Scot Bertram

Kristen Wiig Dominates, Hillary and Barack Take Center Stage, and the Writers Strike

Every season of Saturday Night Live has its classic episodes and its real bombs. In virtually every case, these peaks and valleys average out to make each season simply “pretty good.”

But what if there was a season that had no bad episodes but no great ones? That is the case with Season 33, in which no single show reaches the heights of the past, but no episode is legitimately “bad.”

The end result is a season that is sneaky good. The full year is only twelve episodes, given a writers’ strike that took place at the end of 2007 and lasted through February of 2008. But the show’s writers and performers made the best use of the truncated season, with no episode really stinking the joint out.

Part of the reason this season exceeds expectations is the true arrival of Kristen Wiig as a dominant force. Wiig was strong last season, but she takes the show over in Season 33, introducing a slew of new characters that couldn’t have been performed by anyone in the show’s history. Just watching her do Judy Grimes at the Weekend Update desk (just kidding, just kidding), one realizes they are seeing something they have never seen before on the show and never will again.

But even while Wiig relegates the rest of the cast to second-class status, Amy Poehler also has a strong season, as she continues to host Weekend Update and anchors the show’s political sketches as Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. It is hard to imagine this season without Poehler, who would soon leave to star in Parks and Recreation, serving as the show’s backbone.

This season, the show is still interspersed with dollops of genius from Andy Samberg, Will Forte, and Bill Hader, but their contributions are still only sporadic. Jason Sudeikis and Kenan Thompson both have solid, if unspectacular years. Fred Armisen takes over as future president Barack Obama, and the results are…spotty.

After the writer’s strike, longtime cast member Maya Rudolph exits the show, and newcomer Casey Wilson immediately steps into her spot. Replacing Rudolph is a tough ask, but Wilson does a strong job in the second half of the season, especially in a sketch in which she plays a paralyzed stripper.

We discuss all these things, plus a lot more in this episode of Wasn’t That Special.