41x15 Ariana Grande

I have to admit, I went into this episode as a skeptic. The last combined/musical host SNL had was the forgettable Miley, and while there are pleasant surprises like Drake, most singers trying to act fall somewhere between "passable" and "horrid". But apparently, like Drake, the trick is to have appeared on a show aimed at teenagers before breaking into music, because Arianna Grande held her own in the sketch comedy department, even if the show took care to play to her strengths.

To the point, the best parts of the show had little-to-nothing to do with her. The political cold open was a definite highlight. The Trump/Ben Carson stuff was a mixed bag. I've always been a bit bearish on the weirdness of Pharoh's Carson impression--it's a little too one-note for me--but Trump's "I told you, he's one of the good ones" is quality, cutting material. But the peak is Larry David's Bernie Sanders impression. I'm not sure what more there is to say about it at this point, but he's an incredible boon, and the writing is sharp as well, particularly when David-as-Sanders said he was like teenagers in that he had lots of big plans with no idea how to achieve them. Again, sharply funny, cutting stuff. At the same time, the faux-Hillary ad showing her trying to be like Sanders was pitch perfect as well, and McKinnon's Hillary continues to be a perfectly-calibrated treat. Her, "I'm trying here" was the icing on the cake.

Weekend Update also thrived on the political material, with jabs at most of the candidates that worked. But more than that, there was some fun irreverent humor, like Che's tongue-in-cheek joke about baking a cake for women's history month (it was the doubling-down on it that was really funny) and Jost's joke about Mitt Romney's 69th birthday. The correspondents were great too, with Cecily Strong's drunk girl from the bachelor finding just the right note of fame-hungry reality TV wacko and Bobby Moynihan's Riblet finding crazier and crazier directions to take the bit in a physical, perfectly realized role. I'll go down talking about how underrated Moynihan is, and Riblet is one of the few times the show lets him really cut loose (the dual screen Riblet was especially fun.)

The rest of the episode had its ups and downs, but every sketch was at least worth a chuckle, which is a win. The Feminist Song was a bit scattershot, but had a germ of good comedy in it. The monologue song about "What Will My Scandal Be" was a bit easy, but cute. The same goes for Arianna Grande's Tidal Intern singing fill-in for the downed streams, in a sketch that was a little self-serving, but leaned into a strength. The same goes for the Mermaid sketch, which felt akin to some of Rachel Dratch's old material, but still gave Kate McKinnon enough space to run around in with her strange blobfish creature.

The other stand out sketches were the Sound of Music sketch, which also had some easy humor, but had great performances from all involved, including Grande. And the non-political, non-update peak of the episode was the Nickelodean sketch. The constant attempts to start the show added to the episode's weird energy and played on a kind of awkward humor that really worked.

Grande's music didn't do much for me. Her first song sounded kind of like a watered-down Bond theme mixed with the usual "I'm a woman now" post-teen idol phase lyrics, and I literally cannot even remember the second one. But whatever, it's not aimed at me, and I'm sure it's fine what it's trying to be.

All-in-all, this was an unexpectedly good episode, with only a couple of real shining moments, but a lot there to make you smile and chuckle. Quality episode.