Mattalamode

Vintage SNL fans, rejoice: my latest assortment of #SNL reviews is finally up for S13! Will the show's comfort in not having to radically reinvent itself for the first time in years serve to its benefit or detriment? Here's what I thought! www.mattalamode.com/2025/04/satu...

Elordi is a far worse episode but I think they actually spotlighted him more and put more effort into placating his image. The issue was that it just became outright fawning. It didn't feel like they put much thought towards putting Mikey across at all, though her use was similarly protective.

I don't disagree, but like, regardless of the cynical casting aspect of it, the cast and writers are still responsible for legitimizing her time at the show as being "worthwhile." And they kinda failed at that here? But I hope she enjoyed it! I highly doubt she'll be back.

Cold open: It's always surprising to see a host in the cold open, doubly so when the host isn't that well known to many viewers. I wonder how many might think that Mikey is a new cast member. Hopefully this is a good sign of their faith in her as a host. #SNL

The good news is that we're moving onto two hosts in April who have a proven track record of brilliance as both comic performers and SNL hosts, because clearly SNL at this moment needs a strong anchor to build itself around. Mikey is talented, but she couldn't serve that role for them. C. (9/9)

These 3 issues, combined with Morgan Wallen's very off-putting presence (the fuck was with those goodnights?) all mix together into an episode that simply does not work for me. There are highlights—Ashley crushes on Update, and the cartoon somehow gets the hottest reception all night—but man. (8/9)

Why put the game show sketch at the very end of the episode? It has an accessible premise, easy hooks, and is the one thing in this episode that Mikey gets to actually carry. It's shocking that as is, it takes her until after Update to even *feel* like a host and not a doomed featured player. (7/9)

Big issue #3: this ep might have one of the worst rundowns I have ever seen. It takes an episode that is already not very much there and destroys any sense of pacing it could've used to gloss over its weakest points. (6/9)

It's a bad sign when Barry the Midwife #2 is one of the few that actually gives Mikey some room to do things, by which I mean, she gets to deliver an adequate amount of lines with inflections that lend themselves to... if not humor, setups for Bowen to vamp. (I don't like these much.) (5/9)

Big issue #2: why so many recurrers? And why ones that continue to, again, bury our host? She shouldn't play the same role Bad Bunny played in another window gag sketch, or that Charli XCX played in another Marcello acting coach sketch. These are roles designed to cover for lesser talents. (4/9)

In previous years, you could at least count on SNL to bank one really solid, robust pretape (or live sketch, if we're feeling spicy) that allows them to command the screen with the talent that brought them where they are, but here, Mikey is buried in the ensemble 90% of the time... a shame. (3/9)

Big issue #1: we got a clearly, very talented, Oscar-winning actress to host the show, and we had quite frankly no idea how to use her. Episodes like this have happened across the show's history but they will never stop confounding me. Was there some internal difficulty at the show? Nerves? (2/9)

re: Mikey Madison on #SNL. Welp, that was about as I expected: not very good! Or it's a difficult episode, really, because it has so many distinct issues instead of one very glaring one, unless you were to simply generalize it as "weak," which... is valid. But I wanna dig into it a lil bit. (1/9)

I do hope that seeing sketches that feel like they COULD be something, even if they ultimately aren't, is part of the multi-step, trial & error process of the show learning how to conceive and write consistent sketch again. I've been so cynical about S50 and just need something to hold hope for lol

As for tonight's episode, I'm keeping expectations tempered. Mikey Madison is brilliantly funny in Anora, though not in ways that SNL at this point is particularly good at augmenting. But I'm open to surprises, of course! And I greatly look forward to the next two weeks, if they can pull it off.

It feels like the 2025 half of this season is actively trying harder than the 2024 half, if in largely subtle ways. (Chalamet was the only real winner, though others had highlights.) I hope they can continue on that road to improvement even if I think it'll be season-long process, or longer.

Much talk among hardcore fans surrounding the rideable luggage sketch suggests, to some extent, that a willingness to take big swings outweighs the need for writing to be so didactic, and while I did not really *laugh* at it, I hope it can be a lesson that ambition is worth having.

She was as great of a host as before, effortless and confident, but it's strange how much the show's writing has deteriorated. S39 wasn't even an amazing season! But things feel so much more mechanical and labored; a sketch as much of a conceptual winner as "Friendly's" ends up feeling overwrought.

I didn't really write anything on the previous #SNL episode hosted by Lady Gaga but ahead of tonight's ep, I thought I'd say a tiny bit. Mostly that it feels that the show, even when doing admirable things, doesn't fully coalesce. It's kind of hard to tell what a "good" episode should be anymore.

#snl

After one long year, my final #SNL review of S13 is up on the Patreon for the unintended season finale, hosted by Judge Reinhold! Check it out: www.patreon.com/posts/2-27-8...

Cold open: The Curb Your Enthusiasm music jokes. This show is bang on trend, as always. #SNL

This last episode of SNL was kind of batshit in a way that makes me feel a need to sit with it before I can speak in it, because I can't tell if I appreciated it or was frustrated by it. Will circle back tomorrow!

Also, I'm not sure to what degree your dislike of the episode is steeped in a distaste for Shane, but... it's not like Norm is profoundly different from him. I'd argue he's even said worse ideological things to a wider audience. And they "were* buddies, somewhat lol

I don't disagree but seeing as you are a professional critic, I would take interest in hearing you express your sense of things in your own words, because I feel like you have unique insights of your own that you shouldn't feel a need to substantiate through others' mouths.

Then how come the show, this season, is so unable to consistently achieve that? I cut them slack because they work under incredibly impractical circumstances, but it often just feels overwrought, grabbing errantly for every possible laugh when successful comedy is a matter of thoughtful economics

I will say, I've actually written in-depth about the show for years and have a lot of perspectives on things that don't strictly operate on the binary of who's hosting or the overall politics of this or that. If you just wanna be snarky that's fine but I'm also down to have an actual dialogue 👍

Cold open: Positive was the lack of cable news cold open. Negative was everything else. Mad libs, Bowen doing his old routine as Vance, incoherent, sluggish tone, Trump listicle, Mike Myers as Austin Musk, Marcello mug. Sky News Australia and the grifter right-wing will love this. Anyone else? #SNL

There have been better episodes of the show, and worse ones. This was not an exemplary outing of the season, but it was at least easy to watch, maintained energy, and felt like a stable return to form after the show went all out only a few weeks before. Pooh pooh me as needed! B-. (11/11)

Do I think Shane will have made new fans at the end of this episode? No. If you don't like Shane, then you never will. Comedy is subjective. But I think, if we estrange the culture vulture politics from things, he's harmless, and maybe even kind of appreciable. (10/11)