Saturday Night Live - Season 44, Episode 02: Awkwafina/Travis Scott
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 second episode... was something of a mixed bag. Awkwafina wasn't given much to work with, playing the straight person in a series of mostly forgettable sketches, while the very best the show had to offer came in the cold open and Weekend Update.
Mediocre SNL is better than the offensively bad show we've seen too much of over the last few seasons, but it doesn't make it any easier to get excited about it again.
The writing in [the cold open] was obstinately bland, just as the rest of the show largely wasted the talents of its host, Awkwafina, only the second Asian American woman to fulfill that role.
Awkwafina noted how inspired she was by Lucy Liu hosting Saturday Night Live nearly two decades ago. It was a heartfelt moment, one undercut by a lackluster episode that no host could have salvaged.
As much as the whole locker room portrayal of the Kavanaugh appointment is quite apt given the subject matter, it's clear that the show just wants to get this over with, even before it ends.
