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A South Korean Boy Band Is the Only Real Highlight of a Dismal Episode of 'SNL' Hosted by Emma Stone

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 14, 2019 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 14, 2019 |


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Cold Open — OK, so the cold open — set inside a prison, where Lori Loughlin, Michael Avanatti, 6ix9ine, and Julian Assange try to out-crazy each other — is not actually very funny, but goddamnit, Michael Keaton (who plays Assange) can turn in a hell of a performance, even when he’s playing a gag character in a bad spoof. No idea why Keaton was in this, but I’m glad he was. (Score: 4 out of 10)

Emma Stone Monologue — Emma is hosting for her fourth time, and even though the cast typically pulls out all the stops on the fifth time, Emma feels pretty certain that the cast put something together for her in tonight’s episode. The cast improvises a song, a gift, and a few “special guests.” Emma is a delight, as always, but the cold open kind of stinks. (Watch Here) (Score: 3.5 out of 10)

History Paper — The characters in the posters on a high-school student’s wall come alive while he’s writing a history paper and offer him some advice. Lil PerCocet (who is an actual musician?), two Blank Panther characters, and a WWE star try to teach him about history, but the Maxim pinup girl (Emma Stone) isn’t much help. The writers are not bringing their A-game tonight. (Watch Here) (Score: 3 out of 10)

Fashion Coward — An ad for a retail outlet for women who have no fashion sensibility or personality. It sells a lot of hoodies, a lot of beige, and plain blue t-shirts. “With clothes that suggest the general idea of a person.” It’s worth a watch! (Score: 5 out of 10)

The View — It’s fun to see how SNL has taken on The View over the years, and here, Leslie Jones is actually a really good Whoopi. But this is largely a skit designed to mock Meghan McCain (well done, Aidy Bryant) and Jenny McCarthy and her anti-vaxxer bullshit. It suffers from feeling more like a recreation than a spoof. (Watch Here) (Score: 4 out of 10)

Hobbies — Melissa Villasenor and Emma Stone rap about their strange hobbies. The show feels so off tonight that I’m beginning to wonder if I’m the one who is off, but there’s good chemistry between Emma and Melissa, even if the hobby rap itself kind of sucks. (Score: 5 out 10)

Ladies Room — You know, Tom, it wasn’t a particularly good sketch, but Kenan single-handedly manage to salvage it from total despair.

It may be one the best sketches of the night, so far, but that doesn’t mean very much. (Score: 5 out of 10)

BTS — We almost never include musical guests, but BTS — a South Korean boy band — is apparently the big draw on the show tonight. The audience — which I suspect is made up entirely of 13-year-olds who have been standing in line since Wednesday — goes absolutely batshit for them, although I love Emma Stone’s sort older lady “Check out these kids” attitude. Emma is 30. Anyway, I include them here so that you know what the big deal is. They are very impressive, even if you don’t care for boy bands.

Weekend Update — There are two philosophies we publishers have when a post goes viral: 1) Trot out your best work to show off how good you are to all your new visitors, or 2) phone it in because you’ve already hit your traffic goals for the week. Clearly, with BTS on the show, SNL takes the same approach I do to viral posts. I’ll let you guess which one that is. (Score: 3 out of 10) (Watch the first terrible “Update” segment here, and the second slightly less terrible “Update” segment here)

Baby Shower — Prince Harry makes a video of the baby shower for the future baby to see. They did this ahead of the Royal Wedding. It was much better then. Are the writers saving up all their good material for Adam Sandler’s episode? (Watch Here) (Score: 2.5 out of 10)

The Actress — Emma Stone stars in a short film about a woman cast in a gay porn who has only one line, but endeavors to access her character’s entire backstory and give that line all that she’s got. Finally, a legitimately good sketch tonight. It’s not too late to turn this episode around! (Score: 7.5 out of 10)

Chalmers Reserve — Sadly, it was too late. (Watch Here) (Score: 3.5 out of 10)

You know what, here’s the other musical performance from BTS. They’re easily the most interesting part of tonight’s episode. I feel bad, because Emma is great, but this was a dismal SNL. These kids, however, have moves. (Sorry, Mat, there weren’t any Mat-specific skits tonight).



Header Image Source: NBC