In this second of a two-part season wrap-up of the

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The share of screen time in Season 38 differs distinctively from previous seasons. For one, the amount of roles appeared to be spread more evenly. If all the sketch roles were distributed equally, each cast member would receive 7.69%, so the fact that no cast member received double or half the statistical average suggests that this season was more of a team effort, with fewer obvious stars the way Kristen Wiig was. Also, the break down doesn’t stick to cast member seniority — over half of the cast members were outranked by performers with less experience on the show. Finally, it deserves special mention how big of seasons this was for Bobby Moynihan, Taran Killam, and Cecily Strong, all three of whom received a huge amount of exposure compared to previous seasons (or in Strong’s case, compared to other first-year cast members).

Read the full post on Splitsider.

In this first of a two-part season wrap up of SNL Season 38 on Splitsider, I list my favorite moments of the season, including my picks for best host, best episode, best new cast member, and top sketches.

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Host. We’ve seen greater polarity in terms of host quality this season — either they’ve been very good, like Seth MacFarlane, Anne Hathaway, Martin Short, Christoph Waltz, Melissa McCarthy, Zach Galifianakis, and Ben Affleck, or very bad, like Daniel Craig, Jeremy Renner, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Lawrence, Adam Levine, and Justin Bieber. There were a few surprises in there, with Louis CK, Bruno Mars, and Kevin Hart proving to be better than expected, and highly anticipated hosts like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Justin Timberlake, Kristen Wiig performing admirably but presiding over less-than-stellar episodes. Christoph Waltz, in particular, impressed me with his showmanship, while Melissa McCarthy delivered yet another powerhouse performance. But no host played the SNL instrument so deftly as Seth MacFarlane, who silenced the haters with Baldwin-esque range and killer timing, resulting in one of the finest season premieres SNL has ever seen.

Read the full post on Splitsider.

In my final SNL recap for Splitsider of the season, I discuss how Ben Affleck’s solid performance and the show’s emotional tributes to departing cast members Bill Hader and Fred Armisen led to a winning episode.

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What a weepy week it was for comedy nerds. NBC packed a double-whammy of goodbyes, with The Office‘s poignant series finale last Thursday, followed by Saturday’s season finale of Saturday Night Live and final episode to feature Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, and (perhaps) Jason Sudeikis as regular cast members, which was announced only days before. It is indeed the end of an era, not just for the network, but for TV comedy as a whole, and we will talk plenty more about this changing landscape over the coming days, weeks, and months.

Unlike last year’s farewell to Kristen Wiig, which had a best-of-Wiig vibe that unfortunately repeated itself a week ago, this episode felt more like a cathartic reunion for the whole cast. Hader and Armisen reprised a few of their more memorable roles, closing the book on them with conclusions that were equally epic and understated. Meanwhile, the writers thankfully still produced a solid, standalone episode, dishing out fresh material that included a balance of news events, social issues, and jabs at host Ben Affleck — who, it must be said, came across as an affable team player. Affleck seemed more than happy to put aside his pride (even on his supposed induction to the Five Timers Club) and let the spotlight drift to the departing cast members, celebrity cameos, and musical guest Kanye West, who unfortunately-for-us got through his sets without incident. However, in the moments Affleck did have the ball, he took care of business, pulling off relatively difficult, layered performances and breaking only occasionally and at times in which he earned it. Like similarly stellar hosts from this season like Melissa McCarthy, Martin Short, Seth MacFarlane, and Zach Galifianakis, Affleck avoided routine, spoon-fed roles and took a riskier route with original concepts, and it paid off.

SNL season finales are almost always episodes for the books, with the writers and actors hoping to end the season on a strong note to keep viewers humming throughout the summer. But this finale tops the ones in recent memory, not simply for providing a fitting farewell to its beloved cast members, but for doing so with such a funny and satisfying episode.

Read the full post on Splitsider.

Here’s my

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An episode of SNL feels most satisfying when the sketches come from a place of inspiration, as opposed to obligation. For example, when Justin Timberlake hosts the show, I don’t need to see the “Dick in a Box” characters, but I would like to see them if the writers come up with a fresh and exciting way to bring them back. Whether or not a sketch addresses a recent news event or upcoming holiday is secondary to whether or not the sketch is funny. I’m sure the SNL staff shares this mindset — they really are just trying to produce the funniest show possible. But occasionally, in pursuit of that goal, SNLprioritizes expectation over its most critical obligation: comedy.

