I won't miss some of Wiig's terrible characters like Gilly. Overall I thought it was really good. We'll see how they do in the coming weeks when the host isn't as talented as McFarlane.
Yep. This was one of the funnier episodes they have put together in a while. Probably because McFarlane hosting meant that there was at least one capable comedy writer in the building.
Just watched on Hulu, and I have a couple observations:
Sticking with Keenan Thompson despite him taking a while to figure it out was a great move. He really has matured into a great cast member. He is limited, but that political ad about Romney is not nearly as funny without his delivery talking about Orange Julius.
Ocean was great, really classic SNL musical performance. That is another thing that was lacking in the recent down years. For the longest time, it seemed that, if nothing else, you would see an interesting and unique musical performance on SNL. Then they started trotting out lip syncing pop stars, and missed the boat trying to lure in viewers.
The Gangnam style skit was pretty great, but until a friend told me to watch that on youtube before wathing SNL, I had never heard of it.
I agree with this analysis that Pharoah's characterization of Obama has much more depth than Armisan's. Should be fruitful in the writing room, but I will not hold out too much hope until they deliver.
Skits were not nearly as dragging as they seemed in year's past. Probably because the point of each skit was no longer: get at least 3 lines from Wiig, Sudekis, Heder, Samburg, Armisan, and a couple from Moynihan. They used the entire cast pretty well, and it made the show feel more fresh with new faces (save McFarlane) in each sketch.
Weekend Update still struggles unless the "guests" are funny. That being said, I think that is the toughest burden of any segment on the show. In my opinion, Weekend Update has been done poorly more than it has been done well throughout the history of the show. Part of this is due to the lack of a consistent expectation for the host, a good thing. Each host has left a pretty distinct stamp on WE, and Meyer's stamp is that of the straight man to the parade of over-the-top characters. Colin Quinn was similar, but I liked him a little better.
Overall, I'm optimistic, and I'll most likely DVR next week.
