SNL Scorecard: Miles Teller / Brandi Carlile

After their first "bye week" of Season 51, Saturday Night Live returned last weekend with 2nd-time host Miles Teller, and frequent musical guest Brandi Carlile. In the last episode before the break, hosted by Sabrina Carpenter, I discussed how noticeable it was that the show got better as it went along, starting slowly but eventually yielding what (to me, at least) seemed like the clear strongest episode of the season thus far. As such, I was curious to see whether the positive trajectory would continue in this episode, or if the week off would prove to be poorly-timed, wrecking the slow build of momentum that had begun.

Delightedly, it would turn out to be the former.

I'd be lying if I said I expected it to be so. I'm not a particularly big fan of Miles Teller-- I'm not NOT a fan, he just doesn't move the needle for me as an actor --and although he did a perfectly solid job in his debut hosting the Season 48 premiere, he wasn't a comedic force I expected big things from. And sure enough, he was perfectly fine; in comparison with this young season's hosts, he didn't have much of a star moment the way Carpenter and of course Amy Poehler did, but he did have a much easier and more natural time blending in with the cast and playing a variety of roles required than Bad Bunny did in the premiere.

But what I did not expect was the sudden and striking uptick in the level of writing. That's been the biggest shortcoming in this inconsistent season thus far: most of the cast are indisputably hilarious, and the newbies have shown real promise, but up until the latter half of that Sabrina episode, it was hard to point to any examples of standout writing that gave the cast and host license to have fun with. Last night, on multiple occasions, sketches set new benchmarks for the level of comedy writing this season, and gave a number of cast members their strongest outings of the season to date. There was really only one sketch that didn't work, and that was more hampered by the show's timing than anything else. Throw in a terrific set by a tried and true rockstar Brandi Carlile, and you get what is now far and away the best show, top-to-bottom, of Season 51. Long may this trajectory continue!

One note in case you forgot, since it's been a minute- I know my rankings can seem a little arbitrary, and truthfully there have been times where even I will look back at scorecards and think "Now, why did I rate (x) an 8.5, if (x) from this other episode was only a 7...?". So, both to hopefully clear up my scoring system for any curious readers, but also really to help keep myself consistent, here is the rubric to reference:

10/10: Perfect, no notes

8-9.5/10: Very funny-to-hilarious, definite rewatch

6-7.5/10: Pretty funny-to-funny, but won't necessarily be a rewatch

4-5.5/10: Not BAD, but not particularly funny or memorable

1-3.5/10: Terrible/poor taste, to simply bad/unfunny

Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 4th episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

"White House Makeover": 9/10

This was, in my opinion, the best writing of the season by far; for the first time this season, a sketch whose hilarity  was almost entirely on its writing rather than star cast member performances. That said, James Austin Johnson was of course brilliant, and Melania is Chloe Fineman’s best impression we’ve seen in some time. I think what excites me so much about this one is how often in the age of Trump SNL has struggled how to make comedy from our political reality… THAT’S how you effectively satire this administration, not downplaying his serious fascist streak but also finding a creative and genuinely funny way to skewer him.

The Good

“Missing Wives Docuseries": 8/10

“This could be wrong, but… the boob store?” is one of those line reads that’s gonna live in my head for a long time.  This was such a clever send-up of male inattentiveness and ‘weaponized incompetence,’ while simultaneously a faithful parody of those true crime documentaries on Netflix.

“Hockey PSA": 8/10

This had the same energy as sketches they’ve done before, but again, really creatively written. This was probably Teller’s finest acting of the night; he sold this really well.

"Newsroom": 7.5/10

This felt like an old school comedy sketch: mostly visual gags and terrific physical humor, the latter primarily from Mikey Day. I really enjoyed it. Not the funniest lines, per se, on a night full of strong writing, but we love a silly one!

"Weekend Update": 7.5/10

It’s interesting that Michael Che’s first joke was regarding SNAP benefits, considering earlier in the day he made a rare emotional and earnest post about the topic. Anyhow, the jokes from him and Jost, while still not all the way back to the level they had been at most of last season, were much better and with higher energy than the last couple weeks. Plus this time, the lift from the walk-on guests terrific. Bowen as George Santos has never been a miss, and man does he slay a repeated prop gag. But it was the delightful comedic chemistry between Ashley Padilla and Andrew Dismukes that was the star of this segment; “Two People Who Just Hooked Up” was the best bit on Weekend Update we’ve gotten all year.

“NYC Mayoral Debate Cold Open": 7/10

For the 2nd time out of 2, Miles Teller appeared in the cold open of the episode he hosted (and interestingly enough, this marks the 3rd straight episode in which the host was was in the cold open). I wonder why they used 2 guest stars for other candidates rather than cast members, though… maybe just to cover for Lorne Michaels dismissing the  only Arab cast member in the offseason, who almost surely would have portrayed Zohran? Maybe the cast felt “too close” to it? I don’t know. It’s low stakes because we probably won’t see Curtis Sliwa or Andrew Cuomo impressions again in a while, but it’s curious. Anyways, this was kinda toothless but fun to see them parody local politics for once. At least until the late JAJ cameo, of course, which runs the risk of getting played out but in this instance was some of his freshest work in a while. 

“Hungover Halloween Game Show": 7/10

This wasn’t the most memorable sketch on the night, but Kam Patterson walking out playing the sax might have been the loudest single laugh the show has elicited from me in a long time. Idk, I thought this was really well written and enjoyable, but it just didn’t seem like the crowd was going for it, which affected the overall energy. I still thought it was really solid, when all is said and done.

"Murder Press Briefing": 6.5/10

Definitely one of the dumber ones on the night, but I liked the vision here. I think it never quite escalated to the amount of fun absurdity that it seemed it wanted to, and the ending was weak. But I did like the I Think You Should Leave-esque element of the “normies” slowly starting to buy into the crazy plan. I also laughed pretty loudly at the newspaper name gag, I’ll admit it.

The... Less-Good

“Italian Restaurant Date": 4.5/10

On a weaker night, this both could have gone longer and probably would have felt refreshingly fun. In an episode that was generally very strong, though, especially in the writing sense, it felt just a little too underdeveloped to be memorable. given time constraints, wasn’t really allowed to turn into a fully realized 10-to-1. It confirmed that the show had a good amount of energy to the very end, at least.

“Monologue": 4/10

This was sweet at times, and Miles Teller was very charming, albeit a little more nervous-seeming than I expected him to be. But, save for a closing joke, it wasn't very funny and was a bit all over the place. In a year that is yet to feature any truly great monologue, this may have been the most forgettable one yet.

Musical Performances

Brandi Carlile: 8.5/10

Brandi Carlile is no stranger to the show; as a matter of fact, this was her second appearance as musical guest this calendar year, having come on in conjunction with Elton John for the Jack Black episode back in March. This time, it was just her and her usual backing band, performing fresh off the release of her new album Returning to Myself.

Brandi’s not an artist I regularly keep tabs on, but have always liked and respected, and I still like and respect her a lot. One thing that’s been true as far back as I can remember us how electric a performer she consistently is, and boy, was that true in her first performance, of “Church & State.” She got in her U2 bag sonically, and the spoken portions were the perfect injection of righteous fury. Her second performance, of “Human,” was a more restrained, but a lovely tune, again with a good message (unsurprisingly).

OVERALL SCORE: 7.05 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.90)