You might think that entering its 40th season, “Saturday Night Live” would have its late night comedy running smoothly and reliably; and after a long summer off, it would be brimming with material and ideas.
In actuality, Saturday’s debut could scarcely throw one decent sketch; it didn’t have much for host Chris Pratt to do; offered the most bland commercial product in dancing pixie Ariana Grande, the musical guest; and there were so many line flubs you’d think the cue card writer must have flunked penmanship.
It was the odd show where Aidy Bryant was the most featured player in sketches, where a retooled “Weekend Update” provided the most comic possibilities and a new face on his first show stole the show in three different skits.
It didn’t help that the premiere came just after the debut of something now called “SNL Vintage,” which, playing off the 40th anniversary of the show, picks classic episodes of the past to replay. And though it had its own flaws, there was no beating the 1975 show featuring Richard Pryor and Gil-Scott Heron.
That episode from the first season showed how relevant the show could be when it wanted. The 2014 show, by contrast, never acknowledged there was a war going on, or a political season, and as for ebola, it was the topic that Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party would never get around to addressing.
But at least there was NFL scandals, so it was the subject of two different bits, one of which was the cold open with Bryant as Candy Crowley discussing the controversies with some splendid parodies of former football players Ray Lewis and Shannon Sharpe.
It was the first appearance of Pratt, who later said that he lost 60 pounds for the role that made him a credible leading man this summer, “Guardians of the Galaxy.” With only a blonde wig to portray NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, he was barely recognizable as the guy we knew from “Parks and Recreation.”
Good thing Kenan Thompson and Jay Pharaoh were funny in their exaggerated depictions of Lewis and Sharp – funny enough to deserve the opening slot.
Longtime announcer Don Pardo, who died last month, was not heard in the retooled opening credits, replaced by a voice from the past, Darrell Hammond. But while Hammond would be enlisted to imitate Pardo when he filled in the role in the past, didn’t announce in the same style, putting his own, softer tones to work.
Pratt’s opening relied on the kind of super simple tunes on guitar that Adam Sandler used to do; in this case he saluted his famous wife Anna Ferris, sitting in the front row, and flubbed a line. First night jitters were affecting everyone, it seemed.
The first fake ad was for Cialis Turnt, which blended the erectile dysfunction drug with ecstasy for a result that exploited the dumb recent term.
The first sketch after commercials had Kyle Mooney as a boy who wished his action figures were real, so Pratt and Taran Killam in He Man like costumes appear and start tearing up the kitchen and going after the women in the house. It ends with Bryant inviting them out to the hot tub. Well, not much going on there.
A sketch about an animal hospital where the pets all die might have had possibilities, especially how Cicely Strong, Pratt and Kate McKennon pushed their twangs. But a dead parrot only reminded one of a much funnier stamp on the scene by Monty Python decades ago. One line about a turtle murder that played off an earlier hybrid of bird murder — burder — got exactly zero laughs.
The only thing they did with Pratt’s fame in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” was a fake Marvel trailer promoting increasingly random groups of super heroes, including one with just shopping carts. It was OK, but it came off as a little critical about Pratt’s success.
Grande’s performances began with stripped down piano balladry, as if to show she could actually sing. There her cat ears didn’t look any more weird than her diamond-encrusted ear monitors with wires so prominent it seemed like she was being recharged. Which was fine since the songs moved into big dance mode with embarrassing choreography and cheesy backing tracks.
“Weekend Update” had a new opening, a new set and a new news reader — the talented Michael Che of the Daily Show joining Colin Jost. That bumped Strong as a co-host and she had been fine in that role, certainly better than Jost, who struggled in his first season on camera last year. But it also meant Strong could return as the aforementioned Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party.
She did not disappoint with her eye-rolling malapropisms; she’s probably having more fun doing that anyway.
Che seemed a bit rushed in his delivery; his teleprompter so high above the camera, he got that odd look like Michele Bachmann: looking somewhere other than the camera lens. He was better with guests, though, and will improve once he slows down.
On the bright side, he made Jost look better.
But it was the guests who made the segment. They included, in addition to Strong, the return of the super expressive Leslie Jones (who was not quite as edgy this time out) and the debut of Pete Davidson, the former teenage standup who is still one of the youngest “SNL” players ever at 20. He had assurance, an inherent New York cockiness and a different look that will set him apart from the lookalikes they’d been hiring in recent seasons.
“Update” ended with an awful bit of encouragement for Obama, supposed to be set to the old soul song “Ooh, Ooh Child,” for which singing Kenan Thompson could never get on the right key.
More AIdy Bryant came next as she dropped some convincing and sleazy raps to an equally shy Pratt at a bar for a sketch that ultimately went nowhere (group dance scene!). It was followed by a truly odd piece of film that may have been a shot by shot recreation of an after school special that in addition to weird lighting and direction, seemed to be dubbed later.
The second NFL sketch had players introduce themselves with their charges instead of their position: “Derrick Watkins, Assault! “ Aside from the array of changing wigs, it was a segment of diminishing returns.
Also without an ending: A sketch about kids testing out a puzzle video game with some inappropriate congratulatory kissing in it.
At least it also featured the new kid, Davidson, who looks as if he might be the one who will help “SNL” along if it is ever to make its 45th season.
Next week, perhaps, something more edgy, with Sarah Silverman as host, but Maroon 5 as musical guest.