or...

Four Good Episode In A Row With Some Help Of Our Forth Time Host

Of the four visits from Drew Barrymore as host, I think this one is actually my third favorite. That's actually not that bad of a thing considering I loved her first two visits and wasn't feeling number three. Visit one got bonus points because of the fact that Drew is almost exactly one year older than me so it was fun to watch someone who was seven host the show while I was six at the time the show originally aired.

Her second visit was good because it came about right after the movie The Wedding Singer started the second phase of her career when she started to be cast in more comedies. I really liked that visit because comedy still felt new to Drew and she performed with the right energy, even though it was clear she was still trying to figure things out.

Visit number three had Drew as a confident comedic actress, the only problem was that she may have been a little too confident and breezed through the night almost as if she automatically deserved the laughs that didn't come. This was around the time of Charlies Angels, which was a movie that I thought was really fun but at the same time, I also felt like that movie ruined its stars for several months to a couple of years.

It's not like the girls' excitement wasn't deserved but was more of a common issue when it comes to comedic actors and actresses when they experience their first mainstream success. Just like how the first Rush Hour may have gone too much to both Jackie Chan's and Chris Tucker's comedic head, which was fine for Chan but I don't know if Tucker ever did recover. This was the type of energy Drew had for visit number three, which was still sort of fun but didn't do much for me.

For this visit, I felt like Drew was back to where she was more balanced and though there were still some similar issues with the reference material that I've been bitching about throughout this year, tonight's show was another good one. With Drew Barrymore in a more grounded mode, it felt like she was back to having fun while earning her laughs instead of just powering through the night as if she just deserved them.

Not only did this win me back over to how I feel about Drew hosting the show, this also makes four episodes in a row that I actually liked and didn't just not mind. Now I'm more enthusiastic about what the rest of the season has to offer. With that, it's now time for me to shift gears in order to share what I saw, as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with another goof on Al Gore's Endorsement where Seth Meyers as John Kerry wasn't interested in Darrell Hammond as Gore's support since Howard Dean just left the race. The joke being that everyone thought that the support of Gore was actually a curse and not something to be sought out. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, "Live from New York..."
Drew Barrymore then officially opened the show with a monolog where she reminded us that she was only seven years old the first time she hosted only to be interrupted by E.T. who gave her a quick update as to what he's been up to. Next, C3P0 joined the scene insisting that she was also in Star Wars and then the old lady from the Poltergeist confused Drew for the little girl in that movie as well. Darth Vader was the last to join in on the confusing fun, and though I get the Poltergeist angle, I still don't get what she had to do with Star Wars but it was still fun to see the Dark Lord.
Maya Rudolph then revised her Donatella Versace impersonation for A Very Special Valentine's Versace where she got into a scuffle with Drew Barrymore as Courtney Love because, as usual, the Hole lead singer was drunk and feisty. This was after a fun moment with Horatio Sanz as Elton Hohn and watching Donatella kick Amy Poehler as Madona out of her house for being a bitch.
Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz then gave us another installment of their dorm room webcast called Jarret's Room where this time the two had on Horatio's character Gobi's little sister, who he tried to hook up with his buddy Jarret. Before meeting Gobi's little sis, Jarret was totally against the idea because he remember back in the day when she looked like a female Gobi, only to have her become the girl of his dreams the moment it was revealed that Gobi's sister now actually looked like Drew Barrymore but was still just as fun as his best bong toking friend.
This was followed by a parody of Access Hollywood where Jimmy Fallon as Pat O'Brien interviewed Drew Barrymore as Charlize Theron and showed clips from her films where she kept giving Oscar-begging performances.
We then got a fake ad for Octane which was a new vehicle-based action flick with terrible special effects where all of the action was portrayed with the help of Hot Wheel cars and bike, playing off the start of the Fast And Furious craze that apparently started around this time.
Kelis then took to the stage to perform Milkshake.
Once again, Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey gave us the news. This week, Maya Rudolph played Diana Ross who attempted to perform live from prison following her DUI arrest from around that time, only she didn't seem to be all that well adjusted to the situation at all.
Mike's Bar, 1968 took us back in time to see Drew Barrymore as Hillary Rodham, Darrell Hammond as Bill Clinton, Will Forte as George W. Bush, and Seth Meyers as John Kerry to discuss their plans for the future when it comes to politics which, for the most part, was the polar opposite of who they ended up turning into.
This was followed by a parody or Larry King Live where Jimmy Fallon as Larry King interviewed Drew Barrymore as Anna Nicole Smith following her extreme weight loss that happened almost out of the blue.
The parody British gossip show Spy Glass returned where more cast members and our host impersonated celebrities popular in Britain in order to share gossip with the fake show's hosts Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler.
The World Of Scott Wainio had the titular Scott Wainio as himself take to the street to interview people which got very confusing considering he had no microphone. The confusing part was more for the viewer, considering that no one seemed to notice or care that he had no mic but continued to act like he did.
The White Stripes had Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon as the musical sibling duo who were called by the mayor to help out with a bank robbery. The two then sang their theme song as if they were a pair of superheroes, only they came nowhere close to saving the day.
This was followed by the debut of The Prince Show where Fred Armisen played Prince in order to put his eccentricities on display with Maya Rudolph as Beyonce who played his sidekick and had a few quirks of her own. The two hand on Drew Barrymore as Pink whose high energy didn't really mesh with the two weirdos. Kenan Thompson was the second guess as George Clinton to show off a completely different level of quirkiness.
Finally, Drew Barrymore closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

As I said up above, this makes four shows in a row that I like and didn't just not mind and thanks to sketches like these that contained my three favorite moments of the night, I'm now much more excited to see what the rest of the year has to offer. First, I loved The Prince Show Debut because Fred Armisen's Prince impersonation is enough on its own to crack me up. Next, I really liked The White Stripes sketch because the concept of the sibling music duo as a pair of super heroes had me thinking how fun it would have been to be in the writing room when they came up with this idea. Finally, I was a fan of this weeks Jarret's Room because the way that Drew played her character reminded me why I did have a celebrity crush on her when I was young because it wasn't just her looks. Keeping in mind, I still only know what I've seen on various screens.