Megan Fox/U2 Episode Review

Ok, I'll jump right into my review for this first (and very eventful) episode of SNL:
Cold Opening -- Gadhafi rants and raves. Armisen does this impression decently, but without much pizazz and it leaves the viewer lazily uniterested. Nothing laugh-out-loud funny, some remotely good jokes but nothing to write home about. This went on far too long, and didn't seem to hold my interest.

New Opening Credits/Montage -- I was very excited about this! Finally, a new look and new credits to go along with it. Some MAJOR cast notes: Darrell is ABSENT from the opening credits, leaving everyone to assume he is finally gone for good. A rule for thought is that you haven't left SNL until they remove you from the credits. And once you're removed from the credits, you're done.Other cast notes: Both Bobby Moynihan and Abby Elliott remain as featured players (at least for now) I'm not terribly surprised about Abby, however I'm actually shocked Bobby wasn't upgraded to the regular cast. He deserves it. However, I think they'll both be upgraded by January.

Monologue -- Very poor. They went with the whole "Megan Fox is hot" theme, and it seriously fell flat. I was hoping Megan would show a more comedic side of her during her monologue, but she didn't. This wasn't a good start for her.

Commercial Parody -- Bladdivian, or whatever its called. It seemed to be less-than-funny. Nothing entirely great about it, but eh, its the first commercial parody so what do you expect? by this point, I'm very much not liking the episode. Nothing to give the viewers even a good chuckle.

Airplane -- Ok, this was pretty good. The audio on NBC cut off about 3/4 of the way through this sketch, so I admit I missed the ending. But the first 3/4 of it was quite funny. Kristen seemed to shine in her role, and the jokes were working pretty well with the studio audience as well as myself. First sketch I clearly laughed at. I'll have to re-watch it to catch the ending, so technically I can't give a true "thumbs-up" yet, but it seemed to be good. Megan Fox even had a pretty good showing in this sketch.

Russian Girl -- A typical "guy in drag" skit. But it was mildy entertaining. Fred did his part well. (why does he always seem so good in drag? i.e. The Looker) However, like many sketches do, it went on too long. They'd have been better off to just cut it short, because the same joke kept being repeated, and after the first 3 times it just wasn't that funny anymore. Yeah, we get it--the one girl costs $10 less! Decent overall though, not too bad.

Digital Short 1 -- Ok, this was pretty strange until the ending. Basically, Will Forte is a creepy guy who's dating Megan Fox, and 90% of the sketch was Will acting weird. The end was pretty good, at least I know that I laughed at it. Megan asks Will to marry him and Will stands up and says "No (expletive) way!" Very odd ending, but still funny.

Grady Wilson -- Another installment of Kenan Thompson's school of love-making. Again it draws some laughs from the audience, and true--it deserves some credit for creativity. However it just lacked a certain something. It seemed to similar to what I thought it would be. After the first 10 seconds, I could easily tell you what was going to happen. Megan Fox did come in at the end, which made it a bit better. Still, just ok for me.

U2 1 -- Pretty good first song. I liked it. It didn't make up for a lack-luster 1st half, but it was a pretty good song.

Weekend Update -- During the commercial break before Update, I could only think "Save me, Seth!" This episode had such a below-average first half that I desperately needed Update to turn it around. And it did. Seth NAILED his jokes. The audience was really getting into it. He KILLED it, plain and simple. Almost every joke was a winner. Jean K. Jean was decent enough, and Kristen's Judy Grimes character was fantastic as usual. And I'm not kidding! This was easily the best sketch of the night, and Seth was probably the MVP of the whole episode for this one sketch alone.

Live Lounge -- Now here's something good! A short sketch mocking the late-night chat commercials. I loved the appearances from nearly every castmember. It was short, sweet, and very funny. Excellent start for the 2nd half of the show.

U2 2 -- U2 showed again why they're just so darn great. I loved this song much more than the first. It was odd to me why their second performance was so early in the show, but it was great nonetheless. Just plain fantastic.

Biker Chat -- This is what people will be talking about tomorrow. Poor Jenny Slate...
Ok, so the sketch seemed to be a good concept. Basically a biker chick talk show, staring brand new castmember Jenny Slate. I was really excited to see her get a major role on her first episode! That doesn't happen too often. However, an extremely bad event happened. During the sketch, the biker ladies would frequently say the word "frickin" or "freakin". And at least once during the sketch, Jenny accidentally said the F-word. It was difficult to tell if she said it once or twice. I watched it live, and thought she said it only once, but I have varying sources saying different things. But the fact is, she definitely said it. That's a HUGE issue. All that I could think was "It's a live show, folks!" No censorship. I'm sure the FCC will slap a hefty fine on the show, but I'm very concerned for Jenny and her future on the show. I've heard stories of people getting fired for things like this, and I hope that doesn't happen to Jenny. And on top of all this, it was her very first show! She must feel terrible. This will be the talk of the town for the next few days at least, and I hope matters will be resolved quickly.

Digital Short #2 -- Very weird. Megan Fox, Andy Samberg, Optimus Prime, and male body parts. I guess they were making fun of "Transformers". But it was just really weird and gross to me. Didn't care for it at all.

Mom talks to Megan Fox -- Ok, this was acceptable. A mom talks to Megan Fox and gives her movie advice and what not. Ok--this was good. Not fantastic, but for a 5-to-1 skit, it worked just fine. Kristen as a mom was very believable, and it flowed pretty nicely. A pretty good final sketch of the night.

Goodnights/U2 3 -- First, the goodnights: Seth is seen wrapping his arms around Jenny Slate, clearly in reference to her previous debacle. I'm glad Seth was trying to ease her pain. Hopefully people don't dwell too much on this, it clearly wasn't intentional, and could have happened to anyone.
Ok, now on to the third performance from U2. As the credits roll, front man Bono is lifted up by his red laser lighted microphone while he sings the show to a close. Wow. That was really cool, something I wasn't expecting and a great way to close the show.

Wow. That's all I can say. It was a bad 1st half, a good 2nd half, a whole lot of U2, a great Weekend Update, and a gigantic flub-up from a first time castmember. What else do you want, folks?
Feel free to post any comments/reviews below. Thanks for reading my sketch-by sketch analysis,

LiveFromNY