Saturday Night Live - Season 44, Episode 17: Kit Harington/Sara Bareilles
Trailer
On Saturday night, a new season, a late-night comedy show featuring several short plays, simulations of television commercials, and a live band. There is a new team of award-winning celebrities performing comics and popular music stars. It is a new display of a wide range of music and graphics that seem to be the most famous and have won the admiration of many.
The writers really did give Harington a lot of different things to do in this show outside of the obligatory Game of Thrones stuff. He commits to it all, and blends in well with the cast while doing so.
Harington dove right into whatever bizarre situation the writers sought to place him in. It's rare that the best moments of an episode fall clearly on the host, but that is shaping up to be the case tonight.
Harington's not an incapable comedy actor, just perhaps not the quick-change chameleon best suited for SNL hosting duty. And...his inaptitude for the gig was counterbalanced by an eagerness to please. Enthusiasm forgives a lot of sins.
It was almost distracting, but then Kit Harington made you forget about it by doing some goofy characters...The result was a decent episode with a smattering of great sketches
This episode was a mixed bag. With a few exceptions, the sketches didn't quite live up to their promise. But Harington was a fun host and big-name guest stars gave it a much-needed boost of energy.
Harington's playfulness -- he donned a hospital gown and desperately tried not to receive a colorectal exam at one point -- was muted by sketches largely light on laughs.
Kit Harington arrived at "Saturday Night Live" in his first guest host gig to tell the world and maybe himself that there's more to Kit Harington than Jon Snow. Meanwhile, "SNL" reminded everyone...just how futile that effort might ultimately be.