Saturday Night Live Update

Wow. It feels like just a few weeks ago, SNL was premiering with big-shot at the time, Michael Phelps, and big-time rapper, Lil Wayne. It feels like just a few weeks ago I was saying "that was our season premiere? Really? You've got to be serious." and I was under complete worry that this season would fail. To think that we've all seen 22 episodes, and 3 specials of the cast working their butts off to impress us.

Our host for tonight's finale is Will Ferrell, one of the best SNL castmembers ever. Green Day is our musical guest tonight.

Cheney and Bush: GW wonders why Cheney has all of a sudden tried to come out of the rose pedal and start talking to the media. A good opening to get things started, but it almost felt like the energy never really took off. Otherwise, it was great seeing these two buddies work together again, after a 7 year absence of the Ferrell/Hammond-Bush/Cheney chemistry. 7.5

Monologue:What appears to be a big middle finger to the Tony awards, Will tries doing a scene from Broadway. The actual premise was alright, but the sudden "no laughter please" were great. 6.5

Wade Blasingame: An encore presentation of a great Ferrell commercial.

Lawrence Welk Show: Now, I was a little worried that this was starting off our show, but it was still funny. I kind of wish the writers put a little bit more fresh and new stuff into this, other than the lines used from last time. Also, I know the Hathaway cameo was a surprise for later along with the Poehler one, but I'm just saying, if they were there, why not put them in like the original? Anyways, it was a pretty decent sketch, andFerrell's reaction was hilarious to Judice. 7.0

Celebrity Jeopardy: It's always refreshing to see this sketch. This was no different. It was great seeing Hammond's Connery back, and even better seeing Tom Hanks there playing himself. But, even better was NORM MACDONALD back on the stage after an almost 10 year absence from cameos or anything. My only complaint was how the Kathie Lee impression really doesn't work outside those Today sketches. Especially if you use the same lines like "Governor, may I have some more?" and such. 8.5

TNT Basketball: Kenan's Charles Barkley always makes me laugh. This was a really funny sketch, because TNT and TBS are soo annoying when they do these over-advertisements for their 'new' shows. I kind of wish they had Kristen do The Closer again as a pop on, instead of "Court Rachel", even though that was really funny with the whole premise. 7.0

Musical Performance: Green Day performs "Know Your Enemy" which is actually a pretty good song.

Weekend Update: I can only imagine the complainers I'm going to be hearing about Update this week, but nonetheless, it was great seeing Amy again for the finale. I always liked her co-hosting, even though Seth as a solo act has been awesome, too. The Really segment was great as usual, which is a really big hot streak. It has never failed. But, also, Ferrell's Harry Caray was GREAT to see back. 8.0

Funeral: Right when this started, I knew this was going to be a "walk on and interrupt" sketch just like back from the Hugh Laurie show. It was still as funny. Especially the characters who came back. Will's character has cracked me up both times, with his hate for Barack Obama. Maya's appearance was wayy too "more show-off and less humor". 7.0

Musical Performance: Green Day performs "21 Guns" which was a good song. But, it dragged on rather a little too much after the ballad part.

Vietnam: In what appears to be an underwhelming 10 to 1 sketch, Will starts looking back at Vietnam with his trip there, and turns it into "Goodnight Saigon" by Billy Joel. But, this sketch turns into a great great sketch with the whole cast coming out. But, it doesn't stop there. Also coming out are our past cameos tonight, Tom, Amy, Norm, and Maya, along with Green Day. But, we keep on going to cameos by Paul Rudd, Anne Hathaway, Elisabeth Moss, and even Artie Lange! It was just such an overwhelmingly awesome sketch to wrap up the season. Of course,this sketch wasn't as entertaining as it was because of the writing, but because of the performance and people who participated. Any die-hard SNL fan knew they had to watch this over and over again ,because they got such chills when they saw this awesome cast end their year. Great, great last sketch. 9.0

And, that's our show. For the second week in a row, the sketches that were chosen were a little longer than originally thought, which makes theband play "Stand By Me" for 10 seconds. A very great show if you ask me. There was really no phoned in sketch, and the performances were all saying "we're going out with a bang" instead of "we're ending the season, so go easy on us, okay?". Will Ferrell was an effective host who was great in everything he did, while Green Day was also a verygood musical guest.

8.0

And that's our season. Season 34 was definitely a step up from past seasons. The season started on weak knees with the Michael Phelps show,and also kind of had a string of 'averageness' going for the first fewepisodes. And, after the orgasmic presidential election, the show kept all of it's momentum up until post-Christmas, but it then went in to a 4 episode lull where it was looking pretty glum for the rest of the season. Soon enough though, come March, SNL got all their momentum back and ended their season in one of the best line of episodes I've seen.

Even though SNL was great during the election, I was really proud of thewriters and cast towards the end of the season. They showed that theycould create good episodes without political reliance and such. But, I could write a novel on every thing I've thought of this season.

Stay tuned on my season recap!