After 39 seasons, “Saturday Night Live” finales can either serve as graduations, as have been the last couple of years, or reunions as they certainly were this week when Andy Samberg returned, Golden Globe in tow, to host one of the best episodes in recent memory.
Samberg stated the problem succinctly in his monologue saying he’d done more than 100 digital shorts for the show (helping it jump into the 21st century and bring along a young audience more than perhaps anyone on the cast) and he had also done about six live sketches. So in addition to two solid new shorts and a revival of his most popular impression, as actor Nic Cage, Samberg faded as a huge cast of alumni flooded the stage for what were largely some of the best work of the season.
Maya Rudolph was no surprise, she has a new prime time variety show premiering this week to boost. She first appeared as Beyonce in the cold open sketch meant to comment on the viral video of Solange Knowles beating up on brother in law Jay-Z in an elevator. There wasn’t a lot of jokes in the bit, but it served to show how many strong performers of color the show can now boast after starting the season amid a controversy of having few.
Samberg’s monologue began the full parade of alumni, with Seth Myers and then Bill Hader out to do something like speed impressions, to set new show records (because, sadly, there is somebody out there who counts how many impressions cast members do).
Samberg had a couple of cool ideas for the show, one of them portraying a dance DJ, something nobody else is commenting on. He returned to the hip hop world of his Lonely Planet for a nice video promoting hugs that used everyone from Tatiana Maslany to Pharrell. And he played the clueless rapper Blizzard in a sketch that featured — as if we needed another star cameo — actual rapper 2 Chainz, who was actually really good in the sketch.
Hip hop seemed a theme, such that Jay Pharoah, who played Jay-Z earlier, returns as Kanye West, with his own bag of vocal quirks. Nasim Pedrad was great as Kim Kardashian as the couple played a morning show hosts who were also planning their wedding (with Samberg as planner).
The biggest use of old cast members (and even old hosts — Paul Rudd, who had popped up in “Weekend Update” was back) was in the sketch featuring the Vogelchecks, the family that kisses eachother too much, involving Kristen Wiig, Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Maya Rudolph before it was all over. At least they had a nice hook in this one — their reaction to Michael Sam’s NFL draft kiss. It was surprising to see Armisen, of all people, break up during the sketch, but that kind of thing gets the studio audience even more excited.
I liked the musical guest St. Vincent, too, whose cool music was matched by unusual presentation perfect for the show.