"Saturday Night Live" Episode Review: Miley Cyrus

Well, this past weekend's episode of “Saturday Night Live”, featuring Gust Host and Musical Guest Miley Cyrus, proved one thing about this season so far: the long-running variety series is indeed struggling. While the some of the sketches from the season premier featured some interesting premises with a not-so-great execution, a lot of this past weekend's comedy pieces suffered from paper-thin premises, weak writing, and even some over-the-top performances. In addition, it should be mentioned that much of Cyrus' performances in the sketches came off as over-the-top and not genuinely hilarious; as she basically spoke in the same manner in almost every one and hardly funny. What's more, “Saturday Night Live” continues to make the mistake of making eleven-year-castmember Kenan Thompson the go-to-guy for most of the sketches. I did, however, enjoy some portions of the show; particularly a couple of sketches as well as the performances of some particular castmembers. Thus, I can say with sincerity:Monologue

Aside from a Few Bright Spots, Miley Cyrus and the Cast of “Saturday Night Live” Brought Us a Not-So-Great Show

Cold Opening: Miley Cyrus Backstage at VMAs

This wasn't a bad opening. I do applaud “Saturday Night Live” for tying together the government shutdown with Miley Cyrus' VMA performance; as that is a creative idea for a sketch. And I do appreciate Cyrus for going along with the idea of the sketch and poking some humor at herself. In addition, I was also happy to see Vanessa Bayer's Miley Cyrus impression alongside Cyrus once again; though, in all honesty, it was inevitable. Though I did like the idea of Bayer playing Future Miley Cyrus going back to the past to warn her younger self that her scandalous performance will unfortunately lead to the government shutdown. Other highlights included Jay Pharoah's portrayal of Will Smith excitedly talking with Cyrus while warning her that his kids are watching the show and that they are in favor of PG-rated entertainment; obviously alluding to the twenty-year-old's upcoming scandalous performance. Though, in all honesty, I will say that the opening sketch- being narrated by an American citizen, played by Kenan Thompson, talking to his granddaughter, played by Featured Castmember Noel Wells, residing in a post-apocalyptic society years in the future following the government shutdown- felt tacked on and not-at-all needed. The sketch would have worked just fine with Bayer playing Cyrus' future self coming back to the past. Nevertheless, while the premise of the sketch was a good idea, the narrative portion just felt unnecessary.

Monologue- Miley Cyrus

Well, this wasn't a memorable monologue at all. In fact, this wasn't even a real monologue! All we got was Miley Cyrus coming on stage and saying what she wouldn't be up to doing for this week's show. The only quick chuckle I got was the sight gag of Bobby Moynihan sitting on a wrecking ball and screaming over his disappointment over the fact that Cyrus will not be doing any jokes about her music video for “Wrecking Ball.” I was hoping that we'd get a lot of good sketches tonight. Boy was I wrong; considering a majority of the sketches that took place that night.

Pre-taped segment- “Fifty Shades of Grey” Celebrity Screen Tests

Now THIS was a funny series of celebrity impressions. The celebrity screen test concept has been done before on “Saturday Night Live”; though I have to say a good amount of these were still funny. Featured Player Noel Wells did a fine portrayal of Emma Stone; who was goofing around with Seth Rogen; played by Bobby Moynihan. Though it was more-than-evident that he was trying, Moynihan's portrayal felt like it needed a little work. Other noteworthy impressions were of a clearly-nervous Jon Cryer, played by Featured Player John Milhiser, who was paired up with Jane Lynch; played by Kate McKinnon, who has proven to be quite good at celebrity impressions. This portrayal of Lynch was no exception. I also got a laugh out Beck Bennett's nicely done portrayal of Phillip Seymour-Hoffman getting frustrated with Kristen Stewart; played by Wells; who completely succeeded in capturing the actress' sullen demeanor. However, it was Taran Killam who stole the sketch with his dead-on portrayal of Christoph Waltz; who was willing to perform a nude screen test with Scarlett Johanson; played by Miley Cyrus. Killam captured Waltz's accent PERFECTLY and his hair style and outfit made him look JUST LIKE the Academy Award-winning actor. Overall, a humorous pre-filmed segment.

Sketch_ New Girlfriends Talk Show

This is a clear example of “Saturday Night Live”'s rinse-and-repeat formula with recent reoccurring characters. Cecily Strong and Aidy Bryant play suppose “best friends” 'Kyra' and 'Morgan' respectfully ; this time introducing a guest, played by Miley Cyrus' to their talk show. Strong's 'Kyra' ends up quickly bonding with Cyrus' on-stage persona; causing Bryant's character to typically fear that she's once again getting replaced as her friend's best new co-hort. As for Cyrus', she ended up coming off as being quite annoying for the duration of the sketch; not delivering any funny lines whatsoever and her dance number added nothing special. Some of the side-comments Aidy Bryant made as her character were the only slight chuckles I got from this sketch, but otherwise, this was just wasn't great at all.

