Drew Barrymore/Regina Spektor

Well I haven't done this in a while so bear with me. I did watch all these episodes that I didn't write about, but I just never found the time to write comprehensive reviews of them. So, here we go with the Drew Barrymore episode:

Cold Opening: Obama's Nobel Prize--If you recall back to good ol' 2009, I made my opinion of Fred's "Obama" very clear--I don't like it. This is no exception. Another boring cold opening. I understand why they do it. Leading with political humor is something SNL hsas done for years. But I prefer switching it up every now and again, especially if there's not much going on in the news.

Monologue--This was good. How many impressions of Drew do we need? The more the merrier. Drew has a good laugh poking fun at herself here, and watching all the impressions was great fun. (especially Kristen's and Abby's) Now that's how you write a monologue.

Gilly--I'm not a fan of Gilly, yet this time it seemed to be much better. Drew definitely added to the sketch, and despite my general dislike of this character, Gilly did ok here.

Celebrity Ghost Stories--A bunch of impressions, and some are pretty good. Abby pulls off a great Anna Faris, and newbie Nasim Pedrad pulls off a great Charlyne Yi impression. Andy's Billy Bob Thornton is pretty solid too.

Commercial: "University of Westfield"-- This served to be a pretty good commercial parody. Showing the irrelevance of online degrees, ha. And I liked Jenny Slate here. That might be one of the only times I say that.

La Revista Della Televisione--Yes, some Bill Hader. In this latest installment, Vinny and Drew discuss Drew's directorial debut for "Whip It." Pretty much the same humor as always. (Although that's not a bad thing if the humor is still good) I love Bill and Fred singing Devo. Classic.

Regina Spektor 1--Never really cared for her. Not much of an opinion on her performance. Nothing too drastic.

Weekend Update--James Carville is really funny. Bill puts in another great showing. His impression is almost making fun of itself. Great stuff. Also, Kenan's Maya Angelou bit was good. A solid Update overall, Seth is the man.

Tampax to the Max--Oh, yes. In future episodes there will be versions of this that I liked better, but this is where it all began. The humor here is a little...how do I put it? One-sided to say the least. Everyone knows its coming. Yet I still can't stop myself from laughing. Great premise with the ESPN Classic setting, and a great job from both Jason and Will to make this recurring segment a fan favorite.

Cooking al Fresco--This is where the show started nose-diving. Not a fan of this sketch. Getting to be later in the show, isn't it? Bobby's Guy Fieti was all right, but it couldn't save the skit.

Larry King Live--Here again is a "downer" sketch. A weak punchline repeated over and over again doesn't make it any better. The Larry King sketches on SNL are hit-or-miss. This one missed.

SNL Digital Short "Brenda & Shaun"-- Not a fan. It was just.....weird. Andy and the Lonely Island crew have interesting minds, that's for sure. Not the worst Digital Short in the world, but to think someone had to actually write up this idea...surprising.

Regina Spektor 2--Same as before. I've got nothing interesting to say about Regina.

Book Reading--This gets my vote as one of the creepiest characters I've seen on the show. Will Forte is versatile, that's for sure. His character "Hamilton" isn't particularly funny. But the show has to close somehow, and why not leave the weirdo for the end.

Overall Review: This was a good episode, primarily based on the first half. A few very good sketches (Monologue, Vinny Vedecci, ESPN Classic) yet the second half had some real clunkers. (Larry King, Cooking al Fresco) So, all things considered, it wasn't a bad episode. Drew's a proven vet, and she pulled off another solid hosting job. Musical guest was so-so, and the writing was too. Compared to the first two episodes, I'd have to say it was much better than Megan Fox/U2 but not quite as good as Ryan Reynolds/Lady Gaga.

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to post your thoughts and opinions below. Thanks everyone, and stay tuned for my next review of Gerard Butler/Shakira.

LiveFromNY