I was tuning in to SNL last night, when I found out that SNL is stuck knee-deep in another crappy era. You know, like that era where everyone on the cast sucked, and the writing was all right, and you figured "Well, these guys will all be stars soon", but the only star was Eddie Murphy? Then they tried to make up for it with already-stars like Billy Crystal, Martin Short, and others? Then there was the incredibly crappy era where the writing and the cast was terrible, because they just came off of the awesome Dana Carvey/Mike Myers/Phil Hartman era, so they hired more celebrities?

In the wake of Will Ferrell's absence, SNL has sucked more and more every year. People like Jimmy Fallon and Tracy Morgan took center stage in Season 28, causing for one bad show. Fallon only has the female fans, and he thinks he is Adam Sandler, but the box office will eventually prove Fallon wrong. Tracy Morgan was good, until the fan hype went to his head. Then he tried to please fans with his "I'm a stupid black man" humor, especially in Brian Fellows and Astronaut Jones.

Then, in Season 29, the trend only got a lot worse. Who knew that Chris Kattan was actually the only saving grace of Season 28? Jimmy Fallon took center stage again, and his pal Horatio Sanz was right by him for most of the year. This duo was funny once, maybe twice. But all year, the same shit, cracking up at anything and ruining a sketch. Tina Fey was funny in her first years, but now she is letting the popularity get to her head. Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch were the only good female cast members, while the star of the males was undoubtedly Will Forte. Forte is absolutely hilarious, and puts 100% into every sketch, just like Will Ferrell used to.

Now, in Season 30, Jimmy Fallon is history. The greatest thing SNL has done in years. Horatio is still there, but he's a lot funnier sans Fallon. Will Forte remains the best cast member of the season, and Tina Fey is no longer bogged down with Jimmy Fallon. Putting Amy Poehler on Weekend Update was another great choice SNL made. In fact, the whole cast is pretty good. And, they decided to go with REAL hosts, not hosts for the sake of making fun of themselves. But, the writing is still really bad.

Case in point: Debbie Downer. Here's a sketch that was a good idea, but never really executed well. But, here's the clincher: the first outing of Debbie turned out to be a crack-up fest for Rachel Dratch and the rest of the cast, which caused for the sketch to be 100 times funnier than it ever could have been. It still made the cast look incredibly unprofessional, but it was funny. Now, Debbie has returned twice, and both times the audience was generally dead, expecting more cracking up, but it never came. Face it, the sketch isn't funny, and was only a one-time thing.

Last night, Luke Wilson barely made it through the night. He's a good actor, but was pretty lousy on SNL, visually making out with the cue cards all night long. Liam Neeson was great last week, though, and perhaps Colin Farrell will be good on the 11th of December. I don't know what is with SNL this year and the British (Jude Law, Kate Winslet) and Irish (Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell). The selection of hosts are good, at least. No more Janet Jacksons, Donald Trumps, or Olsen Twins.

Okay, enough from me, discuss SNL!

I must now commend SNL for one AWESOME night for music last night. U2 performed three times, and as the show went off the air, they were about to perform one more. After the debacle of Ashlee Simpson, it's high time they get real musical guests like U2, who actually can sing, as well as sing live.

saturday night live is awful nowadays. i haven't watched it regularly since the mid 1990's (the end of the sandler/spade/farley etc....era). i watched it every now and then in the late 90's when kattan and ferrell were becoming big, but ever since ferrell left i rarely if ever watch it anymore. sad really.

it really is embarrassing now. I think it follows all the down points that have plagued it during its 'droughts'. It has a few key performers, and despite good musical interludes they can't even finish a show without it being humdrum and painful to watch.

the only thing i really like on the show is the weekend updates.....its pretty funny

Robert DeNiro isn't a great host. He hosted last night, and I found Colin Farrell a much better host last week. JENNIFER GARNER WILL HOST JANUARY 15th, so all is well in the world.

Last night, Paul Giamatti hosted. WOW, this was the SNL that I've wanted for a few years. It was a great show. Perhaps my standards are just lowered, but I really thought last night was a strong night all around. Paul did a great job, the Weekend Update was pretty good, the monologue was funny, and Tina Fey was in two sketches outside of Update!

Yes SNL sucks for a while now.

-- They don't use their guest stars enough. I tuned in to the Kate Winslet one, expecting to see her in a lot of sketches, but she was in maybe 10% of the sketches, hardly in the show at all.

