What do James Bond, coronavirus, Elizabeth Warren, Debbie Downer, and Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started A Conversation With At A Party have in common? They were the unlikely highlights of this weekend's all-new episode of Saturday Night Live, with host Daniel Craig and musical guest The Weeknd. While it wasn't quite as delightful as last week's John Mulaney episode, Craig's second time hosting the show was a lot better than his disastrous first try in 2012.
The 9+ minute long The Ingraham Angle Coronavirus Cold Open jumped around a lot, with appearances by Jeanine Pirro (Cecily Strong, whose Pirro impression was perfect as ever—you could smell the alcohol through the TV), Donald Trump Jr. (Mikey Day) and Eric Trump (Alex Moffat), and Chris Matthews (Darrell Hammond reprised the role, though it seemed to fall a bit flat in the room), and lots of talk of the coronavirus off the bat. The best part may have been Kate McKinnon-as-Ingraham offering a list of more important things for Fox News viewers to worry about ("Women who keep their own last names, Montessori schools, Fat Barbies") and some hilarious sponsored content. And then Elizabeth Warren, "the woman who savagely murdered Michael Bloomberg on live television," appeared, and this became the sketch everyone was talking about.
Considering how bad Craig's first outing on SNL was, it makes sense the show was a little more careful about what it threw at him. That, coupled with the fact that No Time To Die has been delayed for eight months because of coronavirus concerns, resulted in Daniel Craig James Bond Monologue, one of the strangest, least-monologuey monologues I can ever recall seeing on the show. But at least the pre-taped James Bond sketch that took up most of monologue was good—especially Kenan Thompson's very enthusiastic onlooker.
The most unlikely guest star in the episode wasn't Warren—it was Rachel Dratch as Debbie Downer, making this the first time she's appeared since 2006 (give or take a cameo in the 40th anniversary special). Even more shocking: nobody broke in Debbie Downer Wedding Reception.
The best coronavirus-related sketch was the soap opera The Sands of Modesto, which featured some superb prop work, and a hilarious saran wrapped sex scene.
If you've followed Craig's career outside of Bond in movies such as Knives Out and Logan Lucky, then you know he loves nothing more than putting on a weird accent. You can thank his Accent Coach, played by Beck Bennett, and a lot of puke props.
Another pre-taped sketch that was a winner was On The Couch, which starts out like it's a one-note joke only to get funnier and sharper as it went along (the hook of the song, sung by The Weeknd, was pretty catchy too).
Check out the rest of the sketches below, including: Deep Quote Game Night, in which Craig seemed to be having the most fun; Daytime Show, which was a good showcase for Ego Nwodim; and Salad, Aidy Bryant's ode to her tasty “overnight salad.”
There were two guests on Weekend Update, including the triumphant return of Cecily Strong's breakout character, Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With At A Party. Bowen Yang also continued his Update dominance with yet another new character, plastics expert Bottle Boi, who seemed to be channeling Craig's character Benoit Blanc from Knives Out.
The Weeknd and Oneohtrix Point Never performed his great new single "Blinding Light" and the not-yet-released tune "Scared To Live," which interpolates Elton John.
SNL is taking the next two weeks off, and will return on March 28th with host John Krasinski and musical guest Dua Lipa. Until then, watch Warren and McKinnon flip the switch.
