SNL Scorecard: Ariana DeBose / Bleachers

After a three-week holiday break, Saturday Night Live returned last weekend, and no later than they usually do-- in fact, compared to the last several years, Season 47 returned much sooner in the new year than usual. My guess is that the upcoming Winter Olympics play a part; I doubt NBC will air new episodes while those games air, but at the same time, I doubt they want to wait until they're concluded to return to SNL. Thus, the natural decision is to come back earlier in January and push a few episodes through before breaking for the Olympics.

Anyways, the return was a welcome one! It's always weird to have Saturdays without the show, and in the cold, holiday-less January weekends that feeling is even more pronounced. This episode also was a nice palette-cleanser, in that the last time we'd seen a new episode, it was a particularly sad context, Paul Rudd's audience-less, mostly cast-less Christmas episode being the scene. The 2022 premiere felt like a return to just before that Paul Rudd episode; masks were back on the audience members, but it appeared it was back to a capacity crowd, and all the cast and crew were on deck, too.

That in itself feels like a win, regardless of how the quality of the episode would turn out to be. Which is a good thing, because the quality of the episode was not very high. For whatever reason, be it a holiday hangover, a loss of momentum due to the extended break, all of the above or none of the above, the first episode of the new calendar year almost always seems to be pretty sloppy and forgettable (a fact which made the great John Krasinski episode in January of last year that much more delightful of a success). That trend held here, not through any fault of the first-time host Ariana DeBose, who was a willing player and gave each role her best the entire night, but rather from the cast and especially the writers, who for the most part turned in a pretty mediocre effort. The episode was far from uniformly bad, but we the fans will be looking for improved performances before the Olympic break, I'm sure.

Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 10th episode of the season, and the first of 2022:

Sketch of the Night

"Winter Formal": 7/10

This is a sketch that’s a testament to the importance of commitment from its actors. At the start, I thought this would be a pretty one-note sketch, and truthfully, it was, but because of Sarah Sherman and Pete Davidson’s enthusiastic commitment to their wacky parent characters, and Andrew Dismukes leaning into his ‘loser’ character, it ended up being a lot of fun. I also appreciated this being the middle story in the canon, in which this guy turns into this guy.

The Good

“Weekend Update": 7/10

Due to Colin Jost’s absence from the Christmas episode, this was the first time we had seen the two co-anchors helm Update together in over a month. And though it took them a little while to get cooking, once they did, they were on a roll, with some of their best lines of the season. Unfortunately, their sole guest appearance came right at the end and kind of killed the mojo. Chloe Fineman gave it her all as Elmo, but it was a pretty weak premise and she didn’t get much help from a pretty weak script, either.

“New Governess": 7/10

This may not have been the last sketch of the night, but it had big “10-to-1” energy. ‘Sound of Music, but make it slightly chaotic and nonsensical’ is a delightful concept, as it turns out.

"Eric Adams Press Conference": 6.5/10

I was not feeling this one at first— I don’t really love when SNL does ‘inside baseball’ New York sketches and it didn’t really seem like this one would have much of a punchline —but it got more enjoyable the longer it went on. In a season where it feels like we haven’t seen nearly enough Chris Redd, it was great to see him star in a sketch, and he was killing me with his increasingly ridiculous track record as a cop.

"Urkel Reboot": 6/10

I loved the idea of making a beloved old sitcom dark and gritty— it’s a concept they’ve executed to hilarious output a couple times in recent years. But after the hilarious reveal, this one didn’t amount to much, other than getting to hear Urkel utter his famous catchphrase in a new context. Perhaps if I actually watched Family Matters, I would have picked up on more, I don’t know.

“Sappho": 6/10

The joke was pretty obvious right away here, so it didn’t have much staying power, but I did enjoy reading the various ‘translations’ and seeing Chris Redd’s skeptical reactions.

"Biden Spider-Man Cold Open": 5.5/10

This was a pretty lackluster cold open to kick off 2022, but the fact of the matter is it’s harder to wring comedy out of Biden and his administration than it was under Trump. At least, it’s certainly harder to do crowd service than it was when you could just trot out Alec Baldwin and get an instant reaction from the audience. Also, it’s already become clear that James Austin Johnson is one of the more gifted impressionists in recent SNL history, but I actually think his Biden impression is just okay; it’s a little too gruff to be present-day, ‘soft-spoken Grandpa’ Biden. Still, the premise of him blaming everything on Spider-Man was pretty funny and the wacko finish actually helped it end on a funny note, though that move sometimes ruins a bit.

The... Less-Good

“Monologue": 5/10

Ariana DeBose is a delightful revelation on the stage and screen and seems a delightful person, plus was so excited to host, so I wanted this to be great and thought it might be, but it fell a little flat. I will never complain about getting to watch her sing and dance, and watch Kate be an absolute goof, but other than a medley of songs from the show and a couple funny-but-forgettable lines of comedy, there wasn’t really anything here.

“NBA on TNT": 4/10

I usually have enjoyed Saturday Night Live’s “NBA on TNT” sketches, a well they have gone to a surprising number of times, but this one just didn’t have much going for it. Kenan as Charles Barkley is always enjoyable, and it was funny to see Bowen Yang (presumably on stilts, or a high-top?) as Yao Ming, but really the only joke was about how one basketball team had a massive COVID outbreak and had to play scrubs, and that ran dry pretty quickly.

"Kitchen Staff": 3/10

I mean, I appreciate ending the episode on a wildly unhinged sketch, but this was just…bad. I’ll admit I laughed at Alex Moffatt’s part, but that was pretty much it. It was like the writers just decided to phone it in and rely on having a stereotypical Texarkana accent to get laughs.

Musical Performances

Bleachers: 5.5/10

Between Nate Reuss’ guest appearance as part of Young Thug’s set, and now this set with Jack Antonoff’s new(er) band Bleachers, we’ve has 2/3 of the superior band fun. on SNL this season. Operation #bringbackfun. is a go!!!

Anyways, I didn’t know much Bleachers coming into tonight, though I do have a number of friends that like their stuff, so I was eager to hear their sound. “How Dare You Want More” didn’t impress me much, I must admit. The energy level was great at least, so I give them marks for that, but Antonoff’s stage presence was a little corny and the sound just felt like a knockoff Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

Their 2nd performance, of “Chinatown” was pretty much the same. It was pleasant, in that Americana rock kind of way, with Antonoff doing his best warbling Springsteen or Brandon Flowers impression, but not particularly memorable. All in all, it was an okay set by Bleachers, but not anything that’s going to send me running to listen to more of their music.

OVERALL SCORE: 5.68 ('Comedy Only' score: 5.70)