Such was the case last weekend, when Kristen Wiig returned to host the show after departing a year ago to focus on her film career. I normally am a huge fan of whenever a former cast member hosts, because his or her familiarity with the show and multiple talents usually results in a perfect storm of sketch comedy greatness. However, rather than deploy one of the show’s most gifted alumni in some more complex pieces or layered characters, SNL took the lazy route, rolling out some of Wiig’s most worn bits: Lawrence Welk, The Californians, Garth & Kat, Target Lady… even a Gilly cameo. Wiig’s relatively recent departure hasn’t given viewers enough time to properly move on from those sketches (especially The Californians, which the show had done three times since Wiig left). SNL aimed for the giddy nostalgia we feel when we see Tina Fey impersonate Sarah Palin or Justin Timberlake dance around in a big foam costume. Instead, our reaction was, “Really? This again?”

Read the full post on Splitsider.

In this week’s

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SNL works best when it hits a balance between structure and chaos. As a show that’s broadcasted live after only a week of production time, chaos is pre-installed into the system. The show attempts to offset that chaos with as many safety nets as possible: a cast of multitalented actors, a writing staff that can turn out an abundance of material in a pressure-cooker environment, and one of the best crews in television. Over time, some of those safety nets turn into crutches that annoy the hard-core fans: recurring characters, sketches that rely too heavily on celebrity impersonation, talk show formats, etc. So periodically, the show will reintroduce a bit of chaos into the mix to keep things fresh.

In the past, Zach Galifianakis was praised for the dangerous energy he brought to the show. He possesses a restlessness similar to that of Melissa McCarthy in that, at any moment, he might do something unexpected. Sure enough, in his previous two times hosting, Galifianakis shaved off parts of his hair and beard throughout the live broadcast.

Now in his third stint, Galifianakis stepped up his game with some riskier choices, both in terms of targeted jokes (the deaf and blind got it particularly rough this episode) and in tense, punchline-less moments that reflect his stand-up and his “Between Two Ferns” webseries. “I have only setups, no punchlines,” he joked during his monologue. But by the end of the episode, the risk paid off as Galifianakis delivered the most spectacular punchline we’ve seen on SNL in years.

Read the full post on Splitsider.com.

I interviewed

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It puts everyone in a weird spot, because there are certain times you just don’t want to laugh. I got irritated the other day when the Boston bombing happened. I was in the airport at LAX, flying back to do the show — I commute back and forth because my family’s in LA. And it’s a bloody mess, people are rushing in, 20 minutes after it happened. And I’m at the airport bar, and there’s very little conversation going on. Everyone’s just staring up at the television, saying “Holy shit, what happened?” And the guy to my left turns to the chick next to him and says, “So, you’re traveling light, huh?” And I was just thinking, “Shut the fuck up! How are you even talking right now?”

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In my Splitsider recap of last weekend’s episode of

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It’s seems a little unfair how unexcited viewers were headed into last weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Vince Vaughn. The Swingers and Wedding Crashers star is a reliably funny guy, and his fast-talking wiseass personality really should have been enough to build a strong episode around. Sure, Vaughn doesn’t have a movie coming out until the summer, but the cross-promotional component to SNL has never seemed important to us before.

Yet the night had the energy of the ninth hour of a telethon. Even Vaughn seemed to sense it based on the way he worked the room during the monologue, dishing out hack crowd-work schtick and holding one man’s phone hostage on the condition of his enthusiasm. Vaughn’s attempt to play warm-up guy failed: even during inspired sketches, the studio audience remained relatively stonefaced with its response.

There’s really no one to blame in this situation. The sketches, for the most part, featured some playful concepts. The cast stepped up and delivered. Vaughn, while failing to play any memorable roles, still hit his mark. It just goes to show you that SNL isn’t as much the predictable formula that we make it out to be. Sometimes, they can have all the right ingredients, but the lightning still misses the bottle.

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