-- They need to boot people after one year if they aren't showing signs of anything special. This would mean getting rid of like half the current cast, which brings up the next point....

-- The cast is way too big now. They need maybe 6-8 people and they seem to have like 15, it's ridiculous. How can anyone shine when there's a horde of comedians on the show?

-- The show needs a new weekend update anchor, including a new set. The set is very outdated and looks like something from the 70s. The two girls doing the news look like they are mainly trying to crack each other up and couldn't care less about the audience, especially the blonde girl who radiates a smugness that I find annoying.

-- Get more physical performers. In its height, there was a lot of physical comedy from Belushi to Chase to Mike Meyers and Carvey. Now it's mostly guys in wigs imitating famous people and not doing a very good job.

-- They take their impersonations too seriously. I mean jeez, when they do Bush they should just have a guy in a flight suit, holding a banner, or similar thing, rather than obsess over getting an impersonation just right. It's like they think they are going for an oscar sometimes.

I look at reruns of Whose Line is it Anyway sometimes on Family channel and any one of those guys is funnier than any SNL cast member I've seen for the past 5 years. There's something going wrong with how SNL chooses people.

Well, Paris wasn't a complete waste on SNL. I thought she would have that same deep-ish voice, and constantly make fun of herself. Instead, she did a job similar to last year's Christina Aguilera. I'll go as far as say she surprised me. But, on great host levels, she's no where near the top. Still a good effort.

This week, for Arrested Development AND American Idol fans, Jason Bateman hosts (who coincidentally cameoed on American Idol once) and Kelly Clarkson is the musical guest.

Wohoo! The star of my favorite sitcom and one of my favorite artists :razz:

Something else that will surely please you, Libs. Hilary Swank will host on February 19th!!! 50 Cent is musical guest... ugh. More rap on SNL. Well, Swank should make up for that... I hope, at least.

Hmm, Kelly Clarkson didn't sound at her best. Something about the key of the instruments and her singing did *not* mesh well. Oh, well.

Apparently she caught some sort of Sinus thing on the way back from Asia. She sounded better than she did at the Super Bowl pregame. I was more distracted by the instruments. It just sounded weird, and distracted me.

Definitely. She sounded great in that actual skit on the train, but pretty bad during her peformance. Something was wrong with the instruments, I think.

I actually thought her musical performances were pretty good.

Hilary Swank and 50 Cent is an odd pairing.. :???:

Well, it's not like they put a musical guest that goes along with the host. Eminem was musical guest when Kate Winslet hosted.

I just really like weekend update, and I think last nights host was a great host...

...he was actually funny...

And kelly clarkson was good as usual.

Overall, an alright show.

I watched the show again, and it definitely was above average compared to the last year or two. But, it still has to go a long way to improve. Some cast members are obviously more favored than others, so they usually get more airtime. The one thing Lorne Michaels did right was book real hosts with real talent this year, over the crappy hosts he had last year, that were only there to make fun of themselves. Right now, the weakest link of SNL is Horatio Sanz. He tries too hard to be funny, and has a little Chris Farley in him, except Farley was always funny. Darrell Hammond will be sorely missed when he leaves (which will have to be soon, since he's already the longest-running cast member in SNL history), because he brings a ton to the show.

I wish the UK had SNL, the clips are so funny..

Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch are amazing, and Tina Fey has a great career in writing ahead of her.

I agree. I mean, Horatio Sanz is cool, but he could never stay straight during a skit....Its funny to see him mess up sometimes, but he does it a little too much....

I favor Tina Fey and Amy Poehler alot, and Darrell Hammond is an asset to the show. He is probably the only person that can make a reasonable impersonation of someone.

The show is improving, but it has a long road ahead to make is great.

Whats your guys' take on MadTV?

I have only seen mostly reruns of last season of MADtv recently, but from what I saw, they are probably at the same stage as SNL. A few years ago, I could not tolerate the show, and the first few years I found to be great. They're improving a lot, and based on last season for MADtv and SNL, I would give the upper hand to MADtv. I haven't seen much from this season, so I'll try and check it out next week.

I missed the Jason Bateman episode. Was he any good?

My fav snl cast is Maya Rudolph she's awsome in all the skits she's in.

The botox sketch was hillarious.

What is the deal with this plate sketch? Seriously.