‘SNL’ Season 47 Premiere, Episode 1 Recap: Owen Wilson Hosts

Hi! My name is Alexis Pereira. I’ve been working on comedy sketches for years, and the shows I’ve written and directed have been presented at the New York Comedy Festival. I even wrote and produced a web series of skits for IFC. I have been for a long time SNL fan, and I’m delighted to recap the show for all of you.

Saturday night live enters its 47th season without many changes to the cast (with the notable exception of the departure of Beck Bennet). It’s not too surprising that people have decided to stay, given that COVID has cast a lot of uncertainty in television and film. But I can’t help but wonder if SNLThe upcoming 50th anniversary is starting to weigh heavily. The 40th anniversary special in 2015 was an audience boon for NBC, and leaving just before the 50th must feel like leaving the dance floor right before the party starts. I also can’t imagine that NBC would let its stars walk without some serious negotiation.

You just can’t let Dr. Lorneau’s Island.

But let’s start with the season premiere, hosted by Owen Wilson with musical guest Kacey Musgraves. Here’s the full rundown:

The episode kicks off with new cast member James Austin Johnson as President Biden addressing the nation. That impression is a refreshing change from Jim Carrey’s irritating “maverick” Biden. James nails Biden’s hoarse whisper, and he deftly unleashes some really good jokes (“Broadway is back! It’s exciting. But so are the Taliban”). However, it soon enters the Infrastructure Bill and brings in Joe Manchin (played by Aidy), Kyrsten Sinema (played by Cecily), Ilhan Omar (played by Ego) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (played by Melissa). I’ll talk more about this sketch in the post-show notes.

I can sit and listen to Owen Wilson tell stories forever, but I find this monologue a bit disappointing. It would have been nice if his monologue was interrupted by some of the cast. Maybe get Melissa out to pretend to be him? It’s just like a missed opportunity.

Ego, Heidi, Cecily and Aidy are the four hosts of a daytime female talk show called The Talk. Owen Wilson interrupts them as a doctor announces that Heidi has tested positive for COVID, and he asks her for very personal details live. This is a reference to a real time on View where Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro were taken off set after a producer announced they tested positive for COVID.

Owen visits a recording studio to record his lines for Cars 4. We soon reveal that Lightning McQueen is having legal trouble dating minor cars. Owen’s unease with the plot puts this sketch straight into his wheelhouse. But he doesn’t get much from the producer played by Mikey Day, who hasn’t made a choice on what he thinks of the Cars 4 scenario. But the sketch goes back when James walks in as Larry the Cable Guy to read the dialogue with Owen, and we reveal that Lightning McQueen said “the R word.” It’s the strongest skit of the night, and James dominates his debut.

Ego and Alex organize a school board meeting that is broadcast for public access. When they ask questions to the audience, we are greeted by a host of crazy characters.

There are just too many characters with similar games, and I to hate when SNL divide the sets so that both sides are facing a camera. I understand this makes it easier to adjust everything and read the cue cards, but you can feel the energy lag since no one is playing against each other. They would have been better with just one big set and focus on fewer characters, like Kenan’s hilarious Scary Gary Lewis.

Kacey Musgraves sings his hit song “Justified”. I liked it! No rating.

Kacey returns to sing “Camera Roll”. I don’t know much about her, but my girlfriend is a huge Musgraves fan and claims she is a “surprising choice”.

Colin and Michael go out for “Weekend Update”. Colin reminds us that in the premiere last season, there was a lot going on. He asks us to support them because now the biggest news is the infrastructure. But now that they’re free from the specter of Trump’s political circus, Colin and Michael will be freer to just be funny and have fun with how bad things are. (“The infrastructure bill has been delayed indefinitely, so I guess we’ll just cross that bridge when it collapses on top of us.”)

With white woman syndrome missing in the news, Ego stops as a black woman who has been missing for ten years. It’s the kind of great cultural commentary that alone SNL can do, and even Ego’s throwaway line when applauded makes me chuckle. (“You didn’t even ask for my name!”)

Colin invites Pete Davidson to talk about his time at the Met Gala. Pete is the resident celebrity of SNLso it’s always fun to let him in and do a little stand-up on his personal life. Pete wears a nice shirt commemorating the death of Norm Macdonald.

They end “Weekend Update” with a collection of Norm’s best “Update” jokes, which is a good idea.

This sketch is failed. Owen Wilson is a priest praising a recently deceased grandmother at a funeral, and he brings his favorite singer, Lavar B. Burton, played by Kenan. Lavar sings Grandma’s favorite song, “I Believe I Can Fly” by R. Kelly, much to the horror of funeral attendants. While we know R. Kelly is a villain, it’s almost like “I Believe I Can Fly” had transcended him. It takes far too long for the audience to relate that this song is meant to be problematic because R. Kelly originally sang it.

James and Owen are Joe Buck and Troy Aikman calling a football game for Fox. But with every break in the action of the game, they have to promote an increasingly insane TV show called A madhouse. It’s a lot of fun listening to James as Joe Buck struggles with the millennium-focused copy. (“Because the house is where the cray crayons stay.”)

Andrew and Sarah are two doctors who shoot an advertisement for their stool testing service in the mail. This is a classic “director keeps cutting to give notes on dialogue” skit. Sarah and Andrew have fun energy, and Owen has a lot of laughs calling them out. (“It feels like playing with poo.”) A weird and solid sketch to end the evening.

While I think all impressions are strong, the skit started to meander due to how little sense it made for Biden to get the two competing Democratic factions to argue live. You can often give your sketch a boost by using logic.

Let’s say instead of Biden bringing the four out, Manchin and Sinema rushed to interrupt his speech and warn him that they weren’t going to pass his bill. Now Biden can try to seduce them and cause a nice back-and-forth. But here’s AOC and Ilhan Omar to bring Biden back to the left. It’s a lot cleaner than walking and standing in a line like a demented comedic beauty pageant.

It was an incredible start for James Austin Johnson. It’s a huge deal for a star player in their first episode to star in the opening skit and steal multiple scenes throughout the series. I see SNL leaning on him for weirder impressions and characters as the season progresses. And we haven’t even seen his incredible impression of Trump, which will bring the house down.

Meanwhile, Ego Nwodim could become the backbone of the cast. She deftly played the straight person in several sketches and she showed comedy in her track “Weekend Update”. Ego and James get my co-MVP.

It was a solid (though lackluster overall) first episode. New cast members like James and Sarah were immediately mixed up, and Owen Wilson’s natural comedy chops helped bolster the show. Over the next few weeks, hopefully we’ll continue to see new artists enter the mix alongside the veterans. This will serve as a beautiful passing of the torch. I’d love to see James, Sarah, and Aristotle bring back some of the weirdness that the show has drifted away from in recent years. I also hope we will see Kate McKinnon, who was oddly absent.