Saturday Night Live Recap: Jennifer Lawrence & The Lumineers
Jennifer Lawrence hosted an incredibly flat and uninspired episode of Saturday
Night Live this past weekend. It shouldn’t have gone down like this; she deserves
better. By now I’m sure you’re familiar with Jennifer Lawrence’s interview skills.
She’s smartly gone down the Emma Stone route – the fun, funny, cute interviewee
– instead of the Kristen Stewart route, obviously. Just recently she was on David
Letterman and charmed the pants off of him, which, for Dave is rare unless you’re an
intern or a very charming movie star. So, by all accounts, everything was in place for
Lawrence’s big SNL moment to be a dream come true. But, of course, it was not. Let’s
begin…
The Cold Open:
I’ve always said that, more often than not, if the cold open is weak, the entire
episode will follow suit. That cold open should’ve been a slam-dunk because the
potential was there but it just never became anything. A lot of this has to do with
how one note Taran Killam’s Piers Morgan impression is (it’s good but not his
best) and how f-cking boring Lance Armstrong is. You just can’t make his scandal
entertaining or as marvelous as everyone is making it out to be. McKinnon’s
impression of Jodie Foster was solid but again, nothing clicked. It felt dated when it
shouldn’t have considering these were all very current events.
The Monologue:
The entire episode being a failure I won’t attribute to Lawrence because, like most
hosts, she was game, but the monologue falling flat and being uncomfortable was,
understandably, her fault. She never let the set ups settle in time for the punch line
to click and it all felt rushed and she seemed incredibly nervous and out of breathe.
The blueprint for the monologue was good; it’s just that the execution wasn’t what
was planned. I’m just glad it wasn’t another song…
The Best Sketches:
I found the Verisimo/Starbucks sketch to be the highlight of the night. It’s not saying
much because if it were a part of a great episode, it wouldn’t be given the spotlight
I’m giving it. Was it dated? Of course, but it still delivered the most laughs of the
night and funny is funny and this was funny.
The Top Dog Chef sketch wasn’t the worst but it was more of the same from Bobby
Moynihan.
I also enjoyed The Hobbit spoof but it went on too long.
The Worst Sketches:
Everything else. The Girlfriends sketch is, seriously, the worst. And that Hunger
Games sketch felt like it was never going to end.
Next week Adam Levin hosts with musical guest, Kendrick Lamar!