Glen Powell’s delayed turn as host makes for a fun, strong episode that was worth the wait.
Photo: Will Heath/NBC
If you’re wondering why it took so long for Glen Powell to host Saturday Night Live, he has an answer: He was supposed to promote Top Gun: Maverick for the Christmas episode four years ago, but the movie got delayed, so his appearance was canceled. Lorne Michaels even called him up to tell him that no one would know who he was.
That’s not true, Lorne! We all loved him in Set It Up, Scream Queens, and Everybody Wants Some (if you know you know) long before 2021! But point taken. I’m a big Powell fan, so it’s nice to see him finally make his debut, slipping into the ensemble pretty effortlessly for one of the best episodes this season. He actually makes for a decent utility player, happy to take a supporting or minor role and bounce off characters like Sebastian Maniscalco in the boys weekend sketch (an opportunity for Marcello Hernandez to dial up the physicality and show off a pretty great impression) or Ashley Padilla’s verklempt haircut victim.
But Powell also easily handled the big roles. There’s really not much to the Norwegian movie sketch — which seems to exist mainly as a vague peg to the release of Sentimental Value despite the two having little in common besides Stellan Skarsgård — but Powell totally committed to the role of a jubilant Norwegian actor playing a devastated husband in a film called Scent of a Marriage (a reference to Scenes from a Marriage, notably Swedish). The same goes for his sergeant in the slay division of the Bob Army, another one heavy on confidently delivered word salad and lines like “we gag them with blunt force” and “let’s show them how we serve country.” Again, kind of one-note and not always that laugh-out-loud funny, but the energy stayed high throughout, and I appreciate how many cast members get brought in.
Powell wielded his physique and sex appeal a couple of times, most notably as Liam Neeson’s character from Taken. It’s an amusing, if dated premise: Bryan Mills is dropping off his recently rescued daughter with her mom at the airport, and her new husband (an egoless Andrew Dismukes) gets insecure about their sexual connection. It leads to some obvious but solid one-liners, as when Bryan utters his iconic “I have a very particular set of skills” and poor Dennis pipes up, “Not communication, though, right?”
It was a night of sketches that started super strong and got a little less consistent as the show went on. But no notes on Powell, who has the range. I expect him to be invited back tout suite.
Here are the highlights:
Powell’s charm offensive began with a monologue where he came across as a sweet, humble guy. First, he acknowledged the sudden (and, for some people, off-putting) ubiquity of his face, before touching on some of his early performances — in Spy Kids 3D, but also in a self-directed music video for “Sugar, We’re Goin Down.” (I can’t stress enough that we need a full version.)
The bulk of the monologue, though, was that story about Powell’s original hosting plans in 2021. At the time, he and his family took a photo with a passing UPS driver who saw them celebrating — but then Powell didn’t get to host, so he sounded like a liar. In a wholesome ending to the story, though, his sisters managed to track down the driver four years later, and Powell invited him out to the show. With Mitch up there on stage next to him, he brings the story full circle perfectly: “The best things in life don’t happen overnight, and no one knows that better than UPS.” Very cute.
A family visits grandma at a senior home for Thanksgiving and shows her some old black-and-white photos from her childhood, transformed into little videos by an AI program. But the AI keeps distorting these valuable memories and windows from the past into little nightmares, like a headless family dog with tails at both ends, a smooth-groined family friend, and a baby photo where her mother’s upper half floats and her dad stretches the baby like an accordion. Great, relevant stuff — is this a death knell for AI? (Probably not yet, but a guy can dream.)
This is the kind of song I always enjoy in SNL: funny, specific, relatable, and sweet. The premise is right there in the title: Have you ever missed an ex’s parent more than the ex? What really takes this one to the next level is the shift in POV from Ben Marshall and Tommy Brennan to the ex’s dads, played by Powell and Kenan Thompson, who also miss their daughters’ exes.
Whenever I think SNL has exhausted MacGruber as a concept, the show surprises me. And it turns out there’s a particular reason for Will Forte to stop by this week: MacGruber is in the Epstein files, and maybe he wouldn’t mind blowing up with the documentation. In one chapter, he actually starts bashing the bomb in an effort to set it off, a good twist on the formula. And the changing theme song lyrics, as always, provide some of the best lines: “He’s been doin’ lots of thinking ’bout where his life is taking him/Only God can judge him, MacGruber!”
Ashley Padilla continues her rise as the star of this pretty straightforward but well-executed sketch about a bad haircut. She nails every note of the performance: Each facial twitch and playful line delivery communicates her barely repressed dismay over the abomination on her head, including the stylist’s personal “skin square” signature. “I like it!” she keeps delusionally insisting.
• The cold open focused on what you’d expect: the newly released Jeffrey Epstein emails. Padilla does solid work as Karoline Leavitt, dodging questions about Trump’s mentions at a time they’re becoming increasingly impossible to ignore. As far as these go, it’s a decent (and short) one, and it was only the beginning of a very, very Epstein-centric episode. No putting the toothpaste back in this bottle, folks!
• Some good rhymes: “You’re the dad I never had, besides my real dad” and “Don’t remember his daughter’s name, which I know is bad.”
• “I didn’t try to kiss your back.”
• Chloe Fineman’s Jennifer Coolidge shows up for the kicker to the boys’ weekend, which feels unnecessary.
• “We only answer to Leslie Bibb.”
• Weekend Update ran short this time, with several minutes of the expected (but successful) Epstein jokes and no guests. I don’t mind the occasional switch-up like that, though. The Trump edit saying “Everybody knows I went down on Bill Clinton” did get a laugh out of me, as did “doesn’t make cents” and the screen insert of Colin Jost as Hitler’s secret grandson.
• “So you killed a lot of people, huh? Must be scary, pretty major sin.”
• “Looks like my wife’s the one who’s taken.”
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