SNL Scorecard: Dan Levy / Phoebe Bridgers

The year is young, and I've already made the mistake of prematurely declaring this about a couple of my favorite sports teams, but I'm going to proclaim it anyway: I think it's safe to say Saturday Night Live has turned a corner.

If you've followed this piece, or just have been watching for yourself, it's no secret that SNL's Season 46 got off to a rough start. Lorne Michaels'-- at least I'm assuming it was his call -- ambitious decision to begin the season with 6 consecutive episodes without a break seemed to be overly ambitious. Whether it was the lack of 'bye weeks,' the influx of new cast members and writers, the new COVID normal, or all of the above, the show struggled to find its footing for the first 4 or 5 episodes of the year. Then, right in time for the election, it kicked off a series of consistently good performances and gathered momentum that wouldn't be broken by its long-awaited first week off, the actual election itself, Thanksgiving, or an extra-long Christmas break. Indeed, this weekend's episode, helmed by indie TV and music darlings Dan Levy and Phoebe Bridgers, respectively, was terrific on its own, but even more impressive when positioned as the latest in a stretch of consecutive good-to-great episodes that dates back to October. With growing creativity in writing, slowly increasing airtime for the brand new cast members, and the return of stars Aidy Bryant and Cecily Strong from filming their new TV shows, it really feels like Season 46 might end up to be....dare I say...good?

Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 11th episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

“Universal Tram”: 8/10

Dan Levy was terrific in this one— definitely his best role of a consistently good night for the host —but shoutouts are also warranted for Ego Nwodim, whose little interjections had me rolling. This was a pretty simple premise, but the lines just kept cracking me up; it was great from start to finish.

The Good

“Weekend Update": 8.5/10

I have, on more than one occasion, said that Weekend Update’s quality has seemed to run counter to the rest of the episode all season. Happily, that was not the case here: an already great episode was made even better by a Weekend Update installment that might just have been the best of the season. The co-anchors were absolutely on fire, coming out hot with Biden jokes and ratcheting it up with Marjorie Taylor Greene jokes. Political or non-political, every single punchline landed tremendously. Then, I was worried the momentum might be ruined by the guest appearances but fortunately those too were fantastic. First Mikey Day and Heidi Gardner were inch-perfect as uptight parents committed to extending cancel culture to “problematic” kids, and later Kenan and Chris Redd closed out Update with a ton of energy as they parodied popular YouTubers “TwinsTheNewTrend.”

“Zillow": 7/10

So I can’t exactly relate as I’ve still got a decade or so before reaching my late 30s, but judging from the crowd and the Internet reaction, this seemed to be accurate? Regardless, it was hilarious, and just when the joke was starting to run dry, Cecily Strong’s real estate agent brought it back to life.

"Super Bowl Pre-game Show Cold Open": 7/10

A full-on non-political cold open! I can’t believe it! That alone made me want to rate it highly, even though it was a bit of a mess, and its attempt to cover a lot of Super Bowl talking points prevented it from being a more memorable, cohesive sketch. But man, there were some gold nuggets in there; Aidy Bryant playing both head coaches was an inspired choice, and Beck Bennett’s Boomer Esiason and Alex Moffatt’s Bill Cowher killed me..

“It Gets Better": 6.5/10

The last sketch of the night was a simple enough premise, but it was humorous and at its core, really sweet. It was nice to see a sketch that featured the LBGT cast members along with the openly gay host.

“Lifting Our Voices": 6/10

I loved the point this sketch was making, although it wasn’t as funny as I thought it could have been. The studio audience didn’t seem that engaged; maybe it just hit too close to home for them? Regardless, Levy’s social media activist and Kyle Mooney’s delightfully weird artist were infuriatingly hilarious.

“Hot Damn": 6/10

SNL does this type of sketch all the time: the nonexistent, socially-inappropriate song that slowly but surely the rest of the crowd reveals they do know. This wasn’t the best version of it, but I admit I’m a sucker for it every time. In the midst of a really strong episode, it didn’t need to be hilarious or memorable; it was energetic and fun, and that served its purpose well.

“Monologue”: 6/10

Just like last week’s host, Dan Levy is more effortlessly charming than he is laugh-out-loud funny. The comedic timing was a bit off throughout this monologue, a fact that wasn’t helped by the absolutely dead studio audience, but this was a funny concept. And man, “Doreen” just made me realize it’s so good to have Aidy back.

“Super Bowl Pod”: 5.5/10

This was definitely a funny concept but a little too on-the-nose for me to fully enjoy. (Maybe that’s just my guilty conscience talking because friends and I have certainly had these types of conversations.) I was hoping the introduction of the chili would lead to descent into hilarious chaos; instead it just sort of segued into a weird ending with Dr. Fauci and Psy (is it 2012 again?) showing up.

“Wedding Friends”: 5.5/10

This was so weird! I feel like it had to be based off of a real incident in one of the writer’s/cast member’s lives, or at least real people. Timing errors and the abrupt ending stopped this from being particularly good, but the great acting from Levy and Kate McKinnon (who made shockingly few appearances on the night) also salvaged it from being bad.

Musical Performances

Phoebe Bridgers: 7/10

Phoebe Bridgers is having a moment in late 2020/early 2021. The young indie rocker already had an avid fanbase and social media following, thanks in no small part to her humorous charisma and involvement in various bands. But last year's album Punisher along with lead single "Kyoto" found themselves on many critics' year-end "Best Of" lists, and also led to 4 Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist. And now, undoubtedly the biggest honor of all, she was the musical guest on the Studio 8H stage.

Her first performance, of the aforementioned "Kyoto," wasn't the most high-energy rendition I've seen her do, but God, I love that song, and by and large, she sounded fantastic. Her second performance, of "I Know The End," is the one that got everyone talking and tweeting, though. True to the recorded version of the song, she punctuated a large guitar crescendo at the end of the song with full-on screams. Unlike the recorded version of the song (at least I think), she also punctuated it by smashing-- or at least attempting to smash --her guitar on one of the speakers. People had extremely mixed feelings about the performance, and based on my unscientific research, it seemed to align with whether or not they already loved Phoebe. I hesitate to use this word because of how inherently condescending it sounds, but I found her methodical, almost stoic efforts to smash the guitar cute, if not a little confusing. I personally was much more partial to the first performance, but found her entire set very good, if not her best.

OVERALL SCORE: 6.64 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.60)