Emmy Episodes: Saturday Night Live

It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. For the sixth year in a row, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.

Saturday Night Live: Season 46, Episode 17 “Host: Carey Mulligan” (B)

I’m a big fan of Carey Mulligan and would love to have seen her win the Oscar for “Promising Young Woman.” She does manage to blend comedy and drama very well, though I think her material is usually a bit more sophisticated than what’s present on this show. The Star Trek sketch, for instance, wasn’t anything great, and while I did find the Letters from War bit entertaining if a bit random, there wasn’t all that much for her to do on it. That was true also for the Leggs hosiery sketch with Aidy Bryant, which had a few laughs in there, and the opening monologue where her husband showed up trying to be the musical guest, a job already reserved for Kid Cudi, who I got to know as an actor in a very traditional role on “We Are Who We Are.” I did enjoy the “What’s Wrong with This Picture” sketch, especially since Kenan got so upset that everyone kept saying wrong answers, and even though it came from out of nowhere, the “Weird Little Flute” music video was very funny. The Lesbian Period Drama trailer was fantastic, and so fitting in how it parodied “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and “Ammonite.” This episode is, of course, the Emmy submission for Bowen Yang, whose Iceberg That Sunk the Titanic performance was so hyped for me that it didn’t exactly wow me. He’s fun and clearly talented, but it didn’t hold up to what I had expected given all the praise heaped upon him.