Jim Parsons was the host last night during the first Saturday Night Live after the Olympics-mandated break. It was also the first SNL since longtime head writer and Weekend Update host Seth Meyers jumped ship for Late Night. From the first episode of the 39th season, we've noted that we were in for a transitionary year, with lots of new faces vying for attention as returning members tried out new roles. There were always going to be some serious bumps along the way—and last night was one of the bumpiest episodes yet.
Let's start with the really good stuff: Beck performed "Blue Moon" and "Wave" from his excellent new album, Morning Phase, and was one of the best musical performers of the season (along with Arcade Fire, Drake, and the minute or so that Kendrick Lamar was on stage with Imagine Dragons). He may not have broken out any killer dance moves, but his voice was strong and warm, and it echoed eerily over a full string section on haunting mood piece "Wave." And he had a pretty cool hat for good measure.
Now as for the rest of the show: this may have been the first episode of the season that didn't have one outright great sketch. Oh, there was one: Taran Killam's energetic, bitchy Weekend Update standout Jebediah Atkinson may be one note, but it's a note I happen to love. He's great at improvising when things get , and his segment was packed with killer one-liners: "Don't get me started on Gravity. If i wanted to watch a depressed middle aged woman float around for 90 minutes I'd go to the YMCA pool."
Thanks to the strength of the some of the cast, there were, of course, other great moments: Kate McKinnon unleashed her fantastic Ellen impression in the otherwise forgettable cold open. "Bird Bible," while just a minute long, was exactly the kind of weird SNL should do more of. Between his intense stare in the "12 Years A Slave Auditions" sketch and his Shaq impression on Weekend Update, Jay Pharoah is slowly becoming one of the best scene-stealers on the show. Bobby Moynihan had a nice moment as George Costanza. And everyone looked like they were having a great time in the flashback footage from "The Killer Files."
But the rest...oof. Parsons was one of the worst hosts they've had this season (hi Bruce Willis and Miley Cyrus!), stumbling over parts of his monologue, blatantly staring at cue cards, and generally not fitting in well with the cast. Parsons' seemed determined to prove he was absolutely nothing like his Big Bang character, but the writing in sketches like "Murder Mystery Hour" and "Cowboys" didn't help his cause very much. "Peter Pan Returns" was a momentum-killer early in the episode despite Aidy Bryant's attempts at wringing laughs out of an uninteresting premise, there were several 12 Years A Slave jokes that were reaching at best, and the second half of the episode was filled with dud after dud.
As for Colin Jost, the new Weekend Update host, we're assuming it'll take him a few weeks to get comfortable—because he was an awkward presence at best in his debut, smirking after every joke whether or not it landed. Cecily Strong has definitely improved over the course of the season, but it's definitely a work-in-progress still.
So this wasn't an inspiring episode, but we're pretty excited to see what the writers come up with next for Lena Dunham in her SNL debut (The National are the musical guest). Maybe Noel Wells will return from purgatory for that episode!
