QPORIT

But perhaps what was most conspicuous about SNL tonight was the large number of film and video ad promos and previews.  Moreover, there was a cacophony of catastrophes:  one film was about the overrunning of the White House (White House Down) and three films were about the end of the world, more or less: World War Z, (Z is for Zombies.) M Night Shyamalan’s After Earth with Will Smith and his Son, and This Is The End, (a comedy) with James Franco, Emma Watson, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogan, and other celebrities all playing themselves.

COLD OPEN: POLITICS NATION – An amusing but somewhat incoherent sketch with no teeth.  The IRS affair could be skewered, but this sketch did not do much more than parody Al Sharpton’s misuse and mispronunciation of a few words.

MONOLOG -- On his fifth gig hosting SNL, Ben Affleck reflected on the lack of a celebration for his joining the 5 timers club. Then he was joined by his wife, Jennifer Garner, to reflect on having said at an Awards show that he was “working on his marriage”.  It was a little strange.

BENGO F#@#!K YOURSELF --A film starring the Iranian President, explaining how Argo was made of lies.

XANAX FOR GAY SUMMER WEDDINGS – A sedative for anyone who cannot cope with attending a bevy of perfect, absolutely perfect, gay weddings this summer.

NY 1933 – A strange scene with Affleck trying to hire a guy who is out-of-work, but who turns out to be too lazy and too interested in his career as a mugger to take the job. (I think the description is funnier than the sketch.) This seemed under-written and under-directed.  It did not quite make it to either funny or dramatic, and just barely made it to interesting enough to wonder if it could have been better.

NEW BEGINNINGS: FLAGSTAFF – A camp for turning gay campers straight.  Except to give Ben Affleck a chance to almost kiss another guy, this sketch had no real point.  The setup and the execution were both kind of phony.

KANYE WEST – A high energy performance.  The video that was screening behind Kanye, as a moving background, made this kind of a live music video.

WEEKEND UPDATE – Most of the jokes were pretty lame.  REALLY WITH SETH AND AMY (Amy Poehler came back to guest on UPDATE) was really not as sharp as usual. STEFAN was as silly as usual.  WEEKEND UPDATE paused in the middle for a parody of the climax of The Graduate, in which Seth went running after STEFAN to stop him from getting married. It was strange. 

THE GREG PULINO FUNERAL  -- Another strange under-written sketch in which people gang up on GREG PULINO for having been an awful person, while GREG (Affleck) who is still alive comes in “disguised” as Greg’s Uncle to defend him(self).

HERMES HANDBAGS – The ex-hookers perform a “commercial” they wrote so that Hermes will send them handbags.  Affleck comes in to help them, but talks about herpes, not Hermes.

ENGAGEMENT PARTY – A family of emotional cops can’t get the words out to toast the engaged couple.

BRIT BAND: IT’S GOING TO BE A LOVELY DAY – Rather a sweet end to a rocky show as the final number of the season is a whole bunch of people on stage singing that no matter how bad things really are, “It’s going to be a lovely day”… and “It was a lovely night with you.”

Well… He could have used more support, but Affleck was a game host.  There were no bad sketches, no great ones (XANAX and the final BAND were my favorites).  The show wasn’t very funny, but it was consistently amusing. 

It seemed like a missed opportunity, because there were hints that Affleck could be a great comedian with the right material.

This was the season finale. Several current cast members are reportedly leaving, so it may be a new and different SNL next season.