The <em>SNL</em> Season Finale Doesn’t Sugarcoat Pandemic Anxiety
Saturday Night Live’s third at-home edition had to serve as the finale to a strange season disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. Like the other remotely filmed episodes, this installment featured A-list guest appearances—including Alec Baldwin back as President Donald Trump—along with a touching musical performance (this time, Boyz II Men and Babyface) and several sketches using Zoom as the framework. But unlike its predecessors, last night’s at-home episode featured a pivotal change to the proceedings: It embraced the existential crisis of the moment.
States have and ease social-distancing restrictions, but a true return to” and the second attempted to make of sketches, the third looked to the future—and realized the unnerving truth that the end isn’t near. The standout moments of the evening all focused on that feeling, that this—this pandemic-induced pressure, this burden, this fear—won’t be over soon.
