COLD OPENING: C-SPAN – ANTISEMITISM HEARINGS 

PREMISE: Three college presidents (Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, Chloe Feinman) are grilled by Elise Stefanik (Chloe Troast).

• A touchy subject matter that I’m not sure this era of SNL can handle properly.
• I’m liking that Molly and Chloe Troast are leading this sketch.
• Heidi, Chloe F., and Ego are good as the stuffy college presidents who can’t denounce antisemitism properly.
• Chloe Troast is selling the hell out of her role as Elise Stefanik.
• This sketch was strongly performed, but the writing was abysmal. It didn’t seem to have anything to say in terms of satire, and the jokes didn’t land despite everyone’s best efforts. They bungled this really bad.

RATING: * ½ 

MONOLOGUE

PREMISE: Adam Driver reads his Christmas list.

• It’s so great to have Adam Driver back on SNL. Right off the bat, you can tell he loves being there and is willing to commit to anything.
• Great line about how Santa hasn’t liked SNL “since Kattan left.”
• The portion with Adam at the piano reading his very weird Christmas list to the camera was very funny, especially “Wokeness Killed Han Solo.”
• Another funny line with Adam asking Santa kill couples making TikTok prank videos.
• The aborted staring contest with the camera was great.

RATING: *** ½ 

SKETCH: SKI LODGE

PREMISE: A gay couple (Bowen Yang, Adam Driver) commit to the biologically impossible task of having a baby the natural way.

• This sketch absolutely washed over me once I realized the premise. This wasted Driver, and I can’t help but feel deflated when Bowen is the lead in anything these days. To his credit, Adam did try to sell this, and Bowen was more understated than he usually is these days.

RATING: * ½

FILM: OLD FRIENDS

PREMISE: Two old friends (Mikey Day, Driver) reconnect over the holidays.

• I expected this to have a dark twist, but I still really enjoyed this. Adam was the perfect choice for this type of creepy character and I liked Mikey’s increasingly exasperated reactions.
• Funniest parts were Adam’s love of his life being his gun, the text about Mikey’s mom having big ones, and Devon as Big Filthy.
• Lame Facebook twist at the end.

RATING: *** ½

SKETCH: Dinner Party

PREMISE: Two middle aged dads (Andrew Dismukes, Adam Driver) face off on who excuses who to put their plate down.

• Driver and Dismukes are a great pair and they look hilarious with those mustaches.
• This was the exact type of weird, random sketch I was hoping they’d do with Driver, and this did not disappoint. Adam sold the absolute hell out of his premise, using his trademark intensity for dark comedic purposes.
• Andrew was also fantastic in this, especially his sinister ‘nah nah nah.’
• The ‘little car’ conversation was hilarious.
• Adam asking Andrew “so you wanna die tonight” was another great part.
• Great ending with Kenan.

RATING: ***** 

SKETCH: ShopTV Christmas

PREMISE: Two hosts (Heidi Gardner, Mikey Day) are aghast by penis shape chocolate made by local candyman (Adam Driver).

• This is bringing back bad memories of that Southern talk show host with Cecily and Taran.
• JAJ’s patriotic nativity made me laugh.
• Adam is great as the awkward chocolatier, and his performance is selling what is a very thin and juvenile premise.
• Ego calling and asking if the chocolate vibrates was funny.
• I’m not hating this as much as I should. Adam is somehow making this kind of work and is garnering some laughs from his total commitment.

RATING: ** ½ 

WEEKEND UPDATE WITH COLIN JOST AND MICHAEL CHE – featuring Marcelo Hernandez and Chloe Feinman

• Best Jokes: Biden Sentence, Adams Approval Rating, Shohei Ohtani, Derek Chauvin, Nick Cannon, Buffalo Bills
• *sigh* After last week, I’m really ready for Jost and Che to leave, and the first few jokes are doing nothing to assuage this feeling.
• Oh, enough ‘Colin is a conservative racist’ jokes.
• Ok, the Eric Adams fakeout made me laugh.
• I really wanted to like Marcelo’s commentary, since he is very charismatic and knows how to work a crowd, but this fell flat with me for the most part and even Marcelo admitted this wasn’t his best material. 
• Props for a somewhat ballsy Derek Chauvin joke. Actually, this isn’t too bad an Update on the Jost / Che front.
• What the hell was Chloe’s commentary? Is Save the Last Dance somehow relevant again? Was there any comedic through line to this? This just seemed like another ego-driven Chloe piece designed to be all about her rater than entertain the audience.
• Um, nice to see Julia Stiles, I guess.

RATING: ** ½ 

SKETCH: Airplane Baby

PREMISE: Mature baby (Adam Driver) weirds out fellow passengers.

• A bizarre premise, but this seems weird enough for Driver to make something out of.
• As expected, Driver is really committed to this character, and he manages to draw laughs out of some lines that really aren’t that funny.
• Sarah Sherman is perfect in her role as Adam’s mother.
• Adam’s crying is hilarious.
• The parts with Heidi and Kenan as the weirded out passengers are falling flat.
• Adam freaking out over Pookie Bear is great.
• Overall, I’m really not sure what to make of this sketch at all. Writing-wise, this was bad, but Driver was so into this that he elevated it to decent territory.

RATING: ** ½ 

COMMERCIAL: ELDER PSA

PREMISE: The elderly warn against doing pranks against them.

• SNL is really drawing quite a bit of material from TikTok and similar avenues lately.
• Adam is great as the crusty war veteran.
• JAJ is also quite funny in his performance.
• Punkie makes her only appearance all night in this pretape, which is disappointing considering she’s been having a great season thus far. Even with her airtime reduced, she still made me laugh in her brief segment.
• Kenan put no effort into his performance, but him calling his grandson a “little black bastard” was a funny ending.

RATING: ***

EPISODE MVP: Adam Driver obviously stood out tonight as he always. He used his trademark intensity to mine some nice laughs and elevated a lot of the weaker material, which unfortunately made up a good chunk of the show. We did get one classic piece (Beep Beep) and a few other sketches provided some amusement, but this episode overall was a far cry from the classic he hosted in 2020.

Other notable performers who stood out tonight were Chloe Troast, Heidi (who had a much better night than usual), and Andrew Dismukes.

BOTTOM LINE: A disappointing episode, but not terrible either. Just exceedingly average and not really much thought given to most of the writing, instead banking on Driver’s appeal to sell these sketches. Not the worst episode of the season, but maybe the biggest let-down given how good Driver’s previous episodes were.