Well now, this has disaster planted all over its mush, right? Drake is not the most charismatic popstar the world has ever known and Saturday Night Lives is like watching a cat that’s just been run over by a van. So the assumption it is gonna suck big time.
Add to that Drake’s dreadful concert at Barclay Center last year, please excuse me while I barf. The only thing worse is Bastille as the musical guest next week but something went wrong on the way to the slash and burn review, it isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen. Close but…
Opening Skit: A lousy Piers Morgan interviewing famous people caught lying. A bad Governor Christie is better than Drake as an unrecognizable A-Rod.
Opening Monologue: A winner! Drake, who is half Jewish and half African AMerican remembers his Bar Mtzvah and who is the talent as Auntie Rhonda? That would be the first female black cast member in a couple of decades Sasheer Zamata!! Best moment, Drake singing to the music of “Hava Nagila” “I play like Lebron and know what a W2 is”!
Skit: Hip Hop classics on rapper’s who started their career on the small screen, like Eminem on “Felicity”, Li’l Wayne as Erkel, Rihanna as Blossom and best of all Rick Ross as the red Teletubbie: the only time I’ve laughed out loud all year.
Skit: Another goodie, Nancy Grace freaking out over Colorado legalizing pot. Best line, a suddenly rich baker on selling pot brownies: “It’s like selling a pizza that cures venereal disease.”
Music Video: “Resolution revolution” or “Come back Adam Sandler all is forgiven”. Awful.
Skit: 13 year old girls have a pajama party, Drake as the daddy wants to join in and one of them girls has the hots for Mr. Gorman. Creepy beyond belief.
Music Guest: Drake does “Started From The Bottom” though I am not sure why.
Weekend Update: AFter another shot at Christie it settles down with a very funny take on Jacqueline Bisset at the Golden Globes and the best Arianna Huffington to date!
Skit: Disneyworld Indiana Jones show “where you are the star” and a woman who doesn’t speak English isn’t doing a good job. Drake is funny as the overly cheerful master of ceremonies though it isn’t such a great sketch.
Skit: Detention. Drake picks up the poetry teacher.
Music Guest: “Hold On We’re Going Home” -isn’t it a little late in the proceedings for this 2013 hit? And oh no, not Jhene Aiko again, guy. ANd, plus, both songs, what’s with the dark background stuff? It is a little tedious. Both songs here have been pretty good and I have nothing against the versions, but it is all very 2013. And all very mainstream.
Skit: Not the “Mornin’ Miami” News show sketch. Ugh. Wow, people aren’t the same on stage as off. No, really???
Skit: The annoying “I know” phrase ends in death and resurrection. Uh?
So, I guess it wasn’t a terrible show but it wasn’t a good one. Definitely a rebound and as annoying and dreary as Drake can be on stage, he is self-deprecating enough to make up for the hugely frustrating Justin Timberlake episode last year. Mazel tov, Drake. You won out
Grade: C+