There was a time that I could recall during my high school years (between five and nine years ago) where the NBC show Saturday Night Live was at an all time low. The cast was washed out, the skits were not very engaging, and everything was just flat in general. This was during the first five years of the 2000 era, where Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan were running the show.
Their characters were often predictable, and I remember not being able to help but notice that they have to play “themselvesâ€. My sentiment was shared among many of my peers, as it didn’t seem anyone was really watching the show at all. It is it the sort of process that had to be extremely gradual for it to get better, but I think that the time is really starting to peak its head.
The new season of SNL has recently taken off with pretty widespread warm reviews and sentiments toward the cast and recent hosts. The one that was on this past Saturday with Bruno Mars was surprisingly fantastic, and I’d even be prepared to say that it was one of the funniest episodes that the show has had in quite a while. I wasn’t sure how Mars would do in the skits, but he came out with his guns out, locking down all of the over-the-top characters that he had to play.
This is also the first season to be with one of the veteran actresses of SNL, Kristen Wiig. She was commonly seen as a fixture of the show ever since her introduction in 2005, and she had decided to leave along with Andy Samberg. Many had worried that their departure would cause the show to go through another peak, and go back into a downfall.
This is quite far from the truth however. With Fred Armisen, Jason Sudeikis and Bill Hader still at the wheel of the cast, the show continues to spill out plenty of fresh creativity and clever skits.
I have also been noticing many of my same friends who used to refuse to watch the show are now giving it a second (or third/fourth chance) to watch it again, and they are sharing the same sentiments as me. What a lot of it has to do with is the context of the cast involved. The problem with the show a few years back was how well-known the actors on the show already were from their movies, and it seems like they felt that they would be able to get away with anything.
This newest cast is fresher, and they also seem to acknowledge that they have a lot of fill out to keep the audience interested, and their efforts are proving very effective. The newest season is still in its early moments, but if they keep going in this direction, their viewership should continue to go up, and the talk will be more fierce regarding the comedy and the content.
Josephine Girard is a tech blogger and writer out of the US. Leave your thoughts in the comments below. As an entertainment writer, she contributes to DX3.net