Music Video- “We Did Stop (The Government)”

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. After all the years we have gotten good genuine laughs from music videos supplied to us courtesy of The Lonely Island, “Saturday Night Live” tries to keep the laughs coming with a very risque' music video parody. While I will admit that the fact that the “Saturday Night Live” writers tackled the government shutdown through a music video spoof, it should be said that the result was too immoderate to be entirely funny. Miley Cyrus' performance as a gyrating Michelle Bachman canoodling with Current Speaker of of the United States House of Representatives John Boehner, played by Taran Killam, was just not funny and came off as overkill. The only laughs I got from the video spoof were Killam's mimicking of Boehner's voice as well as the sight of Jay Pharoah portraying President Barack Obama peering through a small viewing space; sporting a facial expression of pure shock and fear. If the video parody had been done in a more subtle manner and featured a more subdued performance from Cyrus and Killam, than I probably would have enjoyed it more. Unfortunately, we got what we got and hopefully we get better music video spoofs in the future.

Sketch- “Piers Morgan Live”

Now, this was a good sketch. I enjoy Taran Killam's impression of talk-show host Piers Morgan, and this was no exception. He had some good lines; particularly his comment that if he were in a cartoon, he would voice a fancy hedgehog. I enjoyed seeing Nasim Pedrad's impression of Arianna Huffington as always; and I enjoyed most of the clips of rejected documentaries focusing on the political career of Hilary Clinton. The “Breaking Bad”-style clip was very funny; with Kate McKinnon's portrayal of Clinton saying that everything she did as First Lady was all for herself; obviously spoofing a pivotal scene from the series' final episode. I also will admit that Featured Player Beck Bennett did a decent impression of Bill Clinton, and he even had a couple funny lines. My least favorite parody clip, you ask? The MTV parody featuring Miley Cyrus portraying Hilary Clinton. C yrus did not have any funny lines and her delivery came off as being too forced. The only time I laughed regarding the MTV documentary spoof was from Killam' Piers Morgan referring to MTV personality Sway, played by Kenan Thompson, as a “Human Beehive”. While the MTV spoof wasn't entirely funny, this particularly installment of “Piers Morgan Live” was funny and probably, for the most part, one of the better sketches of the night.

“Weekend Update”

Well, this was once again a mixed bag of “Weekend Update.” It should be said that I'm happy that Cecily Strong has improved her performance as co-anchor a bit; this time not saying her jokes in a manner that forced and off-putting. That being said, she does appear awkward sitting next to Seth Meyers; with whom, it should be said, she has no chemistry with. This is completely unlike Meyers had with Amy Poeher; as both performers would trade barbs off one another with ease and they established themselves as an enjoyable “Weekend Update” duo. I will also say that, aside from a joke about “The Arsenio Hall Show”, Meyers and Strong hardly had any funny jokes and they seemed to be rushing through their bits in order to get to the guest commentators much quicker.

And speaking of the guest commentators, there were just TOO MANY this week!!! We had a total of THREE!! First of all, Kate McKinnon played a mother c commentating on the latest edition of “Grand Theft Auto”. McKinnon gave a decent performance as her character, who had apparently gotten too into the game and became a bit too off-the-handle with the subject matter. Once again, McKinnon did fine; though the writing wasn't that funny. Next, Jay Pharoah played Sports Commentator Shannon Sharpe; and I was delighted to see that his guest commentator performance has improved since he was last on the weekly news segment. I was happy to see that Pharoah has stopped relying on raising the volume of his voice to get laughs, and instead now spoke his lines with genuine rapid-fire ease. Pharoah's performance improved the quality of the segment significantly; as the writing wasn't that hilarious. And lastly, we get “Jacob, The Bar Mitzvah Boy”; once again played by Vanessa Bayer. What can I say about this segment? Well, even though Bayer performs decently as this character, the whole concept of the thirteen-year-old roasting his family members when giving a speech has been done during each appearance. The segment did also drag a bit; though that was due to the weak writing. Overall, aside from some bright spots, particularly the performances of McKinnon and Pharoah, this edition of “Weekend Update” was n't very funny; mainly due to the weak writing, segments running a bit too long, and, most importantly, the lack of chemistry between Seth Meyers and Cecily Strong. I'm a little worried as to how “Weekend Update” will be once Seth Meyers leaves at the end of 2013.

Sketch- Cheerleaders Get Abducted by Aliens

Well, this was another misfire of the night. While I was happy to see a sketch rthat featured all six female castmembers, the overall concept of the lead cheerleader, played by Miley Cyrus, demanding that her squad continued their practice while three of them get abducted by an alien spaceship was just plain ridiculous. In addition, Kenan Thompson's alien invader character didn't contribute any laughs at all; as Cyrus' character had him reveal his mission plans of stealing the Earth's moon in the form of the squad's cheering exercises made the sketch suffer more. Finally, the ending shot of the model flying saucer zooming away with a plastic replica of the Moon was just an overly abrupt way to close the sketch. The only laughs I ot were from Taran Killam's performance as an effeminate male cheerleader; particularly his comment of “Deal with it, Dad” when saying his designated chant/ Poverall, however, this was just an excuse to fill time on the show. Just a really pointless sketch.

Sketch- “Mornin' Miama” Promo Shoot

This was a watchable sketch; though it wasn't entirely original. Miley Cyrus, Bobby Moynihan, and Kate McKinnon played three news anchors shooting promos for a week's worth of shows; with the news headlines getting more weird as the segment went on. This sketch probably featured the best sketch performance from Miley Cyrus for the entire show; as she didn't force her lines in this particular bit-- unlike every other comedic performance from her. McKinnon and Moynihan had good lines as their characters; particularly the latter's headline “Jeff Dunham's puppets are in the studio- Jeff Dunham is not! And we'll find out how funny those puppets really are!”. The sketch was quite funny; though, in all honesty, the whole premise of news anchors shooting bizarre headline promos have been done before in more hilarious sketches from earlier seasons. Nevertheless, this was a humorous sketch.

Sketch- Poetry Class

Here's another sketch that wasn't that great. Vanessa Bayer plays a guest poetry specialist to a high school class. Bayer played her part of the guest teacher quite well; though her character's constant stammering got a tad old by the half-way point of the sketch. Castmembers Jay Pharoah, Aidy Bryant, and Kenan Thompson played their role of attending high school students finely; though the latter's on-stage persona wasn't funny at all when delivering a makeshift poem about his drug possession. Miley Cyrus didn't add anything special as her high school student character and her comments about being attracted to Bayer's character just came off too abruptly. I was also glad to see Featured Player Mike O'Brien appear in the sketch; though his performance as the students' regular teacher wasn't anything special. And Fellow Featured Player Brooks Wheelan's one line in the sketch just wasn't funny. All in all, aside from a good amount of Bayer's performance, this sketch just wasn't very memorable.

Short Film- Kyle's Office.

Finally, “Saturday Night Live” featured the first short film from GoodNeighbor Comedy Team Members and Current Featured Players Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney. In their first piece, Mooney plays himself being invited by Miley Cyrus, as herself, to have endless amounts of sex with her and give his friends, Bennett and Bobby Moynihan as themselves, and himself tickets to all of her concerts. Throughout the piece, Mooney kept exiting his office to tell Bennett and Moynihan that Cyrus, who was staying in his office, what was going on and also kept asking them for advice. While there were some funny parts to the segment and the whole point that the comedy duo got the opportunity to debut their first “Saturday Night Live” film short, it should be admitted that the overall punchline of Mooney thinking that Cyrus was over a hundred years old and that his friends were over two hundred years of age, came off as a tad silly. In addition, the ending with Mooney being excited that his brother was having intercourse with Cyrus was even more silly and just felt like a rushed way of ending the short. Nevertheless, I'm happy that Mooney and Beckett got their first short film on the air and I hope they have some better ones as the season progresses.

Well, that's the show. Aside from the “Fifty Shades of Grey” screen test segment, the parody of “Piers Morgan Live”, and the premise of the cold opening, most of the sketches from this episode just weren't amazing. Sure, the “Mornin' Miami” promo shoot sketch had good lines, it wasn't anything original. The cheerleading sketch will probably end up being one of the worst sketches of the season “Weekend Update” needs some work; particularly due to the fact that Cecily Strong will most likely need help anchoring the weekly news segment. Kate McKinnon and Jay Pharoah delivered decent performances bu, as a whole' “Weekend Update” needs work.

As for Miley Cyrus herself, well, she is not that funny at all. For most of the evening's sketches, Cyrus acted the same way and delivered her lines in over-the-top and forced manner; with the exception of her involvement in the “Mornin' Miami” promo shoot sketch; which ended up being her best performance of the show. As for her musical performances, well, neither one of her songs were all that memorable. Though I do appreciate the fact that Cyrus didn't scream her lyrics during her performance of “Wrecking Ball”; as her video depicts her raising her voice throughout its entire duration. I was happy to see Miley Cyrus poke some fun at herself during the cold opening, but otherwise, she didn't impress me all that much as a host and a musical performer.

And that's my review. I thank you all for your patience and I thank you for following my blog. I won't be around to live-blog this weekend's show, featuring Guest Host Bruce Willis and Musical Guest Katy Perry, as I'll be busy this weekend. However, I will be watching the episode online this upcoming Monday and then I'll be posting a review sometime during the week.

So thank you all once again for your support. Have a good weekend and stay tuned for more Nater-Tainment!