SNL Scorecard: Miles Teller / Kendrick Lamar

Last weekend, after a long summer break which saw more Emmy wins for the show (per usual) and an eye-popping amount of turnover (per very unusual), Saturday Night Live returned for Season 48!

Much of the talk ahead of the season premiere, unsurprisingly, revolved around the mass departures at Studio 8H. The show would already have its hands full with the departures announced prior to last season's conclusion, of Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney, and Pete Davidson. In the weeks leading up to last weekend's premiere, though, came the news that Alex Moffatt, Melissa Villaseñor, and Aristotle Athari would be leaving as well, along with executive producer Lindsay Shookus and some members of the writing staff. Throw in four new faces on the cast, and well, it wouldn't have surprised anyone if this episode was jarringly different.

And yet, despite the massive amount of turnover at the show, SNL is always going to be SNL. You have to imagine a show that's 48 seasons in is a very well-oiled machine, and sure enough, things in many ways picked up right where last season left off; host Miles Teller of Top Gun: Maverick fame did a fine job as host. Musical guest Kendrick Lamar accentuated the show's quality, as he always seems to do. And the episode, while short on truly hilarious, memorable, individual sketches, was a very solid (albeit somewhat uneven) episode on the whole.

Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 1st episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

“Nicole Kidman AMC Ad”: 8/10

I don’t know why I haven’t gotten tired of this meme yet, but I think it’s just funny to me how much people love (or maybe love to hate) this zany intro. I came into this one worried it might be another case of SNL trying to capitalize on online zeitgeist without adding anything original. But Chloe Fineman’s Nicole Kidman is just so good, and the brief turn into fantasy horror was great, especially with Kenan Thompson’s increasingly worried incredulity.

The Good

“Weekend Update": 8.5/10

At the tail end of a season that was largely terrific for them, Colin Jost and Michael Che somewhat sputtered down the stretch, so I was curious to see what the energy level would be like for their record-setting 174th and 165th appearances, respectively. As it turns out? Resoundingly positive. This Update was a perfect example of what Che and Jost do best; the one-liners were biting, the more silly jokes played off perfectly, and their banter with each other and the guests was hilarious. Bowen Yang’s lantern fly, while high-energy and engaging, didn’t do much for me, but that was the only blemish (if you can even call it that) from an otherwise terrific Update, which included star turns from Kenan as Herschel Walker and breakout newbie Michael Longfellow.

“BeReal”: 7.5/10

An obvious punchline, sure, but a funny sketch all the same. This ran the risk of being cringey, “we don’t understand Gen Z!!!” humor, but they were able to mostly make the joke about the situation itself rather than about the demographic (read: the youths) who might use BeReal.

“Grimace": 7.5/10

Between this and the Charmin Bear sketch (more on that one later), it was a big night for company mascots discovering themselves and forging a new trail for themselves. This particular one’s absurdity level was high, and while I might remember it more for its weirdness than its actual humor, there really were some delightful moments. Portraying a new buff, and yes, bisexual Grimace was probably Miles Teller’s best performance on the night.

"ManningCast Cold Open": 7.5/10

Well, I did NOT have money on the first lines of Season 48 being uttered by Miles Teller… as he himself—or sorry, as “Peyton Manning” said, it’s very rare for a host to be in cold open, let alone a host who’s not exactly A-list in the cold open in the season premiere. I have a tough time evaluating this sketch; on the one hand, it wasn’t without its “oof” moments, and it feels kind of lazy to make the joke the fact that there are no funny jokes. On the other hand, I’m impressed they found such a clever way to be self-referential, address the cast turnover, AND introduce new cast members. I think Teller’s spot-on Peyton impression and Bowen’s and Heidi Gardner’s commitment to being bad helped ensure this bit worked.

“Send Something Normal": 7/10

With the most recent bout of bad behavior from male celebrities, a sketch like this was inevitable. This was a really funny premise, but a couple things prevented it from being great: one, the irony of Miles Teller, who almost certainly has sent at least a couple creepy DMs in his time, being the host and not a contestant, and two, Mikey Day’s unsettling and bad Adam Levine. Still, this was cheeky and fun, and Kenan and Bowen were absolutely hilarious.

“Monologue": 7/10

You know, I can’t say I was too enthused about the choice of host for the premiere. I don’t have anything against Miles Teller as an actor, but I won’t exactly run to the theatre to see a movie he’s in. Besides, it’s no secret that he’s kind of a dick that some siblings and I were having a conversation in which we genuinely couldn’t remember if he had been #MeToo’d, or if it was just so well-known that he was a douchebag. Anyways, all this to say, he is not who I would call a natural ‘charmer’, exactly, so I was curious to see how he comported himself, and to be honest, he did well! He’s not dripping in charisma, but he seemed extremely comfortable onstage and undaunted by his first monologue. The jokes were funny, and the home videos were cute; all in all, this was a solid start to the episode.

“Rooftop Bar": 6/10

All the parts were there for me to love this sketch— one of my favorite brands of humor is a seemingly confident, “alpha” male proving to be incompetent. But, while I did enjoy Miles and Mikey Day’s interaction with Ego Nwodim and Chloe initially, there just didn’t end up being much more of a joke beyond them being bad at picking up women.

“Caribbean Queen”: 6/10

As far as 10-to-1 sketches go, it wasn’t the most memorable, and apart from the “lost our shorts” bit, didn’t make me laugh out loud. But it did have the same token chaotic energy that most great 10-to-1’s have, and certainly didn’t derail an otherwise solid episode.

"Charmin Bears”: 5/10

I wanted to like this one more, just because I appreciated the absurdity of it. But I don’t know, it just never really went anywhere. I didn’t laugh at much of the sketch, but was waiting to see if there was a big payoff it was building toward. The Lizzo TikTok dance, while admittedly making me chuckle, was not quite the climactic finish I had hoped for.

Musical Performances

Kendrick Lamar (feat. Sampha): 8.5/10

If I wasn’t particularly enthused by the choice of host, I was over the moon with the musical guest announcement. Kendrick Lamar isn’t just one of the best rappers alive, he’s my favorite artist, and is one of the most consistently amazing live artists. The problem, then, with Lamar as musical guest is that he ha already set such a high bar as a performer on this show alone; his set from 2014 remains one of my all-time favorite SNL musical performances ever, so he was always going to have a hard time living up to that. Keeping that in mind, the rapper turned in a set that by most present-day artists’ standards would be among their best, but by his own absurdly lofty standards, felt just a *touch* underwhelming.

“Rich Spirit” was an interesting choice to kick off the set; is it perhaps the next single off his latest album? While I enjoyed the minimalist aesthetic, and the takeout with his shadow behind him, it did feel a little low-energy, especially because Kendrick wasn’t rapping directly into the mic for some reason. However, visually and energetically, things really kicked up a notch when he transitioned into lead single “N95,” the most radio-ready song off of the more restrained Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. His second song, “Father Time” was also an unexpected choice, both because it’s not a single and because it’s not one that would necessarily translate to an energetic live performance. It IS, however, easily the best track on Mr. Morale, and I was delighted to see Lamar would be performing it. He was in peak form on this one, perfectly timing his marionette-inspired choreography to his cadence, and punching every line with the impact the words should have. The only downside of this performance was Sampha’s cameo; the British artist, whose feature on the album is so deliciously honeyed, seemed a little thrown by the stage (or perhaps the pressure of the TV audience) and was a little quiet and a little sharp. Still, all in all, a terrific 3-song set from Mr. Morale himself.

OVERALL SCORE: 7.14 ('Comedy Only' score: 7.00)