Season 41 of Saturday Night Live began Saturday. The show was hosted by Miley Cyrus, and, as always, she was just being Miley, performing her usual gig — outlandish fashion, more marijuana jokes and wowing audiences as her abrasive speaking voice transforms into one of the most beautiful singing voices in the music industry.
While Miley certainly had her moments, she demonstrated why Justin Timberlake is the only person who has the chops to be both a host and musical guest for SNL. In many of the best sketches of the night, Miley was either mostly absent or didn’t make any substantial contributions to the sketches’ success.
The highlight of the premiere was certainly the “Hillary Clinton Bar Talk” sketch. Kate McKinnon delivered her usual Hillary Clinton impersonation with bugged out eyes, a blue suit and an insatiable thirst for the presidency which, I learned, can be temporarily satiated by a “scalding hot vodka.”
The sketch wasted no time in cutting to the bartender, Val, who was played by Hillary Clinton. Watching McKinnon’s Clinton criticize actual Clinton led to some terrific irony. Seeing a known LGBTQ comedian — McKinnon — insist to Clinton that her eventual support for gay marriage “could’ve been sooner,” was hilarious on many levels. All in all, the sketch was cleverly written and was great PR for Clinton, as she took her criticism gracefully.
Although Miley said only a few words in the opening of “Bar Talk,” her role in the 1950s dance sketch allowed her to shine in the spotlight. The sketch was punctuated with retro outfits, retro jargon and characteristically 50s music and dance. However, there was nothing 50s about Miley — as the beat shifted, she spat out some well-done but lyrically tasteless freestyle rap. While Miley did well with this role, it was a little too characteristic of her to truly shock anyone in the audience. It would have been a lot funnier with someone like Aidy Bryant or Vanessa Bayer playing this role.
Many of the rest of the sketches fell flat but allowed for cast members Cecily Strong, Kyle Mooney and Leslie Jones to shine behind Kate McKinnon — a saving grace to those who were worried when Kristen Wiig, Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Jason Sudeikis left the show in 2012 and 2013. The “Weekend Update” portion of SNL is still a work in progress, though. The segment has largely been in shambles without a Seth Meyers or Tina Fey at the helm and this season is no exception.
All in all, the season premiere was a respectable start, and with one new cast member behind strong cast members like McKinnon, Strong and Mooney, this season may be one to remember.
Despite the usual timing issues, anxiousness and adjustment that one expects of a Saturday Night Live season premiere, there were clearly moments where sketches shined.
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