Saturday Night Live Season 26 Reviews - Episode 7 - Val Kilmer / U2

 

"And they called themselves The Great Frog Society”

Cold Open: Press Conferenece

3 Stars

Al Gore battles George W Bush in the courts

The election is still not officially over and even though Al Gore got the most votes he is still not President.  Isn’t it bizarre and embarrassing that this happened again?  Like, not too long afterwards.  Al talks about the lawsuits he’s filed and introduces his lawyer played by Kattan.  Something about his character had me wanting this to be Suel Forrestor, which I think is the first time I’ve been hoping for a Chris Kattan recurring character.  This one felt like it was lacking something and I wasn’t sure what.  Then I realized it was Will Ferrell.  There was a low energy to this which had a lot to do with the impressions of Al Gore and Joe Lieberman.  The “Live from New York...” from Parnell didn’t have the punch I like going into the opening credits.

Val Kilmer Monologue

4 Stars

Val gets to see life if he hadn’t hosted

Val mentions that he’d rather be home watching the show on TV and he gets a visit from Clarence, the angel from It’s A Wonderful Life.  He’s here to show Val what life would be like if he never hosted.  The cast is sad because The Doors sketch was cut, Parnell missed out on being discovered and put in a Spielberg film, Tracy lost money selling weed to the audience, and Kattan cries and wears his Mango costume for days.  It’s a little bizarre doing this on December 8th with a host not known for Christmas but it’s still fun.

Wade Blasingame

5 Stars

Get justice from dogs

I forgot about this stupid and absurd commercial.  It was always one of my favorites from this era.  Will plays a lawyer who sues dogs for their bad behavior while Parnell re-enacts bad dogs in his underwear.  I love the little touches like the unexplained scar on Will’s face, their odd makeup and the fact that Parnell is not only the actor in the re-enactments but also a lawyer.

Behind The Music

4 Stars

The story behind the greatest band in Heaven

They weren’t lying in the monologue.  They did have a sketch referencing The Doors.  That movie from 1992.  I’m always curious about what gets parodied on SNL and what doesn’t.  Jim Morrison isn’t the first thing I think about when I think about Val Kilmer, so why isn’t there a sketch about Willow?  Val plays Morrison who starts a musical supergroup in Heaven featuring Janis Joplin (Molly), Jimi Hendrix (Jerry), Buddy Holly (Jimmy), Keith Moon (Horatio), and Louis Armstrong (Tracy).  Jesus is a big fan but they breakup due to Jim’s relationship with Amelia Earhart and when the band gets reincarnated.  It’s a tad too long but there’s a lot of good stuff in here, especially The End sung by a little girl next to a sumo wrestler on tambourine.

Palm Beach

2 Stars

The election has turned into a soap opera

Al Gore, George W Bush, Katharine Harris and Jen Bush are all characters on NBC’s new soap opera, a concept used again in a recent Season 45 cold open.  This is another long sketch that had some good stuff but not enough to make it stand out from all the much better election themed material this season.  Will getting upset and acting like a child when Darrell and Ana fight was fun as was his playing with a ball of yarn.  I’m not sure what to make of Val’s performance as Jeb Bush.  He seems to be going for bad soap opera acting but it was coming off a little too clumsy and I couldn’t quite tell if that was intentional or not.

Veronica & Co.

1 Star

A European super model hosts a talk show

It’s hard to get too upset at this.  Molly’s only got 5 more episodes left and I’d rather see something new than another Helen Madden, Sally O’Malley or Mary Katharine Gallagher, but this had no laughs in it for me.  Molly is a foreign super model who doesn’t quite understand anything other than being rich and famous.  Her guests are Ana as a home baker, Val as a TV doctor, and Parnell as a dancing robot.  This was like Pat Stevens 2.0 and had me wanting to enforce SNL term limits.  Molly is great and an integral part of the show’s history but she should have left already.

U2

"Beautiful Day"

I’ll save my thoughts on U2 for their second performance.  I’ll just say that this performance was jamming.

Weekend Update

I have very little to say about Update this week and even less to say about Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.  I’ve discussed the racial insensitivity of this impression in other episodes so I’ll just say that I was really starting to zone out for this whole segment.

Iceman: The Later Years

2 Stars

Iceman is less cool in his autumn years

Another sketch teased in the monologue.  When Darrell said that the Top Gun sketch was cut, I assumed it was a joke.  I didn’t think they would do a sketch about a movie from 12 years ago.  This is probably better in concept than execution.  If you haven’t seen this sketch just imagine it and you’ll probably get the same results.

Season's Greetings

4 Stars

The birth of a Christmas classic.  Everyone is giggling over how stupid this is and with good reason.  Horatio on his mini guitar, Kattan holding the keyboard for Jimmy to make train noises, and Tracy dancing.  It’s dumb as all Hell but it works.

U2
"Elevation"

Bono ends up going through the audience, grabs the camera and tries to eat it, gets the crowd on their feet, and whispers “Light my fire” in Val’s ear.  This was a show stopper, literally.  There was no need for more SNL after this.  I very rarely think the musical guest is better than the show but U2 is definitely the MVP of this episode.

Doing Voices

2 Stars

A blind date with goofy voices

Val and Molly are on a blind date and they share a nervous tic of doing silly voices.  This reminds me of a Robin Williams sketch with the same basic premise and Val is no Robin.

Recording Session

3 Stars

Session musicians record horns for Burt Bacharach

I have no idea what Val is going for with his Burt Bacharach impression but this luckily isn’t about him.  Will and Parnell play the trumpet players recording Say A Little Prayer and they mime playing the song.  There’s not much more to say as this is all about the performances.  It’s hard not to smile as they get into the groove in between waiting their turn to play.

We end with a rerun of Corn Chip Nail Tips

FINAL ANALYSIS

"The more people learned about his disability the more popular he became, like Tom Arnold”

Average

3 Stars

MVP

U2
From the cast...
Chris Parnell
Press Conference, Monologue, Wade Blasingame, Palm Beach, Veronica & Co., Iceman: The Later Years, Recording Session

Best Sketch

Behind The Music

Worst Sketch

Veronica & Co.

How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It

Things started really good and then petered out but it was really hard to muster any excitement for a Molly Shannon acts crazy sketch after U2.  I would have cut Veronica & Co. and given U2 a third number to end the night.

Host Analysis

While not terrible, he certainly wasn’t great.  He reminded me a lot of Dennis Quaid.  You can tell he’s trying, he’s just not very good and his choices just seem a little misguided.  That probably comes with freedom.  Looking over Val’s filmography, he excels with good directors but when he’s in more schlocky films his performances tend to go off the rails.  I’m speaking specifically about The Island Of Dr. Moreau and Twixt and whatever that Burt Bacharach impression was.

Final Thoughts

A couple of really good sketches boosted the average but I was fairly let down on this one.  The lead off sketch was good, we got I Wish It Was Christmas Today and a great musical guest but other than that there wasn’t much else and the host was a little off-putting.  I’ll be remembering U2 by the end of the season but I doubt I’ll remember anything else from this show.

Up Next

The last show of 2000 hosted by Lucy Liu.