Saturday Night Live: Jenna Ortega hurdles some bad skits to eek out a win with the 1975
Too much anticipation? An off week with the writing? A slight disconnect with the energy?
All of those reasons might justify why Jenna Ortega did just okay last night. The “Wednesday” and “Scream” star overcame some early misfires to deliver what was still a decent time on Saturday Night Live.
The cold open was just fine. The Oscars champagne carpet skit had to be carried by Chloe Fineman and Sarah Sherman as Jamie Lee Curtis and an acting coach respectively. We’re still waiting for a home run with the opener this season.
Ortega’s monologue was cute. It was great that she had Uncle Fester aka SNL alum Fred Armisen along for the night.
The X-Men game show was pretty dumb. I was stone faced.
But Ortega and my boys at Please Don’t Destroy would deliver with their road trip video. Armisen would return and sell hard for a Parent Trap skit that was amusing and a modified version of his talk show producer recurring character.
The Waffle House video will be the segment we remember. That was a win. Ortega’s best skit personally was her cat story on the MTV Ridiculousness spoof that had me laughing pretty good. On the strength of these two spots, it was hard to shut off the TV unhappy.
Other moments like the Jingle skit and Exorcism, would miss on the back half of the show. Nothing really bad. Just also not really funny.
Colin Jost and Michael Che would have to do all of the work on Weekend Update this week. Their guests missed. Their one on one chemistry may be the best its ever been despite their many years together.
Many viewers might tell you that the 1975 was their favorite part of the night. This group is built for SNL and sounded great.
April 1st should be appointment television, with Abbott Elementary mastermind Quinta Brunson hosting with musical guest Lil Yachty. But will an editor’s strike derail those plans? We’ll have to wait and see.
If you laughed as hard during the Ridiculousness skit as I did, please help out the blog below. Thank you!