SNL: Amy Adams, One Direction (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot)
This review was originally posted on Starpulse in December 2014.
The 2014 Christmas episode of “Saturday Night Live” took most of its inspiration from the holiday season, as “SNL” Christmas episodes are wont to do. Sometimes that resulted in sticking too close to tradition, while other times that tradition was rebelled against, resulting in memorably experimental Christmas sketches. It was one of those episodes where you take the good and you take the bad. In her second outing, Amy Adams was the sort of host who slotted in naturally to whatever role she was given without overshadowing the cast. Musical guest One Direction did what they do, surely pleasing their fans but not making any new ones. And it would not have been a Christmas episode without cameos, some of which were surprising and welcome and others which were welcome enough but a little too predictable.
A Very Somber Christmas with Sam Smith – Bringing in Mike Myers to reprise Dr. Evil, perhaps the most intrinsically ridiculous villain of all time, allowed for “SNL” to really get at what North Korea is all about: Kim Jong-un and his cronies categorically have no idea how to take a joke. Evil’s Lorne Michaels-inspired “Throw me a frickin’ bone here” attitude was exactly the sort of mediation that this situation needed. B+
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