SNL fans hoping first show is preview to successful 44th season

Saturday Night Live (SNL) premiered on NBC on Sept. 29 for it’s 44 season with host Adam Driver and musical guest Kanye West. This season’s premiere was the highest grossing premiere since 2011.

SNL often feeds off the controversy in the news. Lately, most of the content they are creating is drawn from politics.

While most general viewing audiences find the sketches about politics particularly hilarious, the people the sketch is about don’t appreciate the humor as much.

The biggest example would be President Trump, who often is made fun of by Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of him. After the premiere, Trump tweeted, “Like many, I don’t watch Saturday Night Live (even though I past hosted it) – no longer funny, no talent or charm. It is just a political ad for the Dems. Word is that Kanye West, who put on a MAGA hat after the show (despite being told ‘no’), was great. He’s leading the charge!” 

The return of SNL focused the most hot button topic of the week, the Kavanaugh hearing, as the cold open. 

Matt Damon played Judge Kavanaugh as a sniffling, emotional and angry man. The sketch was met with booming laughter as each cast member played their part in the hearing. 

The role that seemed to get the most laughter was Aidy Bryant’s “Female Prosecutor,” Rachel Mitchell, as she was continually cut off by Alex Moffat’s Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley.

The most highly praised act of the night was the career day sketch where host Adam Driver dressed up as an old man to lecture his son’s class about being an oil tycoon.

This sketch even had people who are not normally fans of the show laughing. Dennis Perkins, a reviewer for the online A.V. Club, said, “Driver came out covered in old man makeup and tore the place down, his aged oil baron embarrassing his slacker son (Pete Davidson) with Mr. Burns-esque tales of his exploits.” 

The intensity that was used in the scene was definitely a factor in the hilarity of the sketch. The performance even had seasoned cast member, Pete Davidson, breaking character.

One of the sections of the show that many people look forward to every show is the Weekend Update, hosted by head writers Colin Jost and Michael Che. The two spent a lot of time dedicated to catching up on what they missed over the summer, including Pete Davidson’s engagement to popstar, Ariana Grande, the Kavanaugh hearing and other random tidbits of news.

A crowd favorite Weekend update was back with Kate McKinnon playing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which was especially relevant due to Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination and hearing. Often poking fun at the judge’s small figure and her age and providing “Ginsburns” to anyone and everyone, SNL does a great job of bringing the justice to life.

Although the sketches in the show were intriguing and engaging, musical guest Kanye West’s performance was anything but that. With a promise of an album drop that never happened and a Pro-Trump rant at the end of the show, the reviews were mostly negative.

Even cast member Kenan Thompson was not pleased by how West handled his speech. While on “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” Thompson said, “We’re all entitled to our opinions, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily the time to hold people hostage like that.” Thompson then went on to compare his fellow cast members as mice going into a mousetrap as they were invited to join West on stage after the show had already ended. 

After this week’s outstanding episode, most avid SNL viewers cannot wait for next week’s episode, which will be hosted by Awkwafina from “Crazy Rich Asians” with musical guest Travis Scott.