'Saturday Night Live At Home' Returning This Weekend With A Second Round Of Remotely Produced Sketches

A couple weeks ago, Saturday Night Live returned to NBC with a special remotely produced "At Home" edition of the late night sketch show. After taking a break last weekend, SNL is returning with yet another Saturday Night Live At Home show this weekend on April 25.

‼️ We're back this Saturday ‼️#SNLAtHome pic.twitter.com/fMBqBL0fqa

— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) April 23, 2020

The first edition of Saturday Night Live At Home was a nice change of pace from all the movies, TV shows and podcasts that we've been streaming because it offered something new and topical that made us feel like we were on the same page with the cast of SNL, stuck at home and trying to make the best out of this shitty situation. But can the show sustain itself for another full length episode?

Almost all of the sketches in that initial Saturday Night Live At Home edition took advantage of the remote format. They parodied Zoom meetings with people working from home, Twitch streams from gamers, web shows on YouTube, music videos, and more quarantine material. But it feels like there's only so much the show can do with that format before it gets tired. After all, the one sketch that tried to veer outside the online format was a game show sketch, and it fell pretty flat.

Honestly, what I'd really like to see from Saturday Night Live is something suggested by Jen Chaney over at Vulture. She suggested that instead of adhering to the At Home format they've adopted that, SNL should dig into their archives while still letting the cast be part of the show remotely. Chaney wrote:

"Instead, maybe Lorne Michaels & Co. should plan to do a combination of clip show and new content. Ask cast members new and old to take turns curating episodes of Saturday Night Live that would allow them to talk about, and then show, some of their favorite clips from its nearly five-decade history — not just clips of their own performances but of sketches that they loved from the '70s, '80s, and '90s. Maybe put together an episode of nothing but sketches that were filmed in dress rehearsal and cut for time."

I'd watch the hell out of clip shows like that, especially since more often than not the unique comedic tastes of Saturday Night Live cast members has them picking more than just the greatest hits all the time. They'll call back some hidden gems that may have been forgotten about or haven't been seen for years. SNL has been doing with with their vintage assembly of sketches on YouTube, but it would be nice to have new context for them provided from cast members and writers, maybe even those who were involved in those sketches from decades ago.

But either way, I'll be tuning into whatever new offerings SNL is bringing to the table. Be sure to come back for my traditional review of the episodes this weekend, and if you missed it the first time around, check out my take on the first At Home edition of Saturday Night Live right here.