An Electric Sandra Oh Can’t Keep ‘Saturday Night Live’ from Losing Steam

March 31, 2019

Sandra Oh Hosted Saturday Night Live

After Saturday Night Live had two back-to-back killer episodes with John Mulaney and Idris Elba, there was a lot of hope that the cast and crew could keep that momentum going into spring with the next batch of new episodes. Unfortunately, despite the strength of first-time host Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy, Killing Eve), the sketches didn’t make nearly as big of a splash as the previous two episodes. That’s not to say there aren’t some great sketches, but most of them were only mildly amusing, weird without any real payoff, or just plain disappointing.

Let’s run through the best and worst sketches of the Sandra Oh hosted Saturday Night Live.

The Best

Discover Card – This sketch was so good that we already gave it the spotlight on its own, so it should come as no surprise that it’s the best sketch of the night. Ego Nwodim is great as both of the parts Lupita Nyong’o played in the movie, and spoofing Jordan Peele’s film by combining it with those Discover card commercials that have people talking to themselves as customer service representatives is genius.

The Duel – In what feels like a spoof of The Favourite mixed with a Monty Python sketch, this is one of the most unique offerings SNL has had in awhile. It doesn’t feel like it easily fits in the wheelhouse of SNL’s usual kind of pre-recorded sketches. It’s bloody, silly, and relies on a lot of physical comedy. Pete Davidson is even great in this as a character. It’s just surprising and fantastic all around.

Network Meeting – Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long for the Jussie Smollett situation to get skewered by SNL. But it’s probably best that they did wait, because the result was this sketch where Chris Redd really ramped up the tall tales that the former Empire star was telling to help his career. Redd’s faux innocence here and flawed attempts at lies were so hilarious, especially with how much they lacked subtlety.