SNL Scorecard: Oscar Isaac / Charli XCX

Following the latest appearance of John Mulaney as host the previous week, Saturday Night Live returned to the nearly year-long trend of first-time hosts this past weekend. Their choice as host, while wildly different in personality and craft from Mulaney, was another #MillenialTwitterBae: actor Oscar Isaac.

Isaac was an exciting choice as host: he has been a fairly beloved actor after star turns in many an indie flick, and though he's a very serious actor (a multiple Oscar AND Emmy nominee), between some of his roles-- his breakout performance was in a comedy, albeit a dark comedy, Inside Llewyn Davis --and his personality that came through in talk show appearances, etc., it isn't unreasonable to predict that he's naturally a pretty funny dude. And this episode showed that to be true, and then some. Oscar Isaac wasn't just funny, he was the consummate SNL host. He was comfortable on stage, he showed remarkable versatility in his different characters, and he committed fully to each of his roles, whether they were lead or supporting. Coupled with some of the wittiest and most creative writing we've seen this season, as well as a star turn from musical guest, this resulted in the second consecutive episode that has a serious claim for best of Season 47.

Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 14th episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

"Workplace Harassment Seminar": 9/10

Sketch of the night, sketch of the season, and early contender for sketch of the year. I mean it! I was positively rolling from start to finish. The off-color humor, the full commitment to the off-beat characters from Isaac and Cecily Strong, the rest of the cast playing ‘straight man’ and barely holding it together, the last twist at the very end…this had it all.

The Good

“Weekend Update": 8/10

I had given Che and Jost some stick for their last several outings, which I thought were mediocre by their relatively high standards, but credit where credit is due: they brought it tonight, coming out throwing haymakers at all big stories, social and political. Kate McKinnon and Ego Nwodim had really good appearances as well, too, which helped the overall quality of the segment, but truthfully, the co-anchors’ form made guest appearances somewhat unnecessary, which is a credit to them.

“Fiction Workshop": 7.5/10

I love me a good 10-to-1 sketch. And a good 10-to-1 sketch that involves weird Oscar Isaac writing Dua Lipa fan fiction? Even better.

"Monologue": 7.5/10

I gotta admit, Oscar Isaac is near the top of my ‘Hollywood Man-Crush’ power rankings, so I was preset to enjoy this monologue. Still, even with that disclaimer out of the way, I can’t be the only one that thought this monologue was pretty aces. There weren’t too many memorable punchlines, necessary, but Isaac was effortlessly comfortable on stage, and the home video clips were a really nice touch. Perhaps the best non-comedian monologue of the season.

"Paw Patrol": 7/10

This was on a similar vibe to a James Franco sketch from years ago that still makes me laugh. The concept seems stupid on the surface, but they really did a good job milking humor out of the objectively obvious joke. I was surprised this was the first sketch, and not the last one, to be honest, but hey, the crowd seemed to like it a lot, so it’s hard to argue that was the wrong call.

“Fox News Ukraine Cold Open": 7/10

I already was prone to appreciate this sketch because I was really glad that the hypocrisy of many Republicans and conservative press with regards to Russia wasn’t lost on the SNL writers. But really, this was quite good! Not too long ago, James Austin Johnson discussed his Trump impression on Seth Meyers’ show, and it was really fascinating to hear him talk about how much more effective the impression is as a comedic one when he leans into “absurd Trump,” and not “scary political Trump”, that really came through here. The only complaint I have about this sketch was that the musical numbers killed the momentum a little bit, but between the note-perfect impressions and the solid writing, this was the best political cold open in some time.

"Inventing Chloe": 6.5/10

I am yet to watch Inventing Anna, but I basically get the gist of the show. I have no clue how accurate Julia Garner’s accent is to the figure that inspired the show, but I know that Chloe Fineman’s impression is barely an exaggeration. This was fun, and it feels like it’s been a while since we got a Chloe-centric sketch, so that was nice, but it did feel like the joke didn’t go anywhere too surprising. I did love the Michael Che cameo though.

“Aidy's Dream": 6.5/10

I have no idea if there is in fact a number of episodes a cast member one can reach that enables them to write whatever sketch they want, or if that was made up backstory by Aidy Bryant. Either way, I actually could have done without the cuts to Aidy contextualizing the sketch, I thought the interplay between her and Oscar Isaac was fun and silly enough without it, and the cuts ‘explaining’ the joke sort of ruined the tempo.

“Meatballs": 6/10

I.. I don’t even…wut.

“Home Repair Show": 5/10

This was fine as a late-in-the night sketch, and I laughed at most of Kyle Mooney’s and Oscar Isaac’s parts. But it was a pretty basic skit all in all, with an anticlimactic finish…that made it easily the least memorable on the night.

Musical Performances

Charli XCX: 8/10

I don’t know much by Charli XCX, other than the hit songs from her brief mainstream era (“Boom Clap,” “Fancy,” “Break The Rules,” “I Love It”), but I know she’s cultivated a cult popstar following in the manner of Carly Rae Jepsen and some other hyperpop artists. Now that my music fandom has progressed past the point of being #pretentious to the point of being #opinionatedbutinclusive, I was excited to hear it.

And boy, Charli delivered. Both songs, “Beg for You” and “Baby,” respectively were really catchy bops, tunes I can already see myself re-listening to soon. And the singer herself sounded great, the vocals perfectly in her range. With a really cool set design and good chores for each performance, her set was great all-around.

OVERALL SCORE: 7.06 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.94)