought this was a fairly strong episode.

(S32E10) Even though I'm no expert on his career, I didn't have many worries about Jake Gyllenhaal's comedy abilities. I remember listening to Gyllenhaal on the Donnie Darko DVD audio commentary and finding him surprisingly funny. I definitely didn't expect it... After all, Donnie Darko wasn't a particularly goofy film. Then, I saw Bubble Boy and, although I wouldn't consider it one of the greater films of our time, I thought Gyllenhaal did a pretty good job (with what he was given).

This episode wasn't spectacular -- in fact, it was pretty unremarkable -- but I enjoyed watching it, simply because of Gyllenhaal's enthusiasm.