SNL: Blake Shelton, Cecily Strong (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot)

This review was originally posted on Starpulse in January 2015.

The last time a male country music star hosted “SNL,” the results were a lot more interesting.  The thing is, Tim McGraw has much more acting experience than Blake Shelton, and thus he was a lot more comfortable branching out home from his country persona than Shelton was in this episode.  “The Voice” judge mostly stuck to variations of himself or generic roles.  This was fine for ensuring a show that ran smoothly, but it also prevented his appearance from being a truly memorable one.

Inside the NFL – This take on the New England Patriots deflated ball scandal made the weird decision of focusing on a whiny Tom Brady.  Brady is sometimes criticized for being an arrogant pretty boy, which is basically the antithesis of what Taran Killam was playing him as.  The idea may have been that in playing dumb, he was being someone he clearly wasn’t, but that didn’t really stick as comedy.  Luckily, Bobby Moynihan saved the day as Dougie Spoons, one of his classic hype men characters.  The “A Few Good Men”  parody was unexpected, but more or less successful. C